And now, as a companion to the Top 5 Losers of 2022, let us now consider the Top 5 Winners of 2022.

And yes, some of these choices will be controversial. Let’s just say that the definition of “winning” varies from person to person and situation to situation. As before, these are presented in no particular order, except for the number one spot.

5) Joe Biden
What, you say? Biden? Yes, Biden, for the singular reason that he is still alive and breathing. Credit must be given to Jill for this accomplishment, and perhaps shadow president Chief of Staff Ron Klain. Biden was always a lying fabulist with arrogance beyond his ability. But his steady cognitive decline is now so apparent that even Democrats can’t ignore it, and the far left has begun to organize in favor of him NOT running in 2024. The fact that he is one bad fall going up stairs or one bad spill off his bike from serious injury has to be taken into consideration. So yes, being alive, breathing, and mildly sentient is a win for Joe Biden on a personal level. Can’t say it’s a win for the country or the Democrats, though. They may very much come to regret their overperformance and the GOP’s overall stupidity during the 2022 midterms, as it gave Biden the appearance of competence and front-runner status among Democrats. There are no guarantees for the mental or physical health of an already 80 year old man in eighteen months.

4) Ukraine
The country has defied international expectations and managed to successfully fight back against Russia. For all intents and purposes, they won. Now, Russia might not be ready to give up because Putin is looking for a way to save face, but as far as logistics and “hearts and minds,” Ukraine emerges as a winner. Here’s the problem, though – without the ability to compromise to bring the active conflict to an end, Ukraine risks snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The United States cannot be their platinum credit card in perpetuity. There has to be some kind of endgame, because waiting for Putin to give up and go home is a lost cause, and he is more than happy to keep sacrificing lives into his meat grinder of a war machine. Not to mention all those “unfortunate accidents” that keep befalling Russian oligarchs who don’t toe Putin’s line. Ukraine is going to have to bend to political realities, and it would be better to do it now than let things continue to drag out.

3) Governor Ron DeSantis
We found the red tsunami, and it was Florida. ALLLLLLL Florida. And the main driver of that red tsunami was Governor Ron DeSantis. He was arguably the governor who read the COVID-19 lockdowns the best, and in 2022, the people of Florida recognized his efforts with another term in office. To put this in perspective, DeSantis won in 2018 by 0.4%, a mere 32,000-plus votes. He absolutely trashed his opponent, Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, by NINETEEN POINTS. DeSantis defied his critics who claimed that his insistence on taking a stand against critical race theory and the Disney Corporation, and standing up for parental rights, would sink him. And the people of Florida have an idea of what might happen next.

Will DeSantis run for president in 2024? The media is scared that he will, because their chosen candidate is Donald Trump. Not because they support Trump, but because Trump drives their ratings. DeSantis is less drama, more self-controlled, and a competent governor, and therefore deadly boring to the mainstream media. He’s a winner now – and he could be an even bigger winner in a couple of years.

2) Babies
The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a win for innocent lives. It was also a win for states’ rights and the Tenth Amendment, but the primary and immediate beneficiary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization were and are the babies who will live. While liberal women continue to scream about their unfailing love of abortion, right down to glorifying it, the Dobbs decision has also forced those same liberals, men and women, to consider how those babies are made, and perhaps they should be more choosy about who they have sex with or the protection they use. When abortion is no longer available around the corner, people have to start taking personal responsibility for the choices they make. (We can discuss the estimated 5% of rape-related pregnancy after the other 95% take responsibility for their actions.) That the most vulnerable and innocent of all human beings are not condemned to die on the whim of a woman who has allowed herself to be convinced that it’s “just a clump of cells” is an unmitigated good. Life is good. Living is winning.

And finally, our number one in the Top 5 Winners is…
1) Elon Musk
The world’s richest man has his quirks and flaws, but name one other multibillionaire that is committed enough to free speech to spend $44 billion on buying Twitter, then firing half the company, and then handing over tons of files for independent journalists to pore through and start airing the extremely filthy laundry?

I love that @elonmusk came in and fired everybody. The funniest thing is that because he liked to read @TheBabylonBee on Twitter, he completely restructured how free speech works in the United States. pic.twitter.com/XxKbXslXOL

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 23, 2022

And yeah, not everything that Elon Musk has done has worked at Twitter (think the initial rollout of “Twitter Blue“), but he is owning it. When journalists are banned, he owns that decision. There is no nebulous “trust and safety” committee hiding in the shadows. It’s one guy, who owns the whole kit and caboodle, making the final call. Time named him “Man of the Year” last year. This year, Elon Musk is the billionaire who put his money where his mouth is, quite literally, and takes the number one spot on our list of winners in 2022.

So there is my list for the Top 5 Winners of 2022! Did I miss someone? Did I forget someone whose win should be celebrated? Is your number one different? As always, your comments are welcome.

Featured image via Tumisu on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license