Members of the Class of 2016—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Rand Paul, and Rep. Paul Ryan—all gathered in Park City, Utah over the weekend to participate in Romney’s own leadership conference. Called “The Future of American Leadership,” the summit resembled a conservative version of the Aspen Ideas Festival. Romney’s purpose in hosting the gathering, as Nicholas Confessore wrote, was “to transform the rump of his presidential campaign into a kingmaking force for his largely leaderless and divided party.”

To use a grandiose term, what the modern GOP needs is a philosopher-king: someone who can connect candidates with donors and bundlers, who can go on “Meet the Press” and calmly explain that no, the Republican party is not in disarray, and who can work quietly in the background without having to sweat the donations or the infighting. In 2012, Karl Rove was the closest thing Republicans had to that kind of consigliere—until, well, it all fell apart. But in 2014, Romney fits that bill precisely.

It’s easy to dismiss Romney as a political failure, an historical footnote. But this sort of comeback is not without precedent. Despite running three failed presidential campaigns between 1952 and 1960, Adlai Stevenson nonetheless had a huge effect on the philosophy of that era’s Democratic party, and then on the U.S. more broadly as ambassador to the United Nations.