Has anyone noticed....

[Phony Moderate]

....that being a political heavyweight doesn't win you elections like it used to, and being a lightweight isn't as much of a handicap as it used to be? In recent years we've had:

John Howard losing to Kevin Rudd
John McCain losing to Barack Obama
Gordon Brown 'losing' to David Cameron
David Miliband losing to Ed Miliband

[sparkey]

I think that the general pattern goes like this:

Good times -> good times for big-name politicians and incumbents because they get the credit (whether they deserve it or not)

Bad times -> bad times for big-name politicians and incumbents because they get the credit (whether they deserve it or not)

Most people think that these are bad times.

BTW, what's up with the scare quotes for Brown losing to Cameron?

[You kip if you want to...]

BTW, what's up with the scare quotes for Brown losing to Cameron?

Hung parliament. Technically, no one 'won' our election, we just had a party which was the closest to winning. Cameron's only in government because of Nick Clegg's LibDems. Constitutionally, Brown could still be Prime Minister if all the factors had worked out perfectly.

[sparkey]

Hung parliament. Technically, no one 'won' our election, we just had a party which was the closest to winning. Cameron's only in government because of Nick Clegg's LibDems. Constitutionally, Brown could still be Prime Minister if all the factors had worked out perfectly.

Okay, I thought that getting both the plurality and the coalition deal would make Cameron a winner rather than a "winner," but I'm not as familiar as you with the terminology in Britain. Are people really reluctant over there to call Cameron a winner?

[You kip if you want to...]

Hung parliament. Technically, no one 'won' our election, we just had a party which was the closest to winning. Cameron's only in government because of Nick Clegg's LibDems. Constitutionally, Brown could still be Prime Minister if all the factors had worked out perfectly.

Okay, I thought that getting both the plurality and the coalition deal would make Cameron a winner rather than a "winner," but I'm not as familiar as you with the terminology in Britain. Are people really reluctant over there to call Cameron a winner?

People seem annoyed that he didn't even get a parliamentary majority yet he's parading round like he's just won a landslide. The LibDems don't appear to be having that much input into the coalition either.