Rather, they emphasized the slow development of the Republican primary: Mr. Romney, like other candidates, entered the race much later this year and has kept a determinedly low profile.
Support from major US industrial firms has also done double duty by demonstrating widespread support for action on climate (arguably good for Democrats) and creating a laboratory for the development of effective Republican messages on technology and innovation (bad for Democrats).
This history sets the incident against the development of the Irish Republican movement in the United States, which gave money and tactical support to the cause of Irish independence.
This weekend's announcement by the former governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, that he would not seek that state's Democratic nomination for Senate represents the latest in a series of favorable developments for Republicans as they seek control of the chamber.
The email, posted in full below, details threats against Mike Connell of the Republican firm New Media Communications, which describes itself on its website as "a powerhouse in the field of Republican website development and Internet services" and having "played a strategic role in helping the GOP expand its technological supremacy".
For example, take Connie Lawson, the Secretary of State of Indiana who graduated from a program called the Richard Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series, a "political leadership development program... to increase the number of Republican women in local, state, and national elective and appointive offices".
He conceded that Mitt Romney's endorsement of an amendment banning gay marriage "wasn't helpful," but he dismissed the anti-gay rhetoric on the party platform and said that the Log Cabin list of "friends in development" (meaning Republican legislators not yet voting in their favor, but sympathetic) was growing.
The telegraph had allowed him to follow the dramatic developments of the 1860 Republican Convention from his home in Springfield, Ill., and the same medium alerted him to his presidential victory in November.
In Michigan, for example, even the Republican governor could not persuade Republican state legislators to support development of their own exchange.
