Alex Gage is no slouch when it comes to political consulting.  He cut his teeth here in Michigan doing the heavy research lifting for the noted Market Opinion Research firm in Detroit.

    He's now on the national stage with his TargetPoint Consulting Company, which helps GOP candidates find the right message for the right target group. He's got some advice on how to reconnect the GOP with voters in the center of the political spectrum where elections are won.

     The folks on the religious right in the GOP should now turn to the sports section cause what follows from Mr. Gage, you will not find engaging.

      In a confidential March memo, Gage writes that when center voters are asked to pick a word to describe the GOP "religious right is the dominate term as to why the center does not like the Republican Party."

     And there's more as he waxes on, "It is the left's successful vilification of the term "religious right" to imply intolerance and ignorance that is handicapping Republicans' ability to reach voters in the center."

     So there you have it.  After years of kowtowing to the religious right, that is backfiring on the GOP although Gage is not nearly that blunt.

     He writes that his party needs to find a way to reconnect with center voters by dropping the "abrasive or divisive" language when talking about socially conservative values.  Heads up Pat Robertson.

      Compounding the problem for the GOP is  the issues that are most popular with the center voters are not exactly tops on the republican agenda i.e. choice, stem cell research and "increased regulation on business with taxes to be raised on the rich."

      Mr. Gage better be careful.  His "tell it like it is" analysis may not get him into the next GOP confab.

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