This is interesting, and a good read, but I'd suggest that being elected in an election that's nothing more than one gigantic mutual smear campaign is less like

This is interesting, and a good read, but I'd suggest that being elected in an election that's nothing more than one gigantic mutual smear campaign is less like succeeding and more like helping someone else fail. Winning, to me at least, implies that you have done something and that the result of your actions placed you above your competition. These guys didn't compete at anything aside from who could generate the most bad publicity for the "opponent." That just doesn't strike me as the kind of action deserving of words like "success" or "winner."