Biggest "Rising Star" flops

[TheSaint250]

1. Jerry Brown
2. Richard Tisei
3. Scott Brown
4. Paul Ryan

Brown and Ryan both have objectively had pretty great careers, though. Neither of them became president but they've had better careers than 99.9% of people in politics. Ryan's Speaker of the House, which is an achievement in and of itself even if he's not a particularly good one. He's probably never going to be president, but I don't think he wants to be so who cares?

Brown sucked as a presidential candidate, but he keeps getting Governor of California so its not like he's an utter failure.

I'm surprised no one has said Anthony Weiner, yet.

Yeah you're certainly right. I was thinking more presidential in how everyone expected Ryan to seek the presidency only to become one of the most hated politicians today and how Brown just never got there and just had to take his old job back to stay relevant

[publicunofficial]

Serious answer: People forget that Tim Pawlenty was gonna bring Obama down in 2012.

[AN63093]

It's gotta be Rubio, at least in recent history.

The difference between him and the other picks mentioned here, is they all had a gradual unraveling that wasn't necessarily apparent until afterward.

With Rubio, it all fell apart in a matter of seconds, spectacularly and suddenly in his ghastly debate performance.  I don't think I've ever seen someone's fortunes turn around so quickly.

[Maxwell]

No mention of Chris Christie? Or Sarah Palin?

oh shoot yeah

[GGover]

1. Jerry Brown
2. Richard Tisei
3. Scott Brown
4. Paul Ryan

Jerry Brown is the most disappointing for me. Sometimes I dream about First Lady Linda Ronstadt.

[Xing]

Republicans: Flawless Beautiful Marco , Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul

Democrats: Jerry Brown, Patrick Murphy, Ann Kirkpatrick, Jon Ossoff, Mark Warner, and of course, Bronn Barristan

[Zioneer]

The Romneys

To be fair, any of the Romneys have basically any elected position they want in Utah, if they're willing to run for it. That isn't a bad consolation prize, and someone like Josh Romney could use that for another try at the presidency.

[Maxwell]

Does anyone remember Paul Hackett, the Jon Ossoff of 2005? I didn't think so.

[Young Conservative]

The biggest recent flop has to be Jon Ossoff

[mvd10]

1. Jerry Brown
2. Richard Tisei
3. Scott Brown
4. Paul Ryan

Tisei isn't exactly a flop... The moment Ambitious Seth runs for higher office, that seat is his.

I wouldn't call Paul Ryan a flop either, he's Speaker of the House. Not everyone gets to be president (and he never got the hype Bobby Jindal or Marco Rubio got).

[progressive85]

I think Elizabeth Warren will be this- not to mean it in a negative way but only because of the extreme overhyping (on this forum she leads the 2020 Democratic field in most polls).  The Presidency is not suited to her skills.  She'd make a good Cabinet member, but I just can't picture her as a Commander in Chief.  Maybe I'm wrong, but she'd have a long way to go to build the kind of credibility for a stateswoman and she's already 68.

[TheSaint250]

1. Jerry Brown
2. Richard Tisei
3. Scott Brown
4. Paul Ryan

Tisei isn't exactly a flop... The moment Ambitious Seth runs for higher office, that seat is his.

I was thinking mainly how polls predicted a tight race, but Moulton's final margin was higher than (at least I) expected

[Grumpier Than Thou]

'member Christine O'Donnell?

[Kamala]

'member Christine O'Donnell?

She's not a witch.

[Santander]

Democrats: Jerry Brown, Patrick Murphy, Ann Kirkpatrick, Jon Ossoff, Mark Warner, and of course, Bronn Barristan

Mark Warner isn't really the same as the others, though. He was not a "rising star" in 2014, he was already a star, having already won 2 statewide elections and delivering the keynote at the 2008 DNC.

And career politician Jerry Brown is a lot of things, but a flop he is not.

[AN63093]

Republicans: Flawless Beautiful Marco , Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul

Democrats: Jerry Brown, Patrick Murphy, Ann Kirkpatrick, Jon Ossoff, Mark Warner, and of course, Bronn Barristan

While Walker is certainly a flop, I gotta give him credit for flopping... "with dignity," shall we say.

