“-weather conspired against us, but I assure you, this campaign will carry on. Thank you, and God Bless.” Matt heard the audience buzz through the paper-thin walls of the antechamber as Romney finished speaking. The door opened, and in strode Romney, his plastic smile melting into a deep frown.
“No, the Governor will not be taking questions at this time,” Matt heard an aid shout as the reporters swarmed forward. Romney slammed the door shut, blocking out the feeding frenzy.
“What the hell was that, Rhoades?” snarled Romney. Matt straightened out of his slumped sitting position. He still had some dignity; after all, he was the manager of this train wreck.
“Maybe the Paulites are seeding the clouds?” ventured the campaign manager.
Or maybe God isn’t Mormon.“Ha. Ahaha.” A pause, longer than necessary. “That was not a laugh, Mr. Rhoades. That was…” Romney waved his hand absently in the air, trying to put his finger on the right word.
For a man beginning his sixth year campaigning for President, he sure is bad at that speaking thing.“Yes sir, not funny at all sir.”
“Good.”
Another pause, longer yet.
“New Hampshire.”
“Yes sir.”
“We need to win New Hampshire.”
“We do, yes.”
“It’s a home state of mine, you know. We were never really expected to win here, maybe this won’t hurt us.
Yeah right, I would bet everything I own the next polls will show us barely above water. The media narrative will tear this campaign apart.Matt nodded. “We need to think about how this will affect the, uh, the main stream media’s narrative, though. We need to win back the momentum. And the best way to win it back is to dominate a debate.”
“Hmm…you’re right, Matt, you’re right. I’ll need to talk to my debate coach.”
“That would be a good idea.”
“When’s the next debate?”
“In four days.”
“Damn.”
Matt’s head snapped up, Romney blushed.
“Er, darn. Darn, I said, uh, Darn!”
“Yes sir, right. Um, if you’ll excuse me-” Matt hurried away.
Oh will I enjoy writing that book. “Inside the Romney Camp”? Nah, too drab. Matt shook his head.
First things first, shore up New Hampshire. There are more ways than one to change the narrative. Matt pulled out his cell phone, and flipped through his contacts lists to “Paul Ico.” He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and hit dial.
Sniff. “Hello?” whined the voice.
“Hey Paul, this is Matt. You ok?”
Sniffle. “Yeah,”
cough “yeah, I’m fine.”
Matt rolled his eyes.
Where the hell did they find this kid?“Good, Paul, that’s good. I need your help; we’ve got a week until New Hampshire, and we need to get some things done. Now here’s what I want you to do…”
* * *
Paul scrolled down to the Mitt Romney to be Republican Presidential Nominee 2012 market and clicked buy shares. He purchased 100 shares at the rock bottom price, input the credit card info for the account Matt had told him about, and confirmed his purchase.
Paul leaned back and fell flat out of his swivel chair, landing on the disconnected chair back he had torn off of the seat and thrown to the floor in a fit of rage hours earlier. He coughed, picked himself, and sat back down on the swivel stool.
A tab in Internet Explorer drew his attention.
Atlas Forum.“Those fools think Romney is done for. I’ll show them,” he muttered navigating to the 2012 board. He scanned the topics.
PPP twitter feed says Romney shaky in first night of NH Polling.Bastard liberal firm.New Reply
Mitt Romney has lived in New Hampshire for years. It’s right next to Massachusetts, where people love him for his excellent term as governor. There is no way he will lose the state; Iowa was a freak accident, it came down to the weather and those cultist Paultards. Nothing screwy will happen in New Hampshire, unless of course liberals like PPP sabotage the Republican primary process.
Home
2012
