Karl Rove
The man once celebrated as George W. Bush's "brain" reinvented himself as the maestro at the helm of American Crossroads, one of the biggest of the new breed of Republican super PACs. Rove, 61, used his influence and reputation to coax conservative megadonors into coughing up some $300 million in 2012, promising to use the cash to create a new era of Republican dominance. It didn't work. Despite the windfall, Barack Obama won handily, and Rove's group got wiped out in its handpicked slate of Senate contests. The conservative strategist's frustration seemed to boil over during his stint as a Fox News election-night analyst, when he complained that the network had prematurely declared a victory for Obama in Ohio. Rove's donors were said to be upset by Obama's victory, but the master strategist vowed to carry on his political fight.