By The Huffington Post News Editors

By Samuel P. Jacobs
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – This is a golden era for political consultants – well, except for those Republicans still smarting from the November elections.
But Americans’ political tastes tend to run in cycles, so there is always a mix of hope and wariness when consultants at both ends of the ideological spectrum gather, as they did in Washington last week, to toast the profession’s top operatives.
Five months after Mitt Romney was thumped in the race for the White House – a loss that some placed at the feet of the small group of men and women who advised the Republican presidential challenger – the meeting of the American Association of Political Consultants threw together Democratic and Republican operatives who have dedicated their lives to undoing one another’s work.
Even those whose clients lost in November feel they have plenty to celebrate in a business that boasts of increasing sophistication as well as profits.
In a video message played at the conference’s Hall of Fame luncheon on Thursday, President Barack Obama paid wry respects to an industry that is populated by over-the-top personalities but seen by many Americans as fathering the bitter and costly ways of U.S. politics.
“There is nothing political consultants love more than celebrating their own genius,” Obama said.
The 2012 election left many of the Republican campaign professionals feeling less like geniuses after their candidate was outmaneuvered by a sitting president they had believed to be vulnerable.
“Elections make you look smarter than what you are, and more stupid,” said Ed Goeas, president of The Tarrance Group, a Republican strategy firm. “This was not an election for Republican consultants that made us look smarter.”
After the loss in November, complaints among the Republican activists directed at the party’s consultant class have been at full boil.
Appearing last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering for influential right-wing activists, former vice …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post