Cross-Posted from DanCirucci.com
After every election, there’s a winner and a loser. That’s one of the things we like about politics: somebody wins (always more fun) and somebody loses. But it’s not just the candidates who win or lose; it’s actually a whole slew of people — and there are so many more in a big quadrennial presidential election like this one We can’t possibly catalogue all the winners and losers from the campaign’s fallout here, but we will try to enumerate the major ones.
Here it goes:
WINNER: Melania Trump. She played it classy, staying mostly above the fray but still managing to have her voice heard with a runaway best-seller and strategic appearances that maximized her impact. Beautiful? Absolutely! But smart and savvy, too.
LOSER: Jill Biden. She took the only route she knows — down and dirty, protecting her ticket to fame and fortune. yeah, she held onto that old bag ‘o bones as long as she could — hiding him, protecting him and shielding him up till the last possible moment. The evasions and the delay cost the Democrats Big Time — and God only knows how much it cost our country.
WINNER: Social media and podcasts. Trump reached new audiences and new generations, transmitting his messages to millions who might not otherwise have heard him. He catapulted the GOP into a new era and showed that you really can teach an old dog new tricks.
LOSER: Legacy media, aka vintage media. WaPo, NYT, NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, etc all bombed out. They were woefully inadequate, devious, arrogant and smug. And they were swamped by cyber media. Yes, this was the year that even Fox News began to grow stale.
WINNER: Joe Rogan. He got the Big Interviews in a timely fashion and made the Bid Endorsement in the nick of time. He dominated.
LOSER: Howard Stern. To call him a caricature of his former self would be a compliment. He’s cooked. Put a fork in him.
WINNER: J. D. Vance. It was obvious from that start that this guy was headed for the stratosphere but he exceeded all expectations. No question about it, he’s the future of the GOP.
LOSER: Tim Walz. A self-proclaimed knucklehead. Even his family turned on him.
WINNER: Tucker Carlson. Not only did he soar but he grabbed bigger and bigger audiences with some of the most timely, crackling commentary on the internet. Freed to speak his mind and act on his best instincts, he won the day.
LOSER: Oprah Winfrey. She was once the Queen of Talk. Now she’s just another million dollar scam. Oh, Oprah! How could you have fallen so low?
WINNER: Elon Musk. He hobnobbeed with the glitterati at the Met Gala but that’s all so yesterday. Now he’s the genius next door who chats with you over the fence and introduces you to the next President of the United States.
LOSER: Mark Cuban. He was far off the mark and he’s not Cuban. In fact, he made us wonder if he’s even American. And his vilification of smart conservative women ranks him lower (and dumber!) than a centipede. Oh, wait — we may have just insulted centipedes.
WINNER: Vivek Ramaswamy. Bright enough to make all the right moves at just the right time — and he did. An absolute dazzler!
LOSER: Nikki Haley. Made all the wrong moves at all the wrong times. She hedged her bets once too often and wound up without a chip to spare.
WINNER: Susan Wiles. She let Trump be Trump while simultaneously managing him to a landslide victory. Miraculous!
LOSER: James Carville. A nattering relic of another era and. Let’s face it, nowadays few in his party even know who he is — or was. And since he never bothered to cross over to the common sense party, he may as well just shut up.
WINNER: Byron Donalds. They called him a Trump surrogate but this guy’s nobody’s surrogate. Nobody articulates Trumpism better while acting as the sort of leader who shows the way forward. Dynamite!
LOSER: Barack Obama. The man they revered as “The One” is now simply “The Done.”
WINNER: Elise Stefanik. What a year she’s had! And now she’ll be our UN Rep. What’s that you said about Donald Trump and smart, strong women, Mark? Huh?
LOSER: Liz Cheney. Not only did she disgrace what was left of the Cheney name but she succeeded in making a complete fool of herself! Don’t let the door hit ya in the ass . . . .
Oh, we can name lots more. And maybe we will — in another post!