Biggest Winners and Losers of 2006

A look at the individuals in politics that won and lost the most in 2006.

Biggest Winners:

1. Al Gore - The former Vice President was by far the biggest winner in 2006.  His film, An Inconvenient Truth, put the issue of energy dependence back on the front-burner, and humanized a man who in 2000 many thought as robotic and out of touch.  The movie increased Gore's overall appeal, especially within the Democratic base.  He has not ruled out a run for president in 2008, and many progressives are hoping that he will.
2. Stephen Colbert - At the end of the Bush presidency, people will look back and agree that no individual made more of fool out of the President than Mr. Colbert.  His speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner was one for the ages.  Unfortunately for the President, he had to sit through it.  The kind of satire that Stephen Colbert uses on his show, The Colbert Report, exposes the logical fallacies of those in power unlike any other, and warns Americans about the difference between truth and truthiness.  His show more politically populist than just about any in television history.
3. Keith Olbermann - His special comment on the death of habeas corpus (via the Military Commissions Act) propelled him to the spot as the most famous progressive voice on cable news.  While his ratings have gone up, Bill O'Reilly's ratings have declined.
4. Howard Dean - The brains behind the Democrats' 50-state strategy in 2006.  He refused to give into the demands of Rahm Emanuel, Chuck Schumer and James Carville, who called for DNC to stop funding Democrats in many red states and instead concentrate money on just a few Senate and House candidates.  In the end, Dean got his way, and it paid off.  Not only did the Democrats win the U.S. House and Senate, but they won a majority of governorships and took over control in a majority of the nation's state legislatures.  Building the party beyond its northern political bubble can work, as Dean proved.
   
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger - After suffering from an approval rating in the 30's just one year earlier, the actor-turned-governor of California pulled a 180-degree turn and decided to work in a bipartisan manner to enact historic environmental legislation.  He won reelection in a landslide.
6. Barack Obama - His popularity refused to die down following his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention.  And when speculation amounted that he might run for president, he became a rock star within the Democratic base.  His September visit to Iowa during the annual Tom Harkin Steak Fry was what ultimately drove him to think about running for president.  He was mobbed my the crowd, gaining an Elvis-like status.  His stock is definitely on the rise.
7. Michael J. Fox - Was successful in making stem cell research a campaign issue in states like Missouri, Virginia and Pennsylvania.  Had it not been for Fox, as well as the stem cell initiatives that he helped put on the ballot in those states, the Democrats might not have won majority in the Senate.
8. George H.W. Bush - The Iraq Study Group report may have been George H.W. Bush's way of separating his realist view of the world with the idealist view that is championed by his son's Administration.  The elder Bush got his guy, James Baker, to head the commission, whose findings the current Bush chose to ignore.  This was Bush Sr.'s way of saying, "Son, here is my advice on the Middle East.  If you choose to ignore it, then it is your problem, not mine."
9. Bob Woodward - The title of his book, State of Denial, gave independent voters every reason to vote for a new direction in November -- which they did.  "State of Denial" was more than a book, it was a campaign slogan that explained why we needed to throw the bums out.
10. Nevada - In politics, no state in the country had a better year than Nevada.  As we get ready to bring in the new year, it will be home of the new Senate Majority Leader.  Most important of all, it landed a spot as one of the early states to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee -- translating into more money and support for local Nevada politicians.

Biggest Losers:

1. Donald Rumsfeld: The firing of Donald Rumsfeld on the day after the Democrats' sweeping election victory was a poor strategic move by the White House, which could have impacted the election results had it been done a few days prior.  Nonetheless, it still helped make Donald Rumsfeld the scapegoat for the poor war strategy.  History will always remember him in that way, as it can be assumed that Rumsfeld will never find another Executive Branch job again.
2. Fox News: The Chris Wallace interview with Bill Clinton (part 1, part 2, part 3) in September underscored the rocky road for Fox News throughout 2006.  Clinton's exposing of the network for its unbalanced journalism was only the icing on the cake for what most media critics had been writing about the network for years.  Ratings-wise, the O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes suffered a hit, while shows such as MSNBC's Countdown and CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 gained ground.
3. George Allen - Two things here: Macaca and moderate Northern Virginia.
4. Rush Limbaugh - The radio host's insensitive moment in which he made fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease may have cost Republican Jim Talent his Senate seat.  And then, on the morning after the election, Limbaugh admitted that all along he had lied to his listeners by pretending to support President Bush
5. Conrad Burns - His connections with jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff were exposed, resulting in the loss of his U.S. Senate seat to Jon Tester.  The point of no return came during a debate with Tester, in which Burns said Bush did indeed have a plan for Iraq, but was "not going to tell" what the plan was.
6. John Kerry - If you don't know how to make a joke sound funny, then you probably should not try running for president.
7. Jeb Bush - His political future was impacted more than just about any other as a result of Bush's Iraq war policy.
8. Tom DeLay - Proved why K-Street is ruining American democracy, and as a result he is out of office.  Ironically, his new job is as a lobbyist.  Who could have predicted that?
9. Joe Lieberman - Although the 51-49 Senate landscape forces the Democrats to accept Lieberman back into their party, he still is out on his own with little power other than his position as the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
10. Herold Ford - None of this was his doing.  Ford just happened to come from a state that still is struggling to make it beyond the pre-1954 political mindset, vindicated by the fact that the RNC's racist ad against him actually worked.

I am sure that you all disagree with these choices to some extent.  I would like to hear your opinions.

Comments

[Michel]

I do disagree a bit :) But overall, a perfectly acceptable representation.

One thing I don't like though is Kerry... I mean, Kerry's present is like Dean's past. A one-liner that haunts you forever... listen, politicians get no sleep and are talking in public pretty much all the time. You want an embarrassing line? Let me get a transcript of any of Bush's speeches and I'll find you one. I think democrats are too harsh on other democrats.

[Michel]

BTW Todd,

I'm really getting fed up with reading text on this site. You're doing a redesign soon, right? Could you incorporate one feature for me if it wasn't already asked for? I'd like a larger font, and I'd like it so that if I ctrl- in firefox that the text area grows wider (I'm guessing it currently uses a constant pixel width). Right now it only grows vertically, which makes the fact I have a wide screen monitor kinda moot.

Let me know if you need me to go into more detail. I don't know how you would describe your tech-savvy.

[Administrator: Todd]

Michel, yes, I am doing a re-design. Thanks for bringing this problem to my attention. Just so I can make sure I know what you mean, are you referring to the fact that the width of the middle column never changes? If you are, don't worry. I will have all of that cleared up by New Years Day.

[George]

I like this list for the most part. On a technicality though I will argue that MJ Fox is not the winner - the winner is the millions of people who may not have to suffer from debilitating disease 30 years from now (assuming global warming has not wiped us all out by then). The winner is the world economy who will not have to fund health care for millions of people with debilitating diseases. Fox, however, well, it may be too late for him. He can thank the irrationally conservative movement for that.

And Al Gore at #1? Nice work! Do I hear an endorsement for him if he runs? :)

[Administrator: Todd]

lol no endorsement as of now. But I hope Gore does get into race. That would force everyone else to talk more about global warming and energy independence. Man, a debate between Edwards, Obama, Hillary, and Gore would be entertaining!!