Nominations Are Now Open
Next Friday (and the Friday after that), we're going to have a special "in memoriam" edition of our year-end "McLaughlin Awards." For the uninitiated, this means handing out basketfuls of prizes, in a myriad of categories.
So, today, rather than write a column we can all cheerfully bicker over, instead I am throwing the doors open to nominations from all and sundry.
Here are the award categories, to jog your memory. You can also check out last year's awards (Part 1 and Part 2) to see who won in 2015.
I'm open to suggestion on just about all of these, although the list for "Sorry To See You Go" will absolutely be topped by John McLaughlin himself, the creator of this list, these awards, and a free-for-all political chatfest, The McLaughlin Group. But other than that, the field is wide open. So who would you pick for any of the following?
Here are the categories for Part 1:
Biggest Winner of 2016
Biggest Loser of 2016
Best Politician
Worst Politician
Most Defining Political Moment
Turncoat Of The Year
Most Boring
Most Charismatic
Bummest Rap
Fairest Rap
Best Comeback
Most Original Thinker
Most Stagnant Thinker
Best Photo Op
Worst Photo Op
Enough Already!
Worst Lie
Capitalist Of The Year
Honorable Mention
Person Of The Year
And here is the list of categories for Part 2:
Destined For Political Stardom
Destined For Political Oblivion
Best Political Theater
Worst Political Theater
Worst Political Scandal
Most Underreported Story
Most Overreported Story
Biggest Government Waste
Best Government Dollar Spent
Boldest Political Tactic
Best Idea
Worst Idea
Sorry To See You Go
15 Minutes Of Fame
Best Spin
Most Honest Person
Most Overrated
Most Underrated
The final category is not an award, but rather a chance to make predictions about the year to come. What do you think will happen in 2017? Here's your chance to predict it in advance!
So take a moment or two to review the whole year (not just the past few months), and see who you can come up with for any or all of these categories. And then join us next Friday to see who gets the nod....
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Sorry To See You Go
Jo Cox :(
Maybe we should have a separate category for Jo Cox: Saddest Story of the Year?
Or "Best Tribute"
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-38333093
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvF2llqLzxA
Buy it. 99 pence and all for charity.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/you-cant-always-get-what-you/id1182502888?app=itunes
Biggest Winner of 2016??
Well, that one is easy... :D
Come to think of it, so is Biggest Loser of 2016...
Best Politician is Hillary Clinton...
Worst Politician is Donald Trump... :D
Trump is likely to be the best candidate for many of those awards... :D
320
Hey CW
Looking back on this year is like watching a video of a root canal.
I'm going to pass on the reflection and nostalgia.
My prediction for the year-
It will be like watching someone on a rollercoaster getting a root canal.
A
biggest winner and loser should be obvious.
Best Politician - Bernie Sanders
Worst Politician - Ben Carson
Most Defining Political Moment - Election night
Turncoat Of The Year - The Bush Family
Most Boring - Tim Kaine
Most Charismatic - Obama
Bummest Rap - Merrick Garland
Fairest Rap - Jeb!
Best Comeback - Donald Trump
Most Original Thinker - Kellyanne Conway
Most Stagnant Thinker - Everybody on Hillary's campaign
Person Of The Year - For better and worse, James Comey
Excellent choices JL... :D
As many of ya'all might have noticed, my attendance has been somewhat sporadic of late..
I give you the reason.... :D
http://theworleys.net/temp/CaitlynnLeeAnnWorley2.jpg
Allow me to introduce ya'all to our newest grand-daughter...
Weigantia, this is Caitlynn Lee Ann Worley....
Caitlynn, this is Weigantia... :D
She arrived 1 week late, weighing in at 8.74lbs and 20"...
Caitlynn, Mommy AND Grandparents are exhausted, but doing well... :D
325
Congratulations Michale!
Beautiful baby.
What a great Christmas Present.
That's a good reason, Michale ... congratulations!
Michale,
Congrats on your being correct in the election and especially because of that beautiful new granddaughter of yours!
