Winners and losers from the election

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi emerges from the election as the newly-anointed House Speaker, the first woman ever to hold the top post in the House of Representatives.

With the landmark election victory behind her, Pelosi's hand is strengthened within her own Democratic caucus which she led effectively by imposing discipline and keeping a lid on infighting and bickering.

Not only did she barely break a sweat to get re-elected to a second six-year term as New York's junior senator, but Hillary Clinton over the course of the campaign substantially bolstered her chances of garnering the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

The former first lady proved her fundraising prowess during the campaign. She spent almost US$30 million, more than any other candidate, but most of it went to other Democrats, who are sure to remember the favour if she seeks the White House nomination.

Elected just two years ago, Senator Barack Obama sealed his rock-star status during the campaign, catapulting into the ranks of top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

The Illinois senator had a whirlwind campaign season as his party's most sought-after speaker and most prodigious fundraiser, while becoming a best-selling author and a bonafide sex-symbol with a recent photo shoot in Men's Vogue.

Obama is the only African-American senator and would be the first African-American to be a major party presidential candidate.

Senator John McCain was not up for re-election, but was the most-invited Republican on the campaign trail as fellow Republicans shunned the unpopular President George W. Bush out of fear that he would drag down their poll numbers. McCain's campaign trail performance gives a boost to his anticipated 2008 presidential bid.

His name was not on the ballot, but US President George W. Bush was the biggest loser of the 2006 midterm campaign.

With his Republican party's hold on power in the House of Representatives now gone, he faces a much harder time pushing his agenda through Congress.

Bush's "my way or the highway" management style will likely be compromised, with the president forced to co-operate with Democrats in what is certain to be a difficult cohabitation. He could also face a barrage of investigations about his administration's policy in his first six years in office particularly on his management of Iraq, the key issue which led to his party's ouster from power.

Senator John Kerry was not up for re-election, but he emerges as another loser of the 2006 campaign, with his presidential aspirations for 2008 badly damaged by his own performance stumping for other Democrats.

Kerry, who faced off with Bush as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, was forced to apologize for a "botched joke" widely seen as a slight against US troops in Iraq in the waning days of the campaign. Political observers said the remarks likely have scuttled his chances of being considered a viable White House contender in 2008.

After what was arguably the worst campaign of the season, Virginia Senator George Allen appeared to have narrowly lost his Senate seat after a series of embarrassing gaffes.

Chief among his missteps on the stump was a remark deemed by some as a racial slur against an ethnic Indian Democratic campaign aide. That and other missteps potentially cost Allen an even bigger prize a chance to vie for the Republican 2008 presidential nomination.

Dennis Hastert easily won re-election to his 11th term as a Representative from Illinois Tuesday, but his tenure as the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives in decades ended with his party's resounding loss of control of the House.

He was also badly damaged by his mishandling of the scandal involving former Representative Mark Foley's sexually explicit e-mails to underage congressional pages.

Source: China Daily