They had different approaches to handling their candidates, but in the end, their guys lost, and loudly. John Kerry's chief consultant Bob Shrum and Howard Dean's head advisor Joe Trippi announced to the Observer that they're switching gears: Shrum, whose influence made Kerry put on that stupid camouflage outfit and who is less hot than a good Strom Thurmond joke in DC right now, is out of the game altogether. Trippi is, too, but wants to win one more - in New York!

Shrum, who will next be teaching NYU students his winning ways, explained to the Observer that "we probably underestimated the difficulty of winning in times of war. Fifty-five thousand votes in Ohio and you have a Democratic President." Uh, no, Bob. The spread was more like 150,000 on the red side. But thanks for playing. This is the same man who made Kerry stay silent while Swift Boat veterans (remember them?) pounded his candidate for a month straight, and let him hotdog those Vineyard Waves on that windsurfer. The Neville Chamberlain PR approach may work at NYU, Bob, but Fishbowl doubts it.

And as for Trippi, he'll be swinging into action soon, trying to win the mayoral election for Manhattan boro prez Brian Ellner. We just hope he'll tell his candidate that yelling "YEEARGHH!" in the middle of a campaign tends to kill it dead. Trippi is pumped, though, according to the Observer: "I think he's going to win this thing." We think so, too, Joe.