I took a few weeks off after the election and am just now getting back online. Can't wait to discuss Triple - P with ya soon! (president Putin-puppet!)
- Russ
Biggest Winner of 2016 - Vlad the Manipulator
How can he not be? See below for more.
Biggest Loser of 2016 - The Media
I have not in my lifetime seen the news media reeling from so many self-inflicted wounds. A real accounting of the media's many failures this last year has yet to begin in earnest.
Best Politician - Elizabeth Warren
Liz managed to support Clinton, yet still remain at the top of most liberal lists. That's the political equivalent of a triple-lutz, these days.
Worst Politician - Chris Christie
His soul-crushing abasement and humiliation was hard to watch, but well deserved.
Most Defining Political Moment - Ted Cruz endorses Trump
Cruz's endorsement started the stampede of previously skeptical republicans to line up with Trump after the primaries, even though it made everybody cringe, given what Trump had said about his father & wife. Hey, party first, right?
Turncoat Of The Year - Bernie
As the primaries came to a close, Bernie had a moment when he could have embraced Clinton's candidacy wholeheartedly and unified the party. Obviously, that moment came - and went. Bernie's half-hearted endorsement, when it came, was to little, too late.
Most Boring - Trump
It doesn't help that I can turn off the sound and still know what he's saying. There is nothing this man likes as much as the sound of his own voice.
Most Charismatic - Obama
Obama remains charming, intelligent and incisive to the last. Michelle nearly beat Barack in this category.
Bummest Rap - Hillary's emails
And, seemingly, everyone except the media and the Trump campaign knew it was bogus. Even Trump stopped talking about it until Comey brought it back up.
Fairest Rap - Russian ties to Trump
What I like is seeing Republican Senators act as though suddenly, this is an issue. Yeah, we've known this since last April.
Best Comeback - Hillary from the flu
When Hillary got ill after the convention, her poll numbers took the worst hit of the season, but those came back after the first debate, where she looked sharp, strong - and healthy.
Most Original Thinker - KellyAnne Conway
KellyAnne's intervention literally saved the Trump campaign, after Manafort's downward spiral. Her contribution was to get Trump off Twitter (sort of) and on-script (sort of). Her innovation: make him think it was his idea. Genius.
Most Stagnant Thinker - Newt Gingrich
Gingrich's reputation as a thinker was always, in my opinion, overrated, but his performance as a surrogate in this campaign proved that he hasn't had an original thought since the '90's. Secretary of State? I'd bet that even Trump had a good laugh at that one.
Best Photo Op - Trump in silhouette
Have to hand it to him, his entrance at the GOP convention was pretty spectacular, and pure Trump. Rarely has a candidate's staging so perfectly matched his style.
Worst Photo Op - Hillary on 9/11
As I said above, it looked just awful.
Enough Already! - live coverage of Trump rallies
Which is more pathetic - Trump's need for adoring crowds, or the cable networks' need for Trump-filler? It's a sick and abusive relationship, as far as I'm concerned.
Worst Lie - "I can't release my tax returns"
Worse, the news networks repeated the lie, told us it was a lie, and then let him off the hook.
Capitalist Of The Year - Putin
Of course. When the Ukraine-related sanctions are dropped, and the Exxon Arctic deal goes through, Putin stands to make hundreds of billions, personally. Not a bad return on investment for Putin.
Honorable Mention - William Kristol, David Fromm, George Will, Kelsey Graham, etc.
A few principled Republicans continue to speak the truth from their side of the aisle, even as Priebus trades principle for a seat next to the oval office. Much to my surprise, these gentlemen have earned my respect. Kudos.
Person Of The Year - KellyAnne Conway
I just have the feeling that when the dust clears, regardless of the outcome, KellyAnne will be the lead character of whatever movie is made about all of this. She is so good at spinning crap into gold that her real name might just be Rumpelstiltskin.
Biggest Winner: Racists, Xenophobes, Islamaphobes, Homophobes, and the 1%!
Biggest Loser: The rest of the world
Best Politician : Bernie Sanders & Joe Biden
Worst Politician : The GOP leadership
Turncoat of the Year: Mitt Romney
Best Politician ... you have to choose, Russ. :)
It's one or the other ... you can't have both!
