To Win, or not to Win: That is the Question
(Nov. 1, 2004)

This is the season in which the winners get separated from the losers.

Our nation elects a president. One campaign wins, another loses. Unless, of course, one campaign generates the most popular votes, but the other campaign collects more support in the Electoral College because of strategic targeting.

This is the season in which winning and losing become closely intertwined.

The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Days later, in the wake of ecstatic reaction, Red Sox fans begin to report that the victory has robbed them of part of their identity - a piece of their collective soul.

This is the season in which past victories are forgotten as fresh losses mount.

In any number of towns across America, football coaches who led their teams to past glories are now assaulted by the rumor-mill guillotine. Teams with losing records, or perhaps just one extra loss than anticipated, become a sore spot as fans turn into detractors.

This is the season in which publicly traded corporate winners and losers get scrutinized for quarterly performance.

One firm just reported mind-boggling profits, but also said new competitors were emerging - which was going to force them to lower their prices. The stock market punished the firm swiftly and surely with a massive sell-off.

And this is the season for measuring the difference between winning and losing on television. The Nielsen rankings in November will likely indicate that a "reality" series about a billionaire is a Top 10 winner, even though the show's star runs a hotel-and- casino business unit that has not been profitable for the last nine years.

It's hard to separate the winners from the losers when the line between triumph and defeat has become so jagged and blurred.

-- Jim Wisuri