However, his weekend resignation statement recognised the Conservative campaign's failure to connect with the anti-austerity mood behind the Labour surge, and it is unlikely there will be any creative policy thinking to bridge the divide.
As the lead make-up artist for the show, Barber briefs his staff backstage not only on the technical application, but shares his inspiration and references, explaining the mood behind the look and how it relates to the all-important clothes.
It might have been worse had Phil Cuzzi not been in a gifting mood behind the plate in San Francisco.
But peaceful is far from the mood behind the scenes.
Just now, the mood behind palace walls must be giddy relief.The queen has rarely been as popular as she is now, in her Diamond Jubilee year.
Yet many of the families drawn to the cemetery on Tuesday said that they sensed an increasingly sinister mood behind the pattern of threats.
This is the national mood behind the withdrawal from Iraq, the looming pullback from Afghanistan, the last-minute retreat from military strikes against Syria, and a possibly imminent (and highly desirable) interim deal with Iran on its nuclear program.
But that mood, fueled by the sense that behind it all was some sort of religious endorsement, is diminished, replaced by confusion and the uneasy feeling that the bombings this year are just the opening salvos in a very long fight.
Thomas Müller looked in relaxed mood, greeting the camera, or somebody standing behind it, with a salute that was... um, comically straight of arm, all things considered.
