Winners:
.......Howard Dean started the year as an asterisk in the polls, so far behind that when a political writer termed him "a credible long shot," Dean took it as a compliment. Now he's the probable Democratic nominee for president. Whatever Dean's ultimate fate, he has revolutionized politics by bringing ordinary people back into the process through the Internet. A quarter of Dean's Internet contributors are under 30 years of age, a demographic conquest that is the envy of the sclerotic Democratic National Committee. The DNC's mailing list is heavy on aging New Dealers.
Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, makes the winner's circle. He took the lessons he learned as a consultant for startups in the Internet world and applied them to politics. If the medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan said, then Trippi deserves much of the credit for the success of the Dean movement to re-engage disaffected voters by building an Internet community.
By endorsing Dean, Al Gore transformed himself from a joke line on the late-night shows to Democratic kingmaker, eclipsing for the moment, though not usurping, Bill Clinton's role as top dog in the party. If Dean should become president, Gore is a likely secretary of State. If Dean loses, Gore's consolation prize is that he managed once again to distance himself from Clinton, which must be emotionally satisfying.
snip>
Losers:
.........John Kerry and Joe Lieberman must be hurting. Kerry started the year as the presumptive front runner and watched his standing erode as an upstart governor from a dinky state overtook him in New Hampshire. Lieberman's hurt feelings over the Gore endorsement gave his campaign something to whine about for a few days, but didn't revive his candidacy. The other so-called major candidates aren't faring much better, but their fall from favor is less dramatic.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3812431/
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