"The party that loses the presidential election, said Senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat, will win the elections in 2002.
In fact, even as the candidates cling desperately to every possibility of capturing the White House, there are plot-and-scheme crowds in both parties quietly savoring the possibilities of losing.
One prominent Republican refused to speak publicly about his hope that Mr. Bush would lose, saying, "It's treason."
A well-known Democrat said of Mr. Gore: "I've got a lot of psychic energy invested in him. But there's an argument that if you take the win now, you're almost setting yourself up for a loss in the next two cycles."
For people like these, winning the White House would be a poisoned chalice. They contend that the losing party will be so bitter, and Capitol Hill so deadlocked, that the loser will be in a perfect position to sweep right in four years hence and rescue the presidency from a man who never deserved it in the first place.
This year, "the winner may be the guy who's holding the bag on recession, the bag on gridlock, the bag on a split Congress," said Roger Stone, a Republican strategist. "In four years, people are going to ask whoever is president: Did you solve the Social Security problem? Did you solve the Medicare problem? Did you solve the prescription drug problem? The better part of valor here may be to step aside."