Romney rescue plan: cut the accountancy The campaign is not going well for Mitt Romney. The state of the electorate in mid-September is generally indicative of the election result seven weeks later. The former Massachusetts governor should be worried: he is behind in all but one of the swing states (North Carolina) and has written off the Americans who pay no federal income tax. Consigning almost half - 47 per cent, to be as precise as Mr Romney is in a widely circulated video - of the possible vote to your opponent is not exactly a wise electoral strategy. Still, the election remains winnable for Mr Romney. But the road will be rocky and Mr Romney must offer a coherent rationale for his election if he intends to win. Saying that "I'm not the other guy" won't do it. He must convey his concerns about the middle class. This was his problem in the primaries and it remains his problem heading into the endgame. Simply calling for tax cuts for hedge fund gods isn't working. Mr Romney unsurprisingly polls well with the relatively affluent. He holds a 16 point lead among those with incomes north of $90,000. His mission now is to correct his error and connect with middle income Americans. For starters, Mr Romney should pivot away from attacking the 47 per cent who pay no federal income tax. Many are retirees who once paid taxes, spent a lifetime working and are the base of the Republican party. They predominate in resolutely Republican states, such as Texas, and in swing states, such as Florida. Mr Romney must demonstrate self-awareness. He must acknowledge that he has succeeded in life and business. From there, he needs to address the fact that the middle class is being squeezed and then state that growth in America's economy is the way out. Having benefited from Cayman Island shelters, he cannot castigate the have-nots. Rather, Mr Romney needs to say that America holds promise for all. A deft candidate would have argued that treating the elderly with the dignity they earned also depends on America generating jobs and growth. A deft candidate would have remembered that one of the goals of Ronald Reagan's tax reform was to get the working poor off the tax rolls and that legislation signed by George W. Bush added to the ranks of non-payers. As well as reassuring older voters, Mr Romney must gain the votes of Americans who are within 15 years of retirement. Right now, seniors are leaning toward Mr Romney, but voters aged between 50 and 64 are sticking with Barack Obama. To do so, he needs to stop sounding like a bean counter. He should talk about things that concern all Americans, such as Alzheimer's and autism. Mr Romney also needs to reassure seniors that the Republican vision of America would leave them untouched. He should say that voters close to retirement will benefit from the current system and, if pressed, that Paul Ryan's plan is a blueprint, not Gospel. At the same time, the governor must acknowledge that these are rough times. He must also remember that the female vote will be crucial. During the Republican primaries, women saved Mr Romney from defeat in the Midwest and in Florida. He won't win many votes among affluent urban women but he needs those of less wealthy working mothers, or "waitress moms," as the pundits say. If the calculus behind all this appears reductionist, it is. To defeat Mr Obama, Mr Romney must limit the president, a Democrat, to 38 per cent or less among white voters. This has not been done since Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in 1984. However, no Democrat has won the majority of white voters since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide. In 2008, Mr Obama won 43 per cent of that demographic and polls show him at about the 40 per cent mark. This is not about switching campaign staff late in the game. Campaigns can benefit from staff shake-ups. In 1980, Reagan fired his campaign manager after losing the Iowa caucus. He then went on to win the Republican nomination and election. But at this juncture, dumping senior staff would look like Jimmy Carter demanding the resignation of his cabinet. By no means is the election over. But the governor will need to leave his comfort zone and move beyond Republican orthodoxies. Later is the time for campaign post mortems. The writer served as opposition research counsel to the 1988 Bush campaign