Word: strategist
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...That Sunday, McCain and his crew sat in the Hyatt in Dearborn, Mich., facing the challenge of clawing their way back into contention. He would have to face a grilling by Tim Russert on Meet the Press. He was down. "The whole country is watching," said political strategist Mike Murphy. "They'll see whether you're mopey or if you're ready to be President." McCain quickly started to come out of it. Aides could see him say to himself, "What? A fight?" as if he could hop into the ring at that moment. Soon the candidate came up with...
...room. "Jack's a pork-barrel spender," joked 11-year-old Jimmy about his 13-year-old brother, using one of his father's favorite insults. Aides chowed on grilled cheese sandwiches while McCain cycled through a round of radio interviews on the phone. Political strategist Murphy got a call from a network-television source and while on the cell phone held up four fingers and shot a thumb's up. McCain was leading in early exit polls. Aides started celebrating. McCain rushed off the phone. "What? What? What?" he said, his necktie still around his chest from the haircut...
...architect of whatever-it-takes politics, the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater, helped turn South Carolina, his home state, into the most reliably Republican place in the country. He did so on behalf of George Bush's father in 1988 by exploiting the fears of conservative whites and honing the tactics of search-and-destroy politics--black arts he apologized for in 1991 as he was dying of a brain tumor. Bush's South Carolina team, led by former Governor Carroll Campbell and his onetime chief of staff Warren Tompkins, are masters of Atwater-style politics. Bush and his chief...
Former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, a Bush strategist, used his firm to smother the 400,000 self-described Christian conservatives in the state with negative phone calls and mailings about McCain. ("He claims he's conservative, but he's pushed for higher taxes and waffled on protecting innocent human life.") In this blitz of mail and phone calling, Bush was portrayed as far more socially conservative than he describes himself at rallies. Asked why Bush almost never brought up his pro-life position in his appearances before South Carolina voters, a top Bush adviser said, "This...
Last February, Paul Weyrich came to a similar conclusion. In an open letter to his Free Congress Foundation, Weyrich, perhaps the most influential conservative strategist of the past two decades, declared his life's work a failure. "Conservatives," he wrote, "have learned to succeed in politics. That is, we got our people elected. But that did not result in the adoption of our agenda. The reason, I think, is that politics has failed...