THREE DAYS IN
OCTOBER
Yet despite the modest optimism, there was no mistaking it:
Romney had endured a terrible
September. The Republican convention did little for him at the
end of August. The Democrats
then had had a successful convention that gave Obama momentum.
And Romney’s bungled response
to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on the anniversary of Sept. 11 began a terrible two-week stretch. Five days
after the Benghazi attack, Politico
dropped a story about dysfunctional campaign infighting. And
the day after that, the video of
Romney’s “47 percent” remarks
hit the news cycle.
Romney’s propensity for gaffes
did not seem lost on his campaign
staff. At a Romney fundraiser at
the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Fla.
on Sept. 20, I was sitting in the
back of the ballroom as Ronna
Romney, the ex-wife of Mitt’s older brother Scott Romney, spoke
to a crowd of about 250 people. I
noticed that a Romney campaign
official did not seem to be paying attention to Ronna’s remarks,
and mentioned it. The aide leaned
over and said, “Maybe she’s more
on message.”
HUFFINGTON
11.04.12
The debates presented an opportunity for Romney to get back
on track. After months of wallto-wall coverage of every move
and utterance the candidates had
made, the 90-minute verbal sparring sessions slowed down the
news cycle, as both candidates
went underground for several days
before each match up.
Romney and his team saw the
debates as a potential gamechanger and prepared accordingly. The GOP nominee tended
to do his preparation in a variety
of places — campaign headquarters in Boston; a Marriott in Burlington, Mass., about 30 minutes
from downtown Boston — and
then he liked to show up early to
the city where each debate was
being held and do prep there for
at least a day.
“It didn’t occur to anybody not
to take it seriously,” Romney senior adviser Ron Kaufman told
me. “Romney’s a person who takes
things seriously. It was important.
He knew the audience was tens of
millions of people who were going
to be interested in the race. Why
wouldn’t you take it seriously?”
Right after Labor Day weekend
in early September, a full month
before the first debate, Romney