Aubrey Immelman, the former Republican candidate for Congress, Sixth District, has an interesting analysis of Mitt Romney's "Al Gore" problem.

This link. For those who don't recall Prof. Immelman, he has posted an online biography, here. Excerpting would not do the item justice, please take the time to read it in its entirety. It is a unique and informative viewpoint I have not seen posted any other place; in part because of Prof. Immelman's academic expertise being largely unique. There is this screen capture pairing, of a bit of the start of Immelman's post (click it to enlarge and read), first where he starts with a Dana Milbank WaPo item, then from where he picks up from that to his own analysis:

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That is a substantial bit of excerpting, but trust me, there is much more Immelman has to say, so, again, have a look.

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Note that from the screenshot, Immelman's "As I wrote elsewhere in this blog on Aug. 9, 2011," link cannot be triggered from an image. I will not give that link. You have to go to the original to follow that link, and you should. Understanding fully the latest item depends upon a bit of review of that other post, and how in other items Immelman has defined his methodology. Go there, or be square. Read what the man has to say.