"I...I wasn't putting it on you," she said, genuinely flustered as suddenly the discussion turned debate. "I'm not an interviewer, I'm simply...asking you to tell me what you think you can relate to a liberal audience with feeling without going Romney."<br/><br/>She looked around to the senior aides, who now looked somewhat amused at her bluster and would be of no help to her now. "You're certainly not going to come out looking good debating gay marriage to a gay woman, and the economic issues are relevant, but a bit dry and lackluster..."<br/><br/>Her eyes shut as she dug through her previous ideas for anything that was salvageable. What would give the best interview and avoid tender subjects? "You could go for the element of surprise agreement. Instead of a charged moral debate on homosexuality and gay marriage, simply tell her that government-sanctioned marriage in of itself is an issue of big government that needs reduction. You don't have to do anything about it later, of course, but wouldn't it be shocking to shift the idea of gay marriage from some kind of passionate liberal stronghold into a realization that they, too, desire less government intervention?"<br/><br/>She braced herself for the inevitable ridicule. It was a wild idea, a do-or-die approach that would either shockingly resonate or get shot down for sheer absurdity to a point that the rest of them decided the subject among themselves without further consultation from her. She was almost praying for the latter.<br/>