Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for the Romney campaign, urges Republicans not to turn on Mitt Romney after his election loss in an op-ed in the Washington Post Wednesday. He also argued that President Obama had several advantages, including being “a charismatic African American president with a billion dollars.”
“Over the years, one of the more troubling characteristics of the Democratic Party and the left in general has been a shortage of loyalty and an abundance of self-loathing,” Stevens writes. “It would be a shame if we Republicans took a narrow presidential loss as a signal that those are traits we should emulate.”
He continues: “Losing is just losing. It’s not a mandate to throw out every idea that the candidate championed, and I would hope it’s not seen as an excuse to show disrespect for a good man who fought hard for values we admire.”
Stevens also laid out what he saw to be President Obama’s advantages: “But he was a charismatic African American president with a billion dollars, no primary and a media that often felt morally conflicted about being critical. How easy is that to replicate?”