Year-End Awards Nominations Are Now Officially Open
Well, this year both year-end holidays fall on a Friday, so I haven't completely decided how to handle our two annual awards columns. I basically have two options.
The first would be to run the first awards column next Friday (the 18th), and then run the second one the Wednesday following (the 23rd). This would mean I'd get them both over and done with before the holiday week.
The second option is to run both the columns on Wednesdays, the first one right before Christmas (the 23rd) and the second right before the New Year (the 30th). This would give me more time to prepare -- and these columns involve an insane amount of preparation, because I have to review the entire year's worth of political news. And one year under Trump is like five normal years. Consider, if you will, that one year ago today the overarching subject was Trump's impeachment. Nowadays, that seems like a lifetime ago, but it really was only a single year.
But whichever I choose (and I will keep people posted on that), I've still got to put together all the awards categories. And, like I did last year, this year I'm reaching out to my faithful readers to solicit nominations. I got plenty of great ones last time around, so this is definitely an exercise worth repeating.
I'm also going to make an assumption with these nominations. My normal policy is to never use a commenter's name in an actual column's text (to cite it, to give credit where it is due) unless I have express permission from that person to do so. But for today, I'm flipping that rule around. I'm going to assume that anyone who posts a nomination in a comment here is also giving me permission to cite them, if their nominee becomes the award winner. If you do NOT want your login name used this way -- or if you'd like credit under your real name (rather than the login), perhaps -- you must explicitly tell me that within the comment itself. So let me know up front if: (1) you don't want credit, or (2) you want credit under a different name, otherwise I'm just going to assume permission has been given.
So, everyone ready? It's a long list, and it's in two parts. Obviously, right now, I'm much more concerned with the first part of the list, because those will all be in the first column I'm going to write. So everyone get their wayback machine ready, take a trip through 2020, and give me your best ideas for the following categories:
Biggest Winner of 2020
Biggest Loser of 2020
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
Again, the second part of this list is less important now, because I'll have more time to get this together -- and I will probably run another of these solicitation columns after the first awards column is posted, seeking out your suggestions for these categories:
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 2021. Got any ideas, for any of these? Let me know.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
@cw,
the biggest winner HAS to be biden. in february he was in fourth or fifth place in the democratic nomination battle, and now he's the president elect.
i don't know whether or not donald j. trump is the BIGGEST loser, but he's certainly the SOREST loser.
and you of course deserve dishonorable mention for your willful ignorance of the possible electoral influence of pie.
JL
and also, puppies!
Biggest Winner of 2020 - JOE BIDEN
Biggest Loser of 2020 - DONALD TRUMP
Best Politician - MITCH MCCONNELL
Worst Politician - DONALD TRUMP
Most Defining Political Moment - DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD
Turncoat Of The Year - LINCOLN REPUBLICANS
Most Boring - DONALD TRUMP
Most Charismatic - DONALD TRUMP
Bummest Rap - BLACK LIVES MATTER CAUSES RIOTS AND ANARCHY IN AMERICAN CITIES
Fairest Rap - BILL BARR IS WORST ATTORNEY GENERAL IN US HISTORY
Best Comeback - JOE BIDEN
Most Original Thinker - JARED KUSHNER
Most Stagnant Thinker - BERNIE SANDERS
Best Photo Op - ENDLESS LINES TO VOTE / ENDLESS LINES TO GET TESTED FOR COVID
Worst Photo Op - TRUMP HOLDING UP BIBLE
Enough Already! - GOP LAWSUITS CLAIMING ELECTORAL FRAUD, BASED ON ZERO EVIDENCE
Worst Lie - 2020 ELECTION WAS RIGGED AND IS FRAUDULENT
Capitalist Of The Year - JEFF BEZOS
Honorable Mention - HEAD OF PFIZER
Person Of The Year - UNCLE JOE, CURRENTLY HIDING OUT IN MEXICAN BAR WITH ROSIE, SWIGGING 'DIRT CHEAP MARGIES', UNTIL 'THE HEAT DIES DOWN'.
[Any questions about choices here will be cheerfully answered upon request.]
best politician has to be jim clyburn. the timing and manner of his endorsement in south carolina completely changed the entire presidential contest, and he was patient with it even in the face of biden's sinking poll numbers.
@JMCt
mcconnell would certainly get a nomination or two from me, but "best politician" wouldn't be one of them. he was certainly a very effective politician in terms of accomplishing his objectives, but being the best has to mean something more than just flexing your power. if mitch was the best in terms of brute effectiveness, he was also the worst in terms of eroding the public faith in his office and the body he leads.
