(Jeff Danziger’s website)
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Mike Allen and Jim Vendehei, the chief stenographers at Politico, dutifully relay the “insider” view on “How Romney Stumbled“:
Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s top strategist, knew his candidate’s convention speech needed a memorable mix of loft and grace if he was going to bound out of Tampa with an authentic chance to win the presidency. So Stevens, bypassing the speechwriting staff at the campaign’s Boston headquarters, assigned the sensitive task of drafting it to Peter Wehner, a veteran of the last three Republican White Houses and one of the party’s smarter wordsmiths.
Not a word Wehner wrote was ever spoken. Stevens junked the entire thing, setting off a chaotic, eight-day scramble that would produce an hour of prime-time problems for Romney, including Clint Eastwood’s meandering monologue to an empty chair.
Romney’s convention stumbles have provoked weeks of public griping and internal sniping about not only Romney but also his mercurial campaign muse, Stevens. Viewed warily by conservatives, known for his impulsiveness and described by a colleague as a “tortured artist,” Stevens has become the leading staff scapegoat for a campaign that suddenly is behind in a race that had been expected to stay neck and neck through Nov. 6…
Translation: The only way Willard Mitt Romney was going to “bound out of Tampa with an authentic chance to win” would have been getting someone more talented — say, Bill Clinton — to deliver “a memorable mix of loft and grace”. But in MBA-World, it’s never the CEO’s fault when the company spectacularly fails to meet its quarterly profile, as long as some sketchy district assistant manager can be assigned to take the blame.
But whatever Stevens’s shortcomings, presidential candidates get the campaigns they want. And Romney, who in an interview with POLITICO last month said his leadership style very much centers on having a variety of smart people offering advice and him being the decider, has taken a very active role running his own campaign.
In a way, that’s the problem. Romney associates are baffled that such a successful corporate leader has created a team with so few lines of authority or accountability…
Of course, everybody not drawing a paycheck from that particular CEO is going to roll their eyes and blame hime anyway, Willard.
… Stevens, a 58-year-old son of the South, is easy for conservatives to dislike. His official bio does not exactly scream “Republican ad guy from Mississippi”: “Stuart was educated at Colorado College, Middlebury College, Oxford University and the UCLA Film School, [and] is also a former Fellow of the American Film Institute.”
He is not particularly ideological, and has a big-city, Hollywood aura that grates on movement conservatives. “He’s a smart, capable guy but he sends bad signals” to the right, said a Republican operative who works closely with the campaign. “He has a lot of goofy quotes that cause everybody to shake their heads. … Stuart is one of the most insecure guys in the business. But he has become the top strategic adviser to the nominee, which is a huge accomplishment.”…
Every profile of Stevens includes the descriptor “eclectic,” which seems fair, given he has skied to the North Pole, chronicled his use of steroids to compete in an extreme race, written novels and a campaign memoir, advised clients in Albania and Congo and consulted on Hollywood projects, including the political film “The Ides of March.”…
…. written, directed, produced, and starring notorious Democrat George Clooney. Aha!
(Look for future “scoops” to establish that Stevens is suspected of stealing others’ lunches out of the break room frig, and also never contributes anything to the potlucks but a medium-sized bag of store-brand chips. Not to mention dark rumors about his hygiene practices in the communal bathroom.)
By my count, thirteen of the first twenty comments were from brave “Independent”, “N/A”, “Libertarian” and “Conservative” posters accusing Politico of being in the tank for President You-Know-Who. (There was also one self-identified Democrat, wringing their hands over “all this gleeful hand-rubbing so long before the election”.)
And it’s only mid-September!
Early Morning Open Thread: Looking for A Scapegoat to BlamePost + Comments (96)