Liz,
I'm going with Bernie if I must choose one....but Biden gets my vote for Most Charismatic!
I'll toss a couple out...
Worst politician - Any Governor that masterfully used "bathroom rights" to mask the fact that they were really making it illegal for cities and counties to govern in a fashion that reflects the wants of the local people they represent.
Turncoat of the year - Debbie Wasserman Schultz for epic subservience to the financial industry while projecting concern for the people she was screwing over with legislation.
Most Boring-JEB!
enough already -Alt Right Normalization....it's high time we strip away a cutesy term and put these folks back under the rocks they crawled out from under.
Worst Lie - Marco Rubio not running for the senate again...
Capitalist of the year- Boyan Slat
Best political theater - Was there any good theater?
Worst Political theater - GOP primary debates.
Worst government dollar spent - Hillaries email investigation.
Best Government dollar spent - Hillaries email investigations.
Best Idea - legalizing pot
Most Overated - HRC
most underrated - Trump
Mine has been stuck in the filter. Congratulations, Michale on the successful cloning! She's got your chin.
My First Cut - but I'll probably change some of these over the next few days:
Biggest Winner of 2016
- Putin
Biggest Loser of 2016
- The Syrian People
Best Politician
- Bernie Sanders
Worst Politician
- Jeb Bush
Most Defining Political Moment
- Pu$$ygate
Turncoat Of The Year
- Ted Cruz
Most Boring
- Tom(?) somebody who ran as VP with Hillary ;)
Most Charismatic
- Gavin Newsome
Bummest Rap
- Hillary and the email nonsense
Fairest Rap
- Trump lies a lot
Best Comeback
- Trump from Pu$$ygate
Most Original Thinker
- Gavin Newsome
Most Stagnant Thinker
- Jeremy Corbyn
Best Photo Op
- Michelle and W. – that pic
Worst Photo Op
- Hillary on 9/11
Enough Already!
- Email nonsense
Worst Lie
- "Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they've ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever." – Donald Trump, 9/22/16 (Hint for Trump: slavery)
Capitalist Of The Year
- Elon Musk
Honorable Mention
- Jo Cox, murdered British MP
Person Of The Year
- Fake News
Destined For Political Stardom
- Gavin Newsome
Destined For Political Oblivion
- Newt Gingrich
Best Political Theater
- DNC Convention
Worst Political Theater
- Trump’s Birther Announcement
Worst Political Scandal
- Russian sponsored DNC email leaks
Most Underreported Story
- Russian sponsored hacking
Most Overreported Story
- Emailgate
Biggest Government Waste
- The “do nothing” congress
Best Government Dollar Spent
- Obama’s salary
Boldest Political Tactic
- Donald Trump lying constantly and not caring
Best Idea
- $15 Minimum wage
Worst Idea
- 45% Tariffs on China
Sorry To See You Go
- Jo Cox
15 Minutes Of Fame
- Scott Baio
Best Spin
- Giuliani “locker room talk”
Most Honest Person
- Hillary Clinton (http://www.attn.com/stories/10483/chart-compares-presidential-candidates-honesty)
Most Overrated
- Jeb Bush
Most Underrated
- Donald Trump
OK, I'm entering all these into the mix, just a few comments about some of them.
Michale [6] -
OK, I see what you did there, using "politician" as an insult... have to say, that got a laugh...
:-)
nypoet22 [8] -
"turncoat of the year" is going to have to go to someone who turned their coat twice -- against Trump, then back to him. Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney -- people like that. The Bushes only turned their coat once, not twice, so I don't think they'll even qualify...
Your "person of the year" made me think, too, just wanted to say that. Interesting definition.
michale [10] -
Nice lookin' kid! Or, as I always say about all babies:
"All babies look like Winston Churchill." Heh.
Congrats to the whole family!
:-)
Balthasar [14] -
Everyone check this one out, because it's been caught in the spam filter until now. Mea culpa!
"best politician" -- OK, that is a great suggestion... so was "worst" for that matter...