JL
trump ripping off his mask on the balcony while recovering from covid might be worst political theater, but donald has quite a few valid nominees for that award...
Most Boring -- Mike Pence
Best Politician -- Nancy Pelosi
Worst Politician -- Lindsey Graham
Turncoat -- Mitt Romney
Most Charismatic -- John Lewis
Bummest Rap -- Hunter Biden (and his dad)
Fairest Rap -- Trump's handling of coronavirus
Worst Lie -- "I won! By a lot!"
Person of the Year -- George Floyd
15 Minutes of Fame -- Emily Murphy (the GSA Administrator who wouldn't authorize the transition -- see, you've forgotten already)
Most Original Thinker -- Andrew Yang
Most Stagnant Thinker -- Dianne Feinstein
Destined for Stardom -- Pete Buttigieg
Destined for Oblivion -- Kanye West
Worst Theater -- Matt Gaetz in a gas mask
Underreported -- climate change
Overreported -- folksy stories about Trump voters
Biggest Waste -- the Wall, of course
Best Gov't Dollar -- COVID relief
Honest Person -- Chris Krebs
Prediction -- Trump indictment sparks major outbreak of right-wing violence
(I'm Andy Gaus)
Nice choices, Andy.
Good ideas so far... reviewing this year is going to be painful, but I expect I'm going to come up with lots of nominees for certain categories (such as Worst Photo Op... I had forgotten the ones mentioned already...).
Keep 'em coming, folks!
:-)
-CW
You guys need to catch the Krystal & Saagar YouTube show for yesterday, and then nominate yourselves for "Most Gullible/Most ideologically blind", on the basis of your questioning my characterization of Biden as "venal".
Joe and all his family, in-laws and out-laws, are stinkin' rich by virtue of Joe's political career alone!!
Biggest Winner of 2020 - Biden (obvious)
Biggest Loser of 2020 - Trump (also obvious)
Best Politician - Biden (who'd a thunk it)
Worst Politician - Trump (failure to recognize the difference between campaigning and governing)
Most Defining Political Moment - Tulsa rally
Turncoat Of The Year - Romney (who enabled some very hard hitting anti-Trump ads)
Most Boring- Our very own Harris
Most Charismatic - Faucci, (in a Bill Nye-ish way)
Bummest Rap - US voting is rife with corruption
Fairest Rap - The electoral college is an dangerous anachronism
Best Comeback - Biden
Most Original Thinker - Rudi, but not in a good way
Most Stagnant Thinker
Best Photo Op - the fly on the VP (funny)
Worst Photo Op - the ramp (sad trombone music for Trump)
Enough Already! frivolous lawsuits to overturn the vote
Worst Lie - The virus will just fade away
Capitalist Of The Year - Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. Did the "impossible"
Honorable Mention - Mike Dewine who initally handled COVID well, but lost his nerve.
Person Of The Year - Biden
OK, Weigantians, it's a lot of Bidens, but he did overcome a lot of hurdles and never changed his style....I don't think he could. He is genuine, like him or not. :-)
Biggest Winner of 2020 - Amazon
Biggest Loser of 2020 - Fat Donny
Best Politician - Katie Porter
Worst Politician - Fat Donny
Most Defining Political Moment - Black Lives Matter
Turncoat Of The Year - Ron Johnson
Most Boring - Fat Donny
Best Comeback - Herman Cain tweeting from the grave
Best Photo Op - Fat Donny returning from his failed Tulsa rally
Worst Photo Op - Giuliani wiping sweat on his date’s arm
Enough Already! - Democrats appearing on Fox
Worst Lie - Socialism!
Capitalist Of The Year - Dolly Parton
Person Of The Year - Tony Fauci
Destined For Political Stardom - Mayor Pete
Destined For Political Oblivion - Mike Pence
Worst Political Scandal - Senate not convicting Fat Donny
Yeesh, there are so many worthy candidates for each category that I don't envy you, CW.
I'd like to put in a vote for Door #2 above, the dueling Wednesdays approach.
It's also too late but I would have pushed these awards columns as close to the end of the year as possible, because I don't think Trump is done doing mischief, nosiree.
the worst idea of the year, and possibly the worst idea of the millenium so far (even worse than invading afghanistan and iraq concurrently), is the suggestion made by the president that "covid-19 is a democratic hoax." based on woodward's reporting, donald knew it wasn't a hoax, put the idea out there anyway, and to this day people hospitalized with the virus STILL believe it's a hoax.
JL
poet
Not a 'hoax', not a 'pandemic' a 'dempanic'!
