WEST NILE VIRUS • DENGUE FEVER • ZIKA That pain was made worse in 2012 by the number of people — inside the campaign and out — who blamed Stevens for Romney’s loss. The chief strategist had determined from the start to make the election a referendum on president Barack Obama’s handling of the economy. But Stevens’ critics said he failed to humanize Romney and convince voters to like him. Schriefer, his longtime business partner, disagreed with that assessment “At a time when unemployment was high and the economy was in the doldrums, I still believe it was the best contrast we had with Barack Obama,” he maintained. Others saw Stevens as a power-hungry micromanager. In the weeks before the Republican convention, the campaign commissioned and then jettisoned multiple versions of Romney’s primetime address written by three veteran speechwriters. In the end, he delivered a version cobbled together at the last minute by Stevens and the candidate himself. According to Politico, the episode exposed the campaign’s “fundamental design flaw” — that Stevens was doing the work of what should have been three top staffers: chief strategist, chief ad maker and chief speechwriter. Romney dismissed the criticism. “The only person beside myself who could write a speech I would like was Stuart,” he said. “Stuart had JASON a large portfolio because I needed him to.” Stevens took responsibility for the loss, but he also pointed to factors outside of his control. Chief among them, he argued, was the tremendous cash advantage Obama gained by opting out of public financing and avoiding a Democratic primary — allowing for an early ad blitz that defined Romney as a soulless capitalist. According to Frushone, the Romney race “hurt Stuart the most of any of the campaigns he has lost, and I think it changed him as a person, too.” Stevens’ evolution is evident. He no longer characterizes himself as a heartless mercenary who will work for anybody. “I don’t have positions,” he used to enjoy saying. “I have clients.”
In the age of Trump, Stevens is starting to articulate an ideology. “I think the vision of having a centerright, compassionate governing party that is united by more optimism and kindness is something that’s just missing from where we are today,” he said as he descended through the early autumnal forest. “I think any politics that comes out of mean-spiritedness is flawed.” But, wait. Was this not the man who, a week earlier, had been celebrating the fight as “the best thing about politics”? The man who had spent a lifetime practicing political retzev? “Yeah, I mean, I’ve said this before: I probably represent the worst of the American political system. You know, I mean, I’m a hired gun — this weird aberration of our modern political system,” he acknowledged. “But I always look at it like litigating for a client. You go out and fight as hard as you can.” It seemed as if Stevens was trying to have it both ways. “You ever see that great film Lifeguard, by Daniel Petrie?” he asked, referring to the 1976 movie about an aging lifeguard who doesn’t know when to hang up the rescue tube. “At a certain point, you just kind of become, like, there’s something wrong with this guy.” Is that true of political consultants, too? Does there come a time when they should put the fight behind them? “I think that’s a very personal question,” Stevens GIB BS said, dodging it. The trail ended in a clearing with a view of the Green Mountains, flecked with red, orange and yellow leaves. Stevens walked to his black Volvo SUV. Asked whether he would consider another presidential campaign or if such feats were behind him, Stevens said he would have to be “just all in” if he were to commit. (His firm has taken on several 2018 gubernatorial and Senate races.) “It’s beyond 24-7,” he said of a run for the White House. “So I could see doing it, if there was someone that, you know, I thought was important and cared about.” The fighter, it seemed, wasn’t quite ready to walk away. m
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