"If he emerges, he’ll be the Tim Tebow who lost the first three quarters but won the fourth"

“All of us who want to go to heaven have to experience the long dark night of the soul. Everyone who goes to the White House has to live through a near-death experience,” said Paul Begala, who helped engineer Bill Clinton’s 1992 comeback in the face of questions about infidelity and draft dodging. “There’s nothing else that tests you as completely as running for president: emotionally, temperamentally, ideologically and organizationally. Mitt’s being tested. And you know what? Life’s been pretty damn easy for Mitt Romney.”…

Charlie Black, a veteran Republican strategist who is not affiliated with a 2012 campaign, always tells aspiring candidates early on that they should be ready to lose somewhere. George H.W. Bush upset Ronald Reagan, Black’s boss, in Iowa in 1980. Then in 1988 Bush came in third in Iowa behind Bob Dole and Pat Robertson. Dole lost New Hampshire to Pat Buchanan in 1996. John McCain was written off for dead in 2007.

“It just always happens on our side,” Black said. “Every nominee we’ve had since I’ve been doing this in 35 years ends up losing somewhere unexpectedly or losing something.”…

“The race against John McCain toughened Bush up. It made the staff better, more nimble [and] ready to react,” said Ari Fleischer, who would become Bush’s White House press secretary. “But it certainly depleted our resources. We had so much money in the bank and then, poof, it was gone. And it led to some hangovers once Bush won,” including “profound” White House divisions with McCain over campaign finance reform.