• Share

Everybody who is anybody (and some who aren’t) is doing a year- end review of one kind or another as we close the books on 2011. Rather than fight against the tide, I humbly present the First Annual Camp Campaign Year End Winners and Losers. 

WINNERS

Ron Paul
The Winner of the Year is none other than Ron Paul. No other politician has gained so much ground since 1/1/11. At the beginning of the year he was primarily known, outside of his ardent followers, as the fringe Libertarian. Early in the year he was known as the kook who wanted to legalize drugs and who defended Iran’s right to nuclear weapons. But then John Huntsman and Michele Bachmann flamed out. Rick Perry fizzled. Herman Cain rocketed up and down. America eventually remembered who Newt Gingrich is. At the end of 2011, Paul is seen by many as a legitimate alternative to everybody-knows-he’ll-eventually-be-the-Republican-nominee Mitt Romney.
Although he won’t win the nomination, finishing a reasonable second is a major success for Paul considering he started in the back of the pack. He’s had a year-long stage to present his point of view, which really is all he could have hoped for in 2011.

Chelsea Clinton
Honorable Mention goes to Chelsea Clinton, who exists on the periphery of the political world. Imbued with some kind of residual untouchable quality from her days as first daughter, she received the kind of treatment the press normally reserves for visiting royalty. Unique among American politicians, Ms. Clinton gets to choose which parts of her life are shared with the media and which are kept private. Now that she’s got a plum gig with NBC, Chelsea is primed for a fabulous 2012. 

LOSERS
 

Herman Cain
The Loser of the Year has to be Herman Cain. Cain started 2011 as an unknown in the world of politics. He was a hugely successful businessman who had made millions turning around ailing companies. He entered the political scene as an outsider with big, fresh ideas. He was charming and different and exciting. During the course of 2011 he went from unknown to second-tier candidate to front-runner to scandal-ridden former candidate. His fall from grace was so sudden and so precipitous that his campaign was beyond salvaging. Could 9-9-9 have actually worked? It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know.

Anthony Weiner
Dishonorable mention goes to Anthony Weiner. His disgraceful misuse of his office and his blatant disregard for his responsibilities to the people – not to mention to his wife – cost him his job and his reputation. The only reason he didn’t earn the top spot as Loser of the Year is because he didn’t have as far to fall.
 TOO SOON TO TELL

Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street made a lot of noise in 2011. It grew from a dozen goofy college kids hanging out in a park to a well-financed nation-wide movement in the span of a few months. But the cold set in, the media got bored, and the movement stopped… moving. Occupy, for all its bravado and potential, accomplished nothing in 2011. The 1% still has all the money and the power. Whether the movement grows and achieves a measure of victory in future years is unknowable at this point. We may look back and see 2011 as the year that the Occupy Revolution began. Or we may look back on it as an isolated and unsuccessful experiment. Only time will tell.
President Obama
It wasn’t a good year for President Obama by most objective measures. He accomplished very little on his agenda. He delivered on precious few of his campaign promises. His popularity has sagged. His supporters have wandered off. The economy has only gotten worse since he took office. Foreign relations are deteriorating around the globe. But for all that, I’m still not ready to put him in the Loser column because the Republicans have utterly failed to capitalize on Obama’s missteps in 2011. With no candidate that will really energize the voters, the GOP may be on the way to handing President Obama a second term despite his 2011 performance.