WASHINGTON (AP) — September 11 dramatically transformed a political year that began with uncertainty about George W. Bush's legitimacy as president after his contested election.

The president and his foreign policy team became clear winners in 2001 in a political world turned on its head, analysts say. Much of the year's politics before the attacks became irrelevant.

"He lost the popular vote and ended the year with stratospheric poll ratings. He began the year as Clark Kent and ended up as Superman," said conservative analyst Marshall Wittmann of the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.

Public concerns about terrorist attacks, homeland defense and the anti-terror war overseas rearranged political priorities across the board. And that came on top of a political year that was already remarkable.

"It was a truly extraordinary period," said Thomas Mann, a political scholar at the Brookings Institution, another Washington think tank. "We had four mega-events over the last year."

Mann described the events this way:

"The most controversial presidential election in history."

"A change in party control of the US Senate in mid-session."

"A sudden shift from a decade of prosperity to recession and the reappearance of deficits."

"And we had September 11th."

Three of those four events have helped shape today's political reality. The fourth — the contested presidential election — has faded into the background.

Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Senate majority leader, became the most prominent Democrat when Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords became an independent in May, giving the Democratic Party a one-vote advantage in the Senate. Then-Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and Senate Republicans were pushed from power.

Talk of balanced budgets, changes in Social Security and social programmes requiring substantial new money faded as the economy tanked.

Issues like national security, missile defence and international coalition building moved to the forefront for the first time in a decade.

"A new seriousness overtook American politics," said Mann. "It was a radical change from the 1990s when politics was so nasty and trivial because the stakes were low. Now there is a real threat."

The intense focus on the anti-terror campaign pushed news about most politics — especially the 2004 presidential race — far from view.

Democrats who needed to build their national profiles found they got almost no public attention for political activities.

Al Gore, the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, won the popular vote in the 2000 election. He was evenly matched against Bush in polls before September 11. After the attacks, Bush led Gore in a hypothetical matchup by a 2-1 margin.

The public had a favourable view of almost everyone serving in government and for government in general. The attacks had reminded them they need government to keep them safe.

But Democrats have decided they can fight politically about domestic issues, while supporting Bush on the war. And by year's end, both parties had resumed the partisan political fight.

But any hopes they had of challenging Bush's claim to the presidency are gone.

"Whatever happens in the future, questions about George Bush's legitimacy have completely disappeared," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

And the question about who can lead a sharply divided nation has been answered.

"It was an awful way to get there," said political scientist Merle Black of Emory University, "but Americans did find a leader."