Mitt Romney: when 'no' doesn't mean 'no'

What he found however, was a Party so battered, and so fearful, that they would accept help from anyone willing to stand-up to their live-in abuser. This was enough for Romney: a few friendly words and a warm embrace, and he was once again hooked.

He quickly followed this up with an attack on Trump's failure to immediately disown the support of former-Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, David Duke, as "disqualifying" and disgusting". This is all fine, however the moment his staff began pre-announcing his announcements; releasing statements, such as Mitt Romney "plans to give a major address… [on] the state of the 2016 Presidential race" things immediately started to, once again, look a little sad.

John Kasich, the one person most likely to benefit from a brokered convention, took it upon himself to have 'the talk' with Romney, though be it in a very public and brutal manner. During the most recent debate, Kasich glibly dismissed Romney's intervention into the campaign, saying: "Mitt Romney's a great guy but he doesn't determine my strategy".

Romney made just such a misjudgement a little over a year ago when he launched his third run for President in as many election cycles. Well, technically he only ever committed to "giving serious consideration to the future", but at that early stage such a statement was as good as an absolute, unflinching, clear-eyed guarantee.

Only a lack of support, be it financial or popular, would have stopped Romney during his 'consideration' phase – the exact same barriers that would have caused Romney to drop-out after any official announcement, or at any point in his campaign for that matter. His intentions were as true as they were ever going to be – he wanted to be President.

Romney spent the three weeks following his announcement busily foraging for the financial backing, the political support, and the requisite staff and infrastructure that a national campaign demands - none of which were forthcoming. So Romney 3.0 died in a whimper - but make no mistake, it was, if only briefly, very much alive. In political terms, this represents a fleeting courtship, yet nonetheless, a courtship that was both one-sided and ill-construed – Romney simply should have known better.

Two years prior, such a thought was inconceivable. Everyone worth listening to, including Romney himself, believed that he had exhausted all present and future political capital – it was time for a career change. Romney won the last Republican primary in a canter, from beginning to end there really was little doubt that he would be the eventual nominee – yet, his campaign for the Presidency wasn't quite as smooth.

Ostensibly he had everything going for him: Romney was running on the back of a successful Governorship in Massachusetts, and an even more impressive record in business. In contrast, faced with stubbornly high unemployment levels and a stuttering economy, President Obama was proving to be a thoroughly underwhelming incumbent.

Yet as election season wobbled along, the Romney campaign began to take on the appearance of a festering wound. Prone to gaffes, incapable of mobilising the Republican base, consistently miscalculating voter turnout, conveying the impression of being 'out of touch', and simply being out-organised by the Obama team – Mitt Romney was unable to define himself as a candidate.

Election night offered a microscope onto this calamity. Romney confidently invited camera crews behind the scenes of his campaign to film what he believed was going to be an election night victory - this despite all polling indicating otherwise. He lost in a landslide. The atmosphere that was then being recorded for posterity was famously described by a campaign staffer as "like a death in the family". Humiliated, and believing that he would be labelled "a loser for life", Romney did what was expected of him: he withdrew from the public spotlight.

With Romney a political recluse, the Republican Party set about cleansing themselves of his aura. The Party leadership were united and unambiguous: they blamed the election failure entirely upon Mitt Romney's shortcomings as a candidate, and believed that the best strategy for Party regrowth would be a very public, and very direct, purge of the Romney name.

Yet, just as with the end of any relationship, animosity eventually dulls with time. And as this inevitably happened, Romney was presented with a few, though limited, opportunities to re-enter public life. During the 2014 Congressional and Senate primaries, Romney was deployed by the Republican Party to add a certain 'establishment' value on the campaign trail. What's more, he was fairly successful, serving as a constant reminder to the American public – then heavily disillusioned with Barack Obama – that they could have had a different President all along.