‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : PROFILE : Stephanopoulos Guides Campaign

It was 6:30 in the morning on the first day of the Democratic convention when the security guard on the 12th floor of New York’s Intercontinental Hotel spotted an apparent intruder heading for the Clinton campaign’s senior staff office.

Bleary-eyed, wearing no credentials, his wiry hair standing straight up, giving him an overall resemblance to the rock singer Sting, the slender young man was clearly in the wrong place, the guard decided. Only the intervention of another Clinton aide convinced the guard that the person he was trying to keep at bay was George Stephanopoulos, one of Clinton’s closest aides.

The guard’s confusion can easily be understood.

Stephanopoulos, as communications director, occupies one of the most important positions in the Clinton campaign, with overall responsibility for the campaign’s advertising, speech writing, polling, issues development, research, press relations and scheduling. As the first staff member Clinton hired for his nascent presidential bid more than nine months ago, he has developed an unusually close relationship with the candidate. He is routinely one of the first people Clinton talks to each morning.

Despite that, however, he is only 31 years old, looks even younger and has never before held a senior position in a presidential campaign.

If, as the polls indicate, Clinton’s campaign actually has pulled itself out of the mire of third place in the presidential race, then Stephanopoulos deserves much of the credit.

And in a happy coincidence that often fails to occur in presidential campaigns, Stephanopoulos also receives much of the credit. Although he has clashed with some other members of the Clinton camp, including Clinton’s longtime aide Betsey Wright, who last month sought a campaign reorganization in which she would not have to report to him, Stephanopoulos remains almost universally well liked within the campaign.

During most of the campaign, Stephanopoulos has also played the role of the campaign’s in-house pessimist, repeatedly telling others within the campaign that he was sure they were in deep trouble, although being careful to maintain a cheerfully upbeat countenance around outsiders.

This spring, Stephanopoulos played a key role in keeping several negative stories about Clinton out of major newspapers and off television, quietly calling editors and network executives to convince them that the stories in question were unfair or otherwise flawed.

“Even the best story has some sort of a hole,” he said, describing his approach. “You read it carefully, watch for the logical leaps.” Above all, he said, “I try to stay calm.”

In the last month, Stephanopoulos has pulled off the political equivalent of a double play, overseeing the effort that produced Clinton’s much-ballyhooed economic plan while also directing the communications strategy that placed the Democratic candidate’s face on television programs from “Today” to “The Arsenio Hall Show,” effectively breaking Clinton out of the cone of silence that had surrounded him earlier in the spring.

At the same time, Stephanopoulos has had a primary role in planning the Democratic effort to use this week’s convention to change the way America sees Clinton.

Those tasks displayed Stephanopoulos’ unusual mastery of two critical political skills that are seldom found together. “There are people who are good at communications and there are people who are good at issues,” says Mandy Grunwald, the creative director of Clinton’s advertising team. “George is good at both and that is very rare.”

As the first person Clinton hired for his presidential bid nearly a year ago, Stephanopoulos exemplifies the cadre of young aides--known jokingly within the campaign as the Brady kids--who have helped pilot Clinton’s effort. Among others in the group are David Wilhelm, Clinton’s 35-year-old campaign manager, Rahm Emmanuel, his 29-year-old chief fund-raiser and Bruce Reed, the campaign’s 32-year-old issues director.

Born in Fall River, Mass., the son of a prominent member of the Greek Orthodox church hierarchy, Stephanopoulos thought for a time about entering the priesthood. “I thought I was going to be a priest until I was 14,” he said.

Living in a clerical family is “good training for a public life,” he said. “You have to learn how to treat everyone equally. You see people at moments of their greatest celebration and at their greatest sorrow. And you have to learn to listen.”

But “to be a priest, you really have to feel the call,” Stephanopoulos said. Instead, he moved toward the world of public policy. After graduating from New York’s Columbia University, Stephanopoulos went to work for Ohio Rep. Edward F. Feighan, who represents the Cleveland district in which his family then lived. Shortly afterward, he moved on to Oxford University where, like Clinton, he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.

Eventually, Stephanopoulos went to work for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), the House majority leader, becoming his chief assistant on the House floor. And when Gephardt decided not to run for President, Stephanopoulos began talking with aides to both Clinton and Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) about possible jobs with their campaigns.

Despite the tension and exhaustion of months of 16-hour days, seven days a week, “the dirty little secret is that these jobs are an awful lot of fun,” he says. “People pay me to get up in the morning, read the newspapers, talk to people who write them, talk to the guy who is going to be the next President of the United States and maybe have some influence on him.”

Besides, he added, “I don’t know what a real job is like. I’ve never had one.”