Stuart Stevens, Romney Adviser, Says 2012 Was Not A Fair Fight

Stevens, however, had a ready list of reasons why the 2012 result was out of his — as well as Romney’s and the campaign’s — control.

He talked at length about President Barack Obama’s money advantage: “Obama raised $1.2 billion. So you think about it, the next incumbent president will raise, what, $2 billion?” Stevens said. He argued the next incumbent candidate will “face a challenger … who will probably come out of the [primary] process broke.”
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Describing his reaction to a question about why the Romney campaign lost the battle to define its candidate, Stevens said he felt “kind of like Travis at the Alamo being asked, ‘How did you let yourself get surrounded?’ It wasn’t our choice. There were a lot of soldiers out there.”

But when asked about criticisms that Obama’s campaign was run more like an efficient business than Romney’s, Stevens — who was employed by a media firm, American Rambler Productions, that was paid millions of dollars by the campaign for a multitude of services — backtracked from his focus on resources.

“They’re always talking about how Obama had more people. They talk about this with the media buys,” Stevens said, a reference to what Politico called Stevens’ “unusual in-house ad strategy.”

“It’s hysterical. You know, Obama had 27 people doing this. It’s like, that’s good? … When did we start bragging that, like, having more people doing something is a good thing?” Stevens asked. “I thought it was supposed to be the other way — that the fewer people that could do a good job is like a good thing.”

Yet seconds later Stevens was back to decrying the Romney campaign’s lack of resources as compared to the president’s: “We didn’t have Air Force One. We didn’t have the White House. You know, they had 800 people in Florida.”