On Twitter, Ms. Cutter, known for her dry sense of humor and sharp edge, circulated a photo of Big Bird outside an Obama rally with the hashtag #ProtectSesameStreetNotWallStreet to her 42,700-plus followers. The Big Bird attacks started to take on a life of their own. The following week, the Obama campaign introduced a tongue-in-cheek ad that compares Big Bird to Bernard L. Madoff and other corporate criminals.
“Big, yellow, a menace to our economy,” the ominous voice-over intoned. It was a typical quick-response effort by Ms. Cutter, doing damage control after an admittedly lackluster performance by the president. “She spotted right away that this was something that was trending out there and that was making an impact,” David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist, said of Ms. Cutter, who was not involved in the making of the ad itself. Ms. Cutter, who turns 44 on Oct. 22, has emerged as Mr. Obama’s one-woman attack squad. In the process, she has become a popular but polarizing face of a campaign that until recently had been largely dominated by middle-aged white men. Late last year, Ms.
Cutter left her role as deputy senior adviser in the White House to move to Chicago and become one of three deputy campaign managers, overseeing policy, research and communications. In essence, Ms. Cutter has become the chief messenger for the Obama campaign, a loyal soldier who says the things the candidate can’t (or won’t) say — often on YouTube. In a series of straight-talking videos set in front of a bustling campaign office, she rejects point by point Mr. Romney’s policies.
“All Stephanie wants is results,” said an Obama administration aide and friend of Ms. Cutter’s who is not allowed to discuss campaign issues. “She is an old-school, take-no-prisoners political operative. Losing is not tolerated.” (Ms. Cutter has earned the nickname The Ninja at campaign headquarters, since she stealthily inserts herself into battles.) As Ms. Cutter’s role in the campaign has become more prominent, she has become a lightning rod of controversy to detractors and a skirt-suited folk hero to supporters.
Both the adoration (“Stephanie Cutter is SOOO hot,” said one online commenter) and the attacks (“Lying liar Stephanie Cutter has hissy fit,” the conservative blogger Michelle Malkin recently tweeted) directed at Ms. Cutter are often manifest in ways that a male aide, like Mr. Axelrod or Robert Gibbs, would probably never experience. Rush Limbaugh calls Ms. Cutter “Obama’s chief campaign babe,” and she’s also been nicknamed Box Cutter for her sharp attacks.
Nicolle Wallace, a White House communications director under George W. Bush, praised Ms. Cutter as “the warrior princess of this election cycle.” The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago even has a YouTube parody of a drunk Ms. Cutter impersonator holding a flask with charts in the background. “Hey, let’s look at a graph!” the blond comedian slurs before chugging vodka. Ms. Cutter doesn’t always stick to the talking points. In a recent CNN interview, she said Mr. Romney’s tax cuts “stipulated, it won’t be near $5 trillion,” as the Obama campaign had earlier claimed. The gaffe became fodder for a Romney attack ad three days later and was raised by Representative Paul D.
Ryan in the vice-presidential debate on Thursday night. Ms. Cutter’s prominence puts her in a contradictory position. Similar to other high-profile female political operatives, like the Republicans Dana Perino, Mary Matalin and Ms. Wallace, Ms. Cutter exposes herself to attacks (and dishes them out). But she also serves as a crucial figure in a campaign that is relying on female voters to win. “If this president wins, it will be because there is a tremendous gender gap and women will make up the margin of victory,” said Neera Tanden, president of the liberal research group Center for American Progress and a former adviser to Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“I feel comforted that there’s a woman at the table.” In an administration not known for its embrace of outsiders, Ms. Cutter managed to become a trusted aide to both Michelle Obama, whom she worked for in 2008 and in the White House, and Mr. Obama, who pleaded with her to take West Wing and campaign jobs. Ms. Cutter previously worked for President Bill Clinton and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, as well as for Edward M. Kennedy, quickly becoming a trusted Kennedy family confidante. Her bright career was almost derailed in 2004, though, after Senator John Kerry’s failed presidential bid. Ms. Cutter, who had been the campaign’s communications chief, bore the brunt of criticism in the election post-mortem, a blame that Mr. Kerry said she had to shoulder unfairly.
“I was frankly appalled at some of the stories and gossip,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview. “At the end of the day, I’m the one responsible.” But she came back in a turnaround that speaks as much to Washington’s short memory as to Ms. Cutter’s gritty perseverance. In her role as Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff during the 2008 campaign, Ms. Cutter (who signed on after Mrs. Obama’s widely publicized comment that “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country”) is largely credited for turning the would-be first lady from a potential liability to an enormous asset.
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