Political Schedule on Hold Following Va. Tech Killings

Presidential politics came to a halt today as the campaigns observed an unofficial day of mourning following the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) canceled a much anticipated foreign policy speech to the Chicago Council of Global Affairs set for this morning, while former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani did the same for a planned address today at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Giuliani communications director Katie Levinson called today a "day for prayer, reflection and unity," adding: "It is a time for our great country to come together."

That sentiment carried across political lines today as the frantic pace of the 2008 presidential race slowed to mark the tragedy. It brought to mind similar cessations of politics following the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the death of former President Ronald Reagan.

While politics was largely put on hold, Obama did hold two fundraisers Monday night -- one of them a $25-per-head speech in Milwaukee in which he condemned violence in America and invoked a speech that Robert Kennedy delivered in 1968 in the aftermath of Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination. Later, he attended a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser.

Other 2008 candidates cleared their schedules of more private events. Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) postponed a northern Virginia fundraiser set for today while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) canceled a fundraising event in Atlanta as well as a town hall in South Carolina.