Lovable Losers

So Hillary swallowed her pride, shelved her considerable ambitions, gave a great speech and now we kind of love her. It got me to thinking. What is it about American politics that after we don't vote for them, we end up loving our losers? Hillary charmed us with her grace, commitment to the party and the history she finally embraced, Jimmy Carter became a humanitarian building homes for the homeless and traipsing around the globe literally trying to bring about world peace and Al Gore spends his days desperately trying to save us from ourselves and racking up awards. He also loosened up (after losing the election primarily for being a robot made of wood, you know aside from the whole Florida, election stealing dimpled chads thing) and made us laugh on Saturday Night Live, a show that also made lovable losers of a couple of the folks across the aisle, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. Maybe if some of these people had let out their human sides earlier they would have won their respective elections (not counting the ones who screwed up their presidencies). Or maybe not. But we love them anyway.