When you are planning to steal the election (remember those Bain voting machines are already in place), find a way to make the election itself seem neck-and-neck. That way when the votes are "tweaked", everyone just says, "Well, it was too close to call. Could have gone either way."

In preparation for the literal campaign, have the candidate practice his or her lying without twitching.

Do the standard purging of the registered voters lists. Tamper with the absentee balloting when and if necessary.

Reduce the number of polling places and voting hours in counties favoring your opponent. Have a line of people present to harass or perhaps even challenge voters on election day. Also have a support team of attorneys and judges cued in. Promise them if you win a seat on the Supreme Court when and if necessary.

Drive down the ability of registered voters to actually vote, particularly those in the base of your opponent. I don't think I need to elaborate here. You have already picked up on the maneuvers.

Prepare ahead of time. Get as may Secretaries of State as you can installed in key states belonging to your party. After all, they do play a truly important role at the critical hour, especially in key swing states. If your brother or another family member is available to run in any of those states, lend that person all the support he or she needs to acquire that office. Family members never write tell-all books afterward ....

Have your candidate start acting as if he is the winner. (Remember when Bush* did that in the 2000 campaign, especially towards the end?) Romney has changed his posture. He is acting in a very pompous manner, as if he already is the President. That is to get us used to the idea -- our current President is out, Romney is in. Just go ahead and start thinking of him as the President because he soon will be. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Start announcing potential cabinet members. Get your transition team ready. And do these things noisily and publicly.

Quietly assemble pollsters to put out deceptive polling numbers, and get your "technical team" quietly at work.

Have your Recount Primer on hand if needed. Can't fumble that.

Do whatever it takes to win, because achieving all that power and profit is worth the sacrifice one might have to make in his or her own sense of ethics. Winning at all costs then becomes your sense of ethics. This year, the Republican motto is simply "Do what it takes -- DWIT", which is just another way of expressing their 2000 motto, win at all costs. See how that all runs in a circle, just with different code words?

Prepare your acceptance speech. Everything is ready now except for deciding who in your small circle of the inner team will get ambassadorships and to where when you win.

Sam