How did this happen? Modern media creates candidates who dare not speak aloud in uncontrolled public situations, or even in private ones (ask Mitt Romney). Candidates have no actual personal relationships in the press corps; they rely on staff to spin the narrative and paper over the cracks. Campaigns have become sprawling, billion-dollar enterprises that are too big for the candidates to effectively command.
Reporters lionize those who become sources of exclusive news. And increasingly, that’s not the candidates. Handlers know this, and generally don’t mind being dotingly described as game-changers by, say, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, co-authors of the best-selling “insider” account Game Change, its sequel Double Down: Game Change 2012, and the surely forthcoming The Taking Of The Game Change 1-2-3: The Two-Thousand And Sixteenthening.
All of which sort of makes one ask, “Wow, is this a trend that will inevitably lead to an absurd end that is beyond parody?” Yes. And we may now be arriving at that end. In at least one case, with maybe more to come, the top handler in 2016 will be someone who isn’t legally part of the campaign at all. Rather, it will be someone running an “independent” dark money super PAC.
Which means that, if the Koch brothers and other billionaires have their way, candidates (and the president) will devolve into something completely incidental to real politics. We’re at the threshold of a new era, in which presidential candidates are no longer visionary dispensers of authentic policy wisdom learned from the trenches of experience, but, rather, merely stylish two-dimensional avatars through which the wants and needs of billionaire wealth are expressed. And the only thing that arrangement requires is good P.R.
So let’s meet the wizards behind the drapes. Here is TTTC's list of the top handlers for each candidate, ranked by a proprietary algorithm that accounts for the clout and notoriety of the staffer and the likelihood of the candidate's eventual victory.
Photos: Getty, Associated Press, Twitter
A prior version of this article misidentified Lis Smith as DeBlasio's Communications Director and having worked for the DNC. She in fact was his spokeswoman and worked for the DGA.