Inheriting this country after 8 years of some of the worst governing ever done by elected officials, and during a time we really needed to be on top of our game, is not a prize: it’s a prison sentence, albeit one with perks like state dinners, a nice house and trips on Air Force One.
Whoever "wins" gets to try to restore shattered alliances and a strained military. Whoever "wins" inherits an office that most of our species has hated for a long time, so much that many of them hate the people who choose the occupant to the point of violence.
Whoever "wins" gets to make up for 8 wasted years in the struggle against global warming.
Whoever "wins" gets to deal with what Edwards calls the "two Americas," one rich and one poor and, if he/she has a heart, attempt to make the former care about the latter.
Whoever "wins" gets to either take away the tax cut the rich are addicted to or let it stand and watch the poor continue to suffer.
Whoever "wins" gets to watch over a nation where millions of people go without healthcare, victims of a system that sees them as expenses, not human beings.
Whoever "wins" gets to manage a neglected, underperforming education system that, as evidenced by the people we keep voting for, has been churning out total idiots for a very long time.
Whoever "wins" inherits a national debt that might be pushing 10 trillion dollars.
Whoever "wins" gets to be the new daddy/mommy of Iraq.
Whoever "wins" takes over a "War on Terror" that was really just a Republican Party photo op and GOTV tool.
Whoever "wins" gets to speak to a nation whose eyes don’t trust, who were blatantly lied to after 9/11 by a leader who not only didn’t have their best interests at heart, but used it to drag them into an unwinnable war that took thousands of lives after being lied to by another leader who looked us in the face in the middle of a scandal and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" who followed another leader who promised, "Read my lips: no new taxes" and then raised taxes. Whoever "wins" gets to deal with people, both on the Left and the Right, who’ve been shown how foolish it is to believe anything a president says.
Whoever "wins" gets to hand back sweeping powers illegally constructed by a previous White House that flirted with fascism, or hold onto them and leave us standing on the edge of the plank. Whoever "wins" gets to either restore the Constitution, or shred the shreds. Either way, whoever "wins" will do so under the watchful eyes of Democrats who briefly felt knives to their throats as rank and file Republicans shouted for blood.
You get the point. Feel free to add your own.