One big plus point about winning - whether a football match or a democratic election - is that it provides fodder to a myth, the myth of invulnerability. A string of victories provides such firmness to this idea that the winner's sense of invulnerability seeps out and takes on the default position of accepted fact. In elections - where voters, like punters at the races, usually like to bet on the 'side' that they will win - this reputation forms part of a party's strategy.