Romney Enters (Political) Rehab

Fortunately for him, he didn’t shave his head first (although that would get rid of the “slick hair” and “Ken doll” image problems):

Mitt Romney may be low in the polls right now, but he is a man with a plan, a plan to make him the Republican nominee for president.

Though he is at only 4 percent in national polls, The Politico has learned that in the coming weeks and months, he will:

— Game the system. Romney intends to take advantage of the various and complicated rules governing the primaries.

The prime example is the change in the way California will conduct its Republican primary on Feb. 5.

Unlike Democratic primaries, Republican primaries are winner-take-all. Whoever wins statewide gets all the delegates at stake. This favors front-runners, who, with their early money and early support, can wrap up the nomination quickly.

But, in a barely noticed move, California Republicans have changed the system. Now it is winner-take-all by congressional district.

That means a candidate no longer needs to win the whole state to get delegates. It also means a candidate does not need a $25 million TV budget to do a serious statewide media buy.

Romney not only will target his TV ads to certain congressional districts, but he intends to treat California as if it were a “retail” political state instead of a tarmac state. (Because California is so large geographically, candidates spend most of their time flying from airport to airport, standing on the tarmac, doing a sound bite for local TV and then flying on.)

Romney intends to emphasize more intensive, face-to-face campaigning in select congressional districts in which he has the best chance of winning delegates.

— Feel the burn. While Romney expects to raise significant amounts of money, his “burn rate,” or expenses, will be high. (Howard Dean impressed the media by raising tens of millions of dollars on the Internet in 2003, but his campaign burned through it so fast that he had almost nothing left by the time he faced the New Hampshire primary in early 2004.)

Romney says he’ll spend his money wisely — but spend it. Although it is early, he’s already putting TV commercials on the air. He has to raise his poll numbers, which are in the single digits.

Via Jim Antle