In politics, sometimes having lost can give you an edge. In his re-election campaign, against Hodges, the GOP initially took the election for granted. Then when DB tried a compromise position on the flag, he was attacked by conservatives. Then the gambling money came in bigtime for Hodges. A lot of people I have spoken to (now that Hodges became a one term gov.) think that DB should have had that second term. This has happened to numerous pols, including Nixon, and Slickmeister himself.