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March 11th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda For the first time in years, the maths of this primary season means there is a good likelihood it may go all the way to the party convention in August before it is settled.
That hasn’t happened since 1976, when an upstart California governor named Ronald Reagan kept kicking the shins of Gerald Ford, the eventual nominee, all through the spring and summer. Such a prolonged contest makes things very painful for the Republican Party, especially for those grinding the gears.
Working on a presidential campaign is like working inside a human microwave: it just cooks your brain. I remember encountering my counterpart on Al Gore’s 2000 campaign team after the exhausting recounts and court disputes that had finally led to my boss Bush being declared the winner.
“Man, we won and I still feel like I’ve been hit by a train,” I told him. “I’m clinically depressed. I can only imagine how you feel!”
Some of my old pals working on the various 2012 Republican campaigns confirm that, after last Tuesday no one is feeling particularly super. In fact, they’re miserable. The unconventional four-way nature of the race, combined with the evolution of social media and technology into a frenetic medium of campaign and comment that is always switched on, is frying their brains and fraying their nerves.
And all the while, as the Republicans battle on against each other with limited supplies, diminished ammunition and their spirits flagging, Team Obama is tanned, rested and doing pushups in the gym – toning up for the big fight.
As Sen McCain is fond of reminding us: “It’s always darkest just before it goes completely black.”
So is that how it will be for Romney and the Republican Party? Well, perhaps not. As most of the world will have noticed by now, weird things can happen in American politics, and absolute certainties can change quickly.
Six months ago it appeared the Republicans could not lose. Today it appears they cannot win. But six months from now it could yet turn again.
It’s amazing what happens to candidates who have been beaten up badly in the primary process when they take the stage at their conventions. Suddenly they get a cape on their back and an “S” on their chest. They are “The One”. Eloquently endorsed by their fiercest competitors, they become superheroes.
So can Romney pull it off? Like kryptonite was to Superman, Romney’s own words are his weakness. He’s been quoted saying that he doesn’t care about the poor, that he likes “being able to fire people who provide services” and that “corporations are people too”. None are exactly messages that will resonate well among the general electorate, worried about pocketbook issues and the economy.
This is Romney’s biggest challenge. How does he reframe his message to appeal to a broader set of voters for the general election, including women, minorities and lower income folks who favoured the not-Mitt candidates in the primary, and who are more likely to support President Barack Obama than this particular Republican in November?
To date, he’s perceived as an out-of-touch elitist, willing to say anything to get elected. His strength is his experience as chief executive and as someone who has created jobs in both the private and public sector. Romney is never going to be seen as “a regular guy,” and he shouldn’t even try to become one. Voters value sincerity.
Instead, Romney should look back in history and emulate Franklin Roosevelt. Voters knew he was rich, but they saw him as a benevolent figure, willing to transmit his own success through policies that created opportunities for everyone.
That was a message that transcended party and class, and addressed the number one issue of his time: the economy. If Romney is to pull it off in 2012, it will be the same issue on which this election will turn.
Mark McKinnon is a former Republican strategist who worked on the campaigns of George W Bush and John McCain and is Global Vice Chair of Hill+Knowlton Strategies
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