Most defining pol. moment was a great idea, too.
"Best Photo Op" was a good idea. "Worst", too.
All around, a great list. Kudos, too, for the extra bold format effort!
:-)
ListenWhenYouHear [15] -
See, now that's more what I'm thinking for turncoat of the year...
:-)
goode trickle [19] -
Most boring -- excellent idea!
enough already -- excellent idea!
worst lie -- excellent idea!
OK, who is "Boyan Slat" and why are you nominating him/her?
worst political theater -- excellent idea!
OK, why is email invest. both "best" and "worst" gvt. $ spent? Please elaborate...
Best idea -- EXCELLENT idea!
most overrated -- excellent idea!
most underrated -- well, that one's pretty much a given... I think I gave it to him last year as well...
Balthasar [20] -
See above for apology. And please, everyone check out comment 14, as it's worth reading (and it has bold titles!)...
:-)
neilm [21] -
biggest loser -- ok, now that's a sobering entry...
worst politician -- excellent
most defining -- EXCELLENT!
most boring -- not only was this a great suggestion, but your phrasing got a big belly laugh out of me. Can I use this with your login name in the column? Let me know...
Gavin Newsom's charismatic? Dunno, I don't think I've ever seen him speak or be interviewed. Could be, I just haven't seen him, that's all... I do agree about "most original thinker" though...
Best comeback -- excellent
Who is Jeremy Corbin?
Worst lie -- excellent.
neilm [22] -
OK, Newsom, stardom, that one certainly fits. He's going to either be our senator or our governor in two years...
Both your "best" and "worst" ideas were pretty excellent as well.
OK, that's it for now, folks!
Keep those cards and letters coming in, though, I will be regularly checking this column for other suggestions all the way through next week...
-CW
CW [23 and elsewhere] Thanks for the attention you've paid to my list, and for rescuing it from the evil filter.
As reward, I provide my Part 2 list:
Destined For Political Stardom - Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris, the second black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, was previously California's Attorney General, so residents of that state already know who she is. Everything I've seen suggests that she'll be familiar to the rest of the country very soon.
Destined For Political Oblivion - Jeb Bush
On the other hand, he could command a pretty good stud fee.
Best Political Theater - Bernie's Bird
Look at this picture: a rally in Portland, a huge crowd, and a bird lands on Bernie's podium, and sits for awhile as if to listen to the speech. It must be the most adorable moment in political history.
Worst Political Theater - Christie's 'hostage video'
At least that's what they dubbed the presser where Christie first endorsed Trump. Trump took the mic and Christie stood behind him, looking for all the world like he had a gun to his head. Unfortunately for him, that was the highlight of his relationship with the Trump Campaign.
Worst Political Scandal - GOP support for Trump
While Dems are beating themselves up for choosing the most qualified nominee ever, the GOP keeps on making excuses for Trump, regardless of how crude, ignorant, or immoral he might be. Note to GOP: you can't say later that you weren't warned.
Most Underreported Story - Hillary wasn't hacked.
The Russians hacked the DNC, the RNC, John Podesta (personally), the State Department, the FBI, the Defense Department and the White House. Y'know who they didn't hack? Hillary. Imagine that.
Most Overreported Story - The Email Scandal
MediaMatters reported (11/2/2016) that the media gave more than three times as much coverage to the Clinton email scandal as it gave to all of her other policy proposals combined.
Biggest Government Waste - Protecting Trump
C'mon, he wants us to foot the bill to secure Trump Tower against terrorist attack. Why is this not an issue?
Best Government Dollar Spent - the CDC
While we've been arguing about little "C's" on email attachments, the CDC has been quietly snuffing out dystopian apocalypses all along. Lately their timely intervention has contained the Zika virus. About time someone said thanks, so "Thanks!".
Boldest Political Tactic - Tacking to the Fringe
Most pundits thought that Trump would tack to the center after winning the primaries, and he sorta started to, but once the Access Hollywood tapes came out he became "Trump Unleashed" and tacked away from the center. Somehow this worked, and figuring out why will keep political science majors busy for decades to come.
