Clearly the most obvious loser of this cycle was the Republican Party, reduced to prominence in only one part of the country. But we shouldn't forget these other figures whose standing was bruised on Election Day:

Matt Drudge - Why did he keep posting polls showing McCain in the lead when others showed Obama ahead big? His unabashed support for McCain means he is very much resented by the Obama aides, so he may not get the juicy leads he did with Bush and Clinton that made his website appealing to so many.

ABC Television - First Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous host a debate with Obama and Clinton that was devoid of policy questions but full of talk about Wright and Ayers (The result: no ABC News anchor moderated any of the presidential or vice presidential debates this fall). Then ABC slept on Obama's 30 minute infomercial that could have brought the network a cool and easy million bucks in a dismal advertising climate. They did win the ratings race last Tuesday night, though.

Rudy Giuliani - "America's mayor" viewed community organizers with contempt during his tenure as NYC mayor and mocked them at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. The community organizers didn't get mad - they got even, contributing to McCain's thumping by 62% to 37% in New York state by Obama on Election night. That huge margin of defeat for McCain and the Republican loss of control of the state Senate does not bode well for Giuliani assuming he wants to run for governor or state-wide office in the future.

Bruce Lunsford - In the post-mortem of why the Dems did not reach 60 Senate seats, the Kentucky Senate race must stand out. Democratic challenger Lunsford failed to land the psychological knockout blow by losing to Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell. If he couldn't defeat McConnell in this poor climate for Republicans, the Democrats won't get another chance anytime soon in this reliably red state.

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild - Most Hillary Clinton supporters came around to Obama (those that hesitated changed their minds after Sarah Palin was added to McCain's ticket and the economy tanked) but Lady de Rothschild steadfastly refused. It was odd watching this "insanely rich" (as the Los Angeles Times put it) woman attack Obama as "elitist." It was foolish to say the least, and the McCain campaign could not have found a worse surrogate (other than Palin) to attract female supporters.

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