Shrum's first political job was speechwriter for New York City Mayor, John Lindsay, a socially moderate or liberal Republican. The Democratic Presidential candidates for whom Shrum has worked, in one capacity or another, include Dukakis, Muskie, McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Dick Gephardt, Al Gore, Edwards, Kerry and Kerrey.
Sensing any pattern there?
In fairness to Shrum, he did not always work for those mean as Presidential campaign manager and he did work for Jimmy Carter's 1976 campaign, albeit only for nine days as a speechwriter. (I wonder why he got fired so quickly, though.) Also, he has done very well for a lot of his clients at levels lower than President.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_ShrumWhat I have against Shrum, besides the fact that he is said to be a curse on Democratic Presidential campaigns: he wrote in his book something very ugly about John Edwards and his dead son after the 2004 campaign, something he learned because he was campaign advisor. I am not saying if it was true or not. I am just saying that I thought it tacky to disclose it publicly.