For "bummest rap", I nominate the US government, which Trump on July 14 described as "a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all)".
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1150381394234941448
Or maybe he thinks Ohio is a country.
@crs,
clarify, please? is your spoonerism intended to support, refute, or in no way comment on donald's attempts to intentionally understate the potential deadliness of covid-19?
JL
Do you want me to answer that? :)
poet
Had to look up "spoonerism'. Supposedly it's an accidental transposition, so my "dempanic" doesn't qualify, it was intentional. However, no way was it intended as a comment on Trump's misguided efforts to downplay the seriousness of the disease, although my personal opinion is that it has been exaggerated some. I don't know a single person that has contracted the affliction, and everybody I know who is terrified of it leans Democratic.
@crs,
spoonerisms are typically also an inversion of two words rather than one, so i admit i was using the term a bit more broadly than the strict dictionary definition. there was an old 1980's computer game called "nord and bert couldn't make head or tail of it," which got creative with just about every form of english wordplay one could think of.
as to the meaning of your joke, i'd say it's a bit of a lead balloon. i'm legitimately glad for you that the virus hasn't yet reached your neck of the woods, given how fast it has been increasing the count of americans who are now a lot deader than they used to be.
JL
CRS-20
The highest rates of infection per capita are in small states with low population density.
Idaho is in the top 10. The number of people you know who have caught the disease says a lot about a person and their social status. I'm in the professional class and retired...this demographic can easily self-self isolate. I know of just 1 person in my social group who has been infected, and that person has died. Other people in my group may have been infected...they don't know it, or they have been quiet about it. Infection rates are ramping up rapidly in Ohio, so more of my group may get infected...especially the family that flew to Florida for a couple of days in Disney World.
poet
OK, 'fumducker', I now understand "spoonerisms! (Making a joke there [probably another "lead balloon, right?] but definitely no insult).
Stig
Actually, I do know (kinda second hand) of 2 or 3 people who have been told they have caught the disease, but they all claim to have been totally unaware ("asymptomatic"?) that they were ill. People in their eighties (85th b'day this very day, coincidentally!!!} are normally at the bottom of the "social class", especially in regard to circulating, socializing, etc, so that could have something to do with my skepticism over the severity of the 'dempanic'.
it's the anecdotal fallacy. the trouble is that a sample size of less than 5 generally lends itself to inaccurate conclusions. you know 3 people who caught it and none of them died, TS knows 1 person who caught it and that person did die. it's very natural for us to react only to our own experience, but those experiences (if we generalize based on them) are likely to lead us to false conclusions solely due to their small sample size.
poet
Understood and agreed, but there is also import to the very fact that the samples ARE so small, right?
Biggest Winner of 2020 - Coronavirus
Biggest Loser of 2020 - The Trump Crime Syndicate
Best Politician - Mitch McConnell - I detest him, but who else can lead his fellow Republicans to do almost nothing other than 'pack the courts' for an entire year and still almost every one of the Republicans is re-elected.
Worst Politician - Mitt Romney - stabbed in the back by Trump, he still votes to acquit Trump after impeachment. He approves Justice Comey. And still he opines that Trump's lack of leadership is "a great human tragedy" (without naming Trump). And still, many Charlie-Brown Democrats keep running towards every rhetorical football, which Romney gleefully pulls away.
Most Defining Political Moment - When Pennsylvania changed from light red to light blue as more ballots were counted. In that moment, the skies parted and angels sang.
Turncoat Of The Year - Lindsey Graham
Runner-up: Bill Barr. Does he hope that the milquetoast assertions about election results will slip past Trump's wrathful gaze -or- convince a single rational person that he hasn't used the DOJ as Trump's personal enforcement squad?
Most Boring - Kevin McCarthy
Most Charismatic - AOC
Bummest Rap - Biden is a socialist, which too many Florida voters believed
Fairest Rap - Trump is a loser
Best Comeback - Susan Collins. As much as I roll my eyes at her school-marmy scoldings of Trump, she convinced a majority of Maine voters that she deserves another 6 years in office.
Most Original Thinker - Stacey Abrams. I can think of no other Georgian who would have the audacity to believe that the Peach State could ever turn purple, much less blue.
Most Stagnant Thinker - Chuck Schumer. Perhaps I am not reading the right websites and publications, but I can't recall a single instance of Sen. Schumer effectively calling out Sen. McConnell.
Best Photo Op - Nancy Pelosi ripping up Trump's State of the Nation speech with Trump standing in front of her, oblivious to her actions
Worst Photo Op - Trump being chauffeured by Secