Romney
In an op-ed, Stevens bragged that Mitt Romney, pictured, successfully courted middle class voters and upheld conservative principles. Reuters

Mitt Romney may have lost the 2012 election, but if you ask his top advisor Stuart Stevens, the former Massachusetts governor has nothing to sulk about.

Writing in the Washington Post, Stevens bragged that Romney's ability to win over middle class voters was the real victory earlier this month.

On Nov. 6, Mitt Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income,” Stevens wrote. “That means he carried the majority of middle class voters. While John McCain lost white voters under 30 by 10 points, Romney won those voters by seven points, a 17-point shift.”

Stevens goes on in his op-ed to trumpet Romney's middle class recruitment and his dedication to free-enterprise principles. The campaign expert does, suspiciously, glide over Romney's inability to woo lower-class voters, the individuals making under $50,000 that he pledged to find jobs for during the past year.

At Talking Points Memo, Benjy Sarlin writes that Stevens seems to argue that Romney won a more significant moral victory, because he successfully courted white and upper class voters. Obama, pundits feel, won reelection, because he was especially popular with Hispanic, African-American, and female voters.

The president, Stevens posits, was an affable African-American with billions of dollars in funding who didn't have to toil through a primary election. Further, Stevens claims, Obama was able to stand in front of a media that felt morally conflicted about criticizing him.

While Republicans lost the election, Stevens feels that the vindication of conservative ideals was the most important takeaway from the contest.

And Republican ideals -- Mitt Romney -- carried the day,” Stevens said.