Who were the big winners and who were the big losers?
There were two big winners, one loser, and one really big loser. The biggest winner was John Kerry, for three reasons. Most obviously, he won; he beat his presumed arch-rival Dean by a 2-1 margin; and he won by coming behind after many pundits had declared his candidacy all but dead. It might seem commonplace to point out that Kerry was the biggest winner, but it actually cannot be assumed that the person with the most votes is the biggest winner. For that to happen, one must win both the votes and the expectations game. Kerry managed to do it. Not everyone does. The second big winner is John Edwards, whose last-minute surge was fueled by a late endorsement by the Des Moines Register. Like Kerry, Edwards was long assumed to be yesterdays candidate. Now he is clearly in the top tier. The biggest loser by far was Richard Gephardt, who only garnered about one in ten votes on Monday after winning Iowa in 1988 and contending for the lead until the last few days before the vote. It was alway
