????對于有些人而言，卡爾?羅夫就是美國共和黨的大腦和靈魂。多年來，他曾為共和黨諸多要人擔任過咨詢顧問。最值得一提的是他曾為喬治?W?布什設計了2000年和2004年的總統大選，并取得了成功。近期，他共同創立并幫助管理的超級政治行動委員會（PAC）美國十字路口（American Crossroads）與其他相關團體一起，為米特?羅姆尼的總統競選籌集了超過1億美元資金。

????羅夫也是一位公眾人物。他為《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）撰寫專欄，2012年大選期間還頻頻出現在福克斯新聞頻道（Fox News）中。眾所周知，在大選夜，羅夫在福克斯新聞頻道上聲稱，切莫過早斷言搖擺州——俄亥俄州會選擇奧巴馬，導致該頻道空中連線自己的專家預測小組。

????日前，羅夫對話《財富》雜志（Fortune ），暢談領導一個超級政治行動委員會（PAC）比打造一場政治競選更容易的緣由，以及他對自己被神化的無能為力。

????下面是經過編輯的采訪記錄。

????《財富》雜志：相比其他領導型職務，顧問更多的是在幕后工作。如何影響大權在握的人？

????卡爾?羅夫：我不是太認同“大權在握”這種說法。我倒是認為，無論何時向政治客戶、政黨候選人或商業組織提供建議時，都必須要了解他們的決策方式，以及他們的最終目的是什么。然后，必須要非常地直截了當。

????真的嗎？很有意思。因為普遍的看法是政客們總是避實就虛。

????你知道，人們能在頭腦里同時記憶相互沖突的情緒和矛盾的意見。因此，一位政治候選人或一位執權者需要知道最好的政策，以及解釋這一政策的最佳方式。但有時，即便做的事情是正確的，也不一定被廣泛接受。

????回顧來看，出兵伊拉克是當年喬治?W?布什做出的正確決定。但這項決定當年不得人心，今天依然不得人心。

????你認為這項決定不受歡迎是因為溝通不好？

????不，有時候人們對于一項政策的看法不一定對。現在，他們或許終于可以回過頭來說，“它在當時是正確的決定，”但有爭議的措施出現爭議往往是有原因的。

????這些年來你和很多不同的政治家合作過。你如何協調一位候選人的需求與整個黨派的需求？

????每個政黨都是由一大群獨立演員組成，演員們各自撰寫自己的劇本。一般來說，由于美國兩黨大致可分為一個中左，一個中右，腳本大同小異。

????To some, Karl Rove is the heart and soul of the GOP. He has a long history of counseling prominent Republicans. Most memorably, he designed George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Recently, he co-founded and helped run the super PAC American Crossroads, which, along with affiliated groups, raised over $100 million for Governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

????Rove is also a public figure. He writes a column for the Wall Street Journal, and was frequently on Fox News during the 2012 election. On election night, Rove famously told the network to be cautious about calling swing state Ohio for Obama too soon, which spurred the network to interview its own decision desk on air.

????Rove spoke with Fortune about why leading a super PAC is easier than building a political campaign and how he can't do anything about being a myth.

????An edited transcript is below.

????Fortune: Leading as an advisor is more behind the scenes than other kinds of leadership. What is it like to influence these incredibly powerful people?

????Karl Rove: Well, I'm not certain I would necessarily agree with the term "incredibly powerful people." I do think that whenever you give advice to political clients, political candidates, or business organizations, you have to understand how they go about making decisions and what's their ultimate goal. And then there just has to be an incredible amount of directness.

????Really? That's interesting. Because there's a general view that politicians dance around issues.

????Well, you know, people are capable of keeping conflicting emotions and conflicting opinions of things in their brains at the same time. So a political candidate or an office holder needs to understand the best policy and then what's the best way to explain that policy. But sometimes, even doing the right thing will not be well received.

????In retrospect, the surge in Iraq was the right decision for George W. Bush, but it was an unpopular decision at the time and it remains unpopular today.

????Do you think it was unpopular because it wasn't communicated correctly?

????No, look, sometimes people just don't have a good opinion about a particular policy. Now, ultimately they might look back and say, "That was the right thing to do," but particularly controversial measures tend to be controversial for a reason.

????You've worked with many different politicians over time. How do you reconcile the needs of one candidate with the needs of the entire party?

????Each political party is an expression of a large group of individual actors writing their own scripts. Generally, because our parties are, roughly, one center-left and the other center-right, the scripts tend to be similar.