As Sarah Steelman was losing her bid for the Republican nomination for Missouri governor late Tuesday I couldn't help but think about how much things can change in just a few years. How quickly losing politicians can turn into the ultimate (well, for a few years anyway) winners.
Four years earlier Missouri Auditor Claire McCaskill had upset Democratic Governor Bob Holden in her party's primary. McCaskill would lose a close race to Republican Matt Blunt. She was saddled with a huge campaign debt and, like Steelman, had caused division within her own party. Yet just two years later she was elected Senator and she's now a key advisor to presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama. And the man to whom she lost the governor's race? Matt Blunt, who'd been riding high as a 30-something governor, had been so damaged politically he didn't even seek re-election.
And just think back to the year 2000, when Senator John Ashcroft was crushed by losing his re-election bid to the deceased Mel Carnahan. Months later he was named U.S. attorney general.
In her concession speech Tuesday, Steelman said sometimes the fight is more important that the win. Judging by recent Missouri politics, she's definitely on to something.

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