Best Idea - Rebuilding Our Infrastructure
This is the only Trump idea that enjoys unreserved bipartisan support. Let's hope the last person he speaks to thinks so too.
Worst Idea - Letting Trump pick his own Cabinet
Sorta like letting an eight year old decide the dinner menu..
Sorry To See You Go - Obama
Obama has been derided for being too pragmatic, too cool, to offish, too aloof, overly calculating, and too quick to avoid conflict. About five minutes into the Trump presidency, those will all look like positive character traits.
15 Minutes Of Fame - David Bossie
For those who don't know the name, he was the Original Clinton Scandal monger (add link), beginning back in the '92 campaign. In September, Trump hired Bossie as a Deputy Campaign Manager and planned a full out attack on Bill Clinton's past, which included showcasing Clinton accusers before the first debate. Unfortunately, the Access Hollywood video came out that same weekend, and Trump's defense - that his behavior on the tape was "a long time ago" - undercut any attack on Clinton's even older past behavior. Bossie hasn't been seen or heard from publicly since.
Best Spin - KellyAnne: He was Kidding.
"Because you'd be in jail." was the retort that Trump made in the 2nd debate that led to Conway telling Morning Joe that "It was a quip", and later telling Brianna Keilar of CNN, "You're taking it literally". In otherwords, she told the world that her boss didn't mean what he said in a debate, and spun that as a positive. Grande Cojones
Most Honest Person - Ben Carson?
His closest advisor, Armstrong Williams, told the press that Carson felt that he wasn't qualified for a Cabinet post. "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience; he's never run a federal agency," Williams told the Hill. Trump viewed this as a resume point, and has tapped Carson to run HUD.
Most Overrated - The GOP Bench
The GOP field, once called 'formidable', folded like cheap lawn chairs under the Trump assault. Trump's cabinet picks are mostly FOX news personalities, former Generals, or Billionaires. So where's this new formidable GOP bench I keep hearing about?
Most Underrated - Donna Brazile
Remember all of the turmoil at the DNC after DWS left? No? That's because there wasn't any. Brazile deserves credit for managing to not make any news at all after taking over a miserable, infighting mess.
The Part 2 List was much harder than Part 1. :)
Looking at it again, we should probably switch out "Best Photo Op" and "Best Political Theater" on my lists. Thanks.
Balthasar [24, 25] -
Thanks! I'm spending today getting my list in order for tomorrow...
:-)
-CW
Balthasar -
RE: Bernie bird photo being most adorable -- you're right, I had forgotten that one. My personal all-time most adorable political photo is Socks the First Cat giving a press conference:
:-)
-CW
Balthasar -
All good choices, including some that made me think.
I think I'll just give Kellyanne Conway the "Best Spin" for pretty much everything she's said in public since hooking up with Trump...
-CW
CW- Work got in the way.
OK, who is "Boyan Slat" and why are you nominating him/her?
Boyan Slat is one of those Bill Gates or Richard Branson , heck even Dean Kamon esqe stories just starting out...The kid has figured out a way to clean the ocean of plastics and make it self sufficent. Kind of a feel good story vs. one of calculating business.
OK, why is email invest. both "best" and "worst" gvt. $ spent? Please elaborate...
Perhaps my cynical sense of humor got the best of me on this one. On the one hand it is the worst money spent since it did nothing but prove there was at the end of the day pretty much nothing there, aside from the fact she was careless. For the per dollar spent and the endless drum beat of criminality we get nothing out of it like revised regulation for requiring the use of government systems for email (eventhough it would appear hers was safer that the DOS system) or revamped requirements for the preservation of emails that may come from outside of our systems.
On the other hand it was the best money spent for REPUBS as they really used the trials and sound bites to beat the drum of criminality, if they had to do a media buy to create the level of distrust they would have had to spend 10's of millions of dollars more to get the same result from a few witch hunts.
goode trickle -
OK, got it. Just wanted to understand where you were coming from...
:-)
-CW
CW [27] - Cat vs. Bird? Must everything be this divided? heh.