In the event that President Obama wins reelection on Tuesday, Republicans have already found their scapegoat: Hurricane Sandy.

Just days before Election Day, GOP pundits and prognosticators — and some within the Romney campaign — are roundly describing the devastating storm as the critical event that halted their candidate’s upswing in the polls, which give Obama a clear advantage in the electoral college math.

“The hurricane is what broke Romney’s momentum. I don’t think there’s any question about it,” said Haley Barbour, a former Mississippi governor, RNC chairman and respected political strategist, on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “What happened was the news media absolutely blacked out any coverage of the issues.”