He saw where his campaign was headed and chose to make his quiet exit, instead of letting it linger on in embarrassing fashion for months and months. 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Jerry Brown wouls make sense if this was asked in 1993 but he's a pretty bizarre pick today.

[dw93]

Was John Edwards ever considered a "rising star." If so, him. I would also add George Allen, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Patrick Murphey, Scott Brown, John Ossoff, Rubio, and Scott Walker,  and there are probably a few others that should be mentioned as well.

[Phony Moderate]

Segolene Royal - Built-up a lot of experience before going down in flames to Sarkozy, mainly due to being a French left version of Sarah Palin.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Any elaboration required?

Liz Kendall - The bookies briefly gave her an almost 50-50 chance at becoming Labour leader in 2015. In the end she didn't even break 5% (although there was vastly inflated support for her on social media, a la the Lib Dems).

[DC Al Fine]

Kim Campbell went form Campbell-mania to two seats over the course of several weeks.

[HisGrace]

Was John Edwards ever considered a "rising star." If so, him. I would also add George Allen, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Patrick Murphey, Scott Brown, John Ossoff, Rubio, and Scott Walker,  and there are probably a few others that should be mentioned as well.

People were very high on Edwards after 04 and thought he had a real shot to be president essentially in the "inspiring newcomer" role that Obama ended up playing. Obama is probably the reason his campaign went nowhere.

Palin is a good one too, surprised no one said her. In 09/10 people were talking about her like she was the presumptive Republican front-runner, but then she never held public office again and essentially became a TV pundit, but didn't even get her own show on Fox News or anything.

[TheLeftwardTide]

Josh Mandel, after he got s--tcanned by Sherrod Brown in 2012. He's going for a rematch, but political rematches almost never end well for the challenger.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Not everyone who runs for president and loses fits on this list, y'all!

[Blair]

FWIW a british rising stars flop could include about 10+ Blair/Brown era cabinet ministers.

Liz Kendall - The bookies briefly gave her an almost 50-50 chance at becoming Labour leader in 2015. In the end she didn't even break 5% (although there was vastly inflated support for her on social media, a la the Lib Dems).

I remember that all being based on her performance on Marr where she said that politics was about getting everyone 'a job, a house and someone to love'. Or some variety.

I remember the rather nauseating support from the proper progress types that summer; her only achievement was managing to stop Chukka from running.

For british pols

1.) Sajid Javid:Everyone thought because he was Asian, and someone who was moved up the conservative party quickly by Osborne, that he would be leader one day. Then everyone realized he was pretty wooden, was a die hard thatcherite and that he didn't really have much talent. Supported Remain in the referedum, despite favouring leave secretly. Pissed off both sides, and was suppose to get sacked from the Cabinet (and most likely will due to Grenfell)

2.) Andy Burnham: Perhaps I'm being harsh as he's now the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and ran a very good campaign but in terms of being Labour leader I remember in 2014/2015 when everyone (including me) thought he was the Messiah. Northern, relatively normal, very passionate speaker, moved to the left of the party. He was by far the favourite in 2015; had the support of Unite, Ken Livingstone, Neil Kinnock, Rachel Reeves etc but then Corbyn came and he completely collapsed. Tried to then run as Corbyn's shadow for the last month, took a job in the Shadow Cabinet, refused to resign during the coup and then went to Manchester. There's a good chance he'll be an ageing minister in the next Labour Government.

3.) David Lammy: Called the Britains first black PM about a 100 times, and was always talked as being a future leader, but then messed up his appearance at the dispatch box, and everyone realized he was bit annoying.

4.) Dan Jarvis: Former paras officer, young family, looks like he's from central casting, and was begged to stand in 2015 (when he could have won). Has been talked up a lot in the last year or so as a challenger to Corbyn, but then wrote an awful New Statesmen piece and gave a pretty lackluster speech (it's amazing how quickly people can die in British Politics)

No mention of Cucka Umunna?

I most likely would have volunteering on his leadership campaign if the election had gone differently so no

Out of the 2010 intake who were often mentioned as leaders (Rachel Reeves, Liz Kendall, Tristam Hunt, Lisa Nandy) he was the most talented

[Tekken_Guy]

An ancient example: James G. Blaine, anyone?