For british pols
1.) Sajid Javid:Everyone thought because he was Asian, and someone who was moved up the conservative party quickly by Osborne, that he would be leader one day. Then everyone realized he was pretty wooden, was a die hard thatcherite and that he didn't really have much talent. Supported Remain in the referedum, despite favouring leave secretly. Pissed off both sides, and was suppose to get sacked from the Cabinet (and most likely will due to Grenfell)
2.) Andy Burnham: Perhaps I'm being harsh as he's now the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and ran a very good campaign but in terms of being Labour leader I remember in 2014/2015 when everyone (including me) thought he was the Messiah. Northern, relatively normal, very passionate speaker, moved to the left of the party. He was by far the favourite in 2015; had the support of Unite, Ken Livingstone, Neil Kinnock, Rachel Reeves etc but then Corbyn came and he completely collapsed. Tried to then run as Corbyn's shadow for the last month, took a job in the Shadow Cabinet, refused to resign during the coup and then went to Manchester. There's a good chance he'll be an ageing minister in the next Labour Government.
3.) David Lammy: Called the Britains first black PM about a 100 times, and was always talked as being a future leader, but then messed up his appearance at the dispatch box, and everyone realized he was bit annoying.
4.) Dan Jarvis: Former paras officer, young family, looks like he's from central casting, and was begged to stand in 2015 (when he could have won). Has been talked up a lot in the last year or so as a challenger to Corbyn, but then wrote an awful New Statesmen piece and gave a pretty lackluster speech (it's amazing how quickly people can die in British Politics)
Michael Portillo - Was tipped as a challenger to John Major in 1995 but failed to stand. Then he lost in seat in 1997, thus ending his hopes of succeeding Major. Returned to Parliament in 1999 and entered the contest to replace William Hague following the 2001 general elections...but failed to make the run-off, losing to IDS (!) and Ken Clarke. These days he's content with making TV programmes about trains and giving his views on late-night political discussion shows.
David Owen - Telegenic, tipped as a future Labour leader...until he decided to form the SDP as part of the Gang of Four. Despite a brief lead in the opinion polls during the early 80s, they (in Alliance with the Liberals) managed to win less than 30 seats in the 1983 election. Owen subsequently took over from Roy Jenkins as SDP leader, and had a de-facto co-leadership with David Steel that was endlessly mocked by the likes of Spitting Image. The Alliance declined in the 1987 election and the soon came apart, with Owen briefly leading a continuity SDP before retiring from Parliament in 1992.
This might be fun:
Ruth Kelly: Raced through the ranks of cabinet extremely quickly (becoming the youngest ever female cabinet minister, and many tipped her as a future holder of a Great Office), but after being promoted to Education Secretary was quickly overwhelmed by her enemies within the PLP (Brownites targeted her as a Blairite), her connections with Opus Dei plus her socially conservative beliefs and various scandals in the Education dept. Had major burnout and jumped before she was pushed.
Various careers cut short by the Great Expenses Scandal of 2009: Kitty Ussher, David Laws, Alan Duncan, Hazel Blears.
