Year-End Awards Nominations Are Now Open
This isn't a real column, I fully realize, so my apologies in advance for that. But I had to spend time today catching up on getting ready for the holiday season, so I just didn't have the time. I did listen to a fair amount of today's hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee, but it all seemed like more of a rehash than anything new, so I don't really have much more to say about it than that for the moment.
Instead, today I am throwing the nomination process open for our annual year-end "McLaughlin Awards." I am going to commit to publishing these on December 20th and 27th, the final two Fridays of the year. With such a short holiday season, I just don't think it's possible to move that up to starting with our awards this Friday, so we'll have one final Friday Talking Points column of the year before the awards. That's the plan, even if it does mean I'll be real busy the two days after Christmas. I have no idea what other columns will be appearing this month, so stay tuned for other updates.
A few years back, I decided to ask for input into the awards categories, and this has worked out pretty well -- I've gotten some brilliant suggestions in the comments section that I had completely forgotten about. So I made it a tradition along with the columns themselves. Which brings us to this year's prizes.
Below are the category titles, so please make your nominations specific to them. There is a lot of overlap (similar awards), which means there are lots of chances for individuals (or events) to get some sort of award. There are even a few catch-all categories ("Honorable Mention," most notably) to insure that nobody gets left out.
So think back over the entire course of the year, which I realize in the Trump era is tough to do. Each and every month seems packed with a full year's political stories, so it's easy to forget what happened even a few months ago. I'm going to review all my own articles for the whole year to remind myself of all that has happened (which is why these columns take so long to put together). But however you go about it, please feel free to make as many suggestions as you can for the following awards (even multiple nominees for the same category, if you've got them).
Here is the list for the first week's awards, to start with:
Biggest Winner of 2019
Biggest Loser of 2019
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 are the awards categories for the second week:
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
And, as always, the final category is "Predictions," where you can make wild-eyed predictions about what is going to happen in 2020. There's obviously one gigantic event to make predictions about, happening next November. But feel free to make any sort of guess as to what you expect to see happen over the course of the entire year.
Thanks for all the ideas in advance! Unless you note otherwise, I will do my best to see that for any nomination that gets mentioned in the awards columns, I will include your login name to give full credit where it is due (in other words, if you don't want such credit, please explicitly say so in your comment). And with that, I declare the 2019 year-end McLaughlin Awards nominations open!
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
turncoat has to be sondland. prediction, donald gets reelected. sigh.
Okay, CW. I am back from my Thanksgiving vacation with a report from the trenches regarding your experiment. Oh, golly, how I could write multiple paragraphs loaded with stupid things all the dipshits said, but I'll be nice about it and cut right to the chase.
CUT TO THE CHASE: The majority of the right wingers share an uncanny inability to "connect the dots" in any way whatsoever and show a gobsmacking double standard they're totally unaware they possess.
I had more than one conversation wherein I was informed by right wingnuts that the POTUS has the right to have anyone investigated by anyone and for any reason, and therefore Trump has done nothing wrong asking (bribing/extorting) a foreign nation to investigate an American citizen. So to clarify their beliefs, I'd ask again if they thought it was okay for the President of the United States to request that a foreign government announce and/or perform an investigation into an American citizen the president claimed was corrupt. Without any hesitation by a single dipshit wingnut, they all responded that it was okay for Trump to investigate anyone and ask anyone else to do that.
Then I turned the conversation to the investigation of Donald Trump and multiple members of the Trump campaign being investigated by the FBI/Obama administration. Without blinking an eye, every single one of them claimed that it wouldn't be okay if Obama and/or the FBI investigated Donald Trump or anyone in his campaign.
So I'd then respond: So the only thing you're really taking issue with is that Obama/FBI shouldn't have investigated Trump and those multiple members of his campaign... Obama/FBI should have called on a foreign nation to investigate Trump and company... because we've already established your belief that it's okay for a POTUS to have a foreign nation investigate anyone he believes is corrupt.
It was priceless how you could almost physically see light bulbs turning on by the looks on the wingnuts faces. Yes, sir, I've spent weeks connecting the dots for multiple wingnut rubes over my Thanksgiving vacation and laughed so hard I cried. Now how pathetic is that?
__________
Enough Already! -- Right-wingnut Ignorance/Double Standard
Joshua, ye of such faith … :(
@liz,
well, i'm confident we'll get michale's vote, so there's that...
JL
May I add a category or two, and my nominations?
For "Moron/Asshole of the Year", DJT
For "Most Sensible and Most Capable of Beating Trump in 2020", Mike Bloomberg.
best politician has to be nancy pelosi. she has outmaneuvered her rivals, on both the right and the left, at every turn.
katie hill should probably get mentioned somewhere as well, maybe "sorry to see you go?" even her GOP rivals didn't approve of the way she was treated in the media.
Biggest Winner of 2019 = Residents of VA, who will finally benefit from common-sense legislation. Runner-up = Residents of MA, who have already seen what a difference a Dem governor makes
Biggest Loser of 2019 = Snowflake Trump, for not making the cover of 'Time' (I laugh my head off imagining his ass-kissers running around wildly, until they hit on the 'bright idea' of transplanting Trump's head on Greta's body)
Best Politician - Pelosi, who has shown what an iron fist in a velvet glove really means
Worst Politician = Gaetz? 'Gym' Jordan? It may bring accolades on FOX News, but prostrating yourself before your Messiah on television will be your eternal 'fame'
Most Defining Political Moment = Whistleblower's report.
Turncoat Of The Year = Sen. Graham. Tweets, interviews, opinion columns from the past indict his current attitude. ("It's like he had a brain snatch!" LOL)
Most Boring = Sen McConnell
Most Charismatic = AOC (otherwise, FOX News wouldn't have their panties in a wad!)
Bummest Rap = Corbyn is anti-semitic
Fairest Rap = Giuliani is batshit crazy (but keep spilling your guts, PLLLLLEEEEEEAAASSSSSEEEE!)
Best Comeback = Greta to Trump's attacks
Most Original Thinker = Pelosi. She seems to be 3 steps ahead of Trump - and at least one step ahead of her own caucus
Most Stagnant Thinker = Donald Trump, Jr. It is amazing to me that anyone thinks he's going to be a 'big draw' in 2020
Best Photo Op = Pelosi, the lone woman at a long table of men, standing and shaking her finger at Trump - hands down
Worst Photo Op = Congresswoman Hill's naked photos 'leaked' by right-wing operatives
Enough Already! = 'Biden leads other Dem candidates in the polls'
Worst Lie = Trump's abandonment of the Kurds, then threatening to 'destroy' Turkey's economy - then inviting Erdogan to the White House
Capitalist Of The Year = Bloomberg, who is convinced he can buy his way to the White House
Honorable Mention = AOC, for driving the right-wingnuts crazy - and for giving as good as she gets on twitter
Person Of The Year = Pete Buttigieg - even if he doesn't succeed, he has made acceptable the idea of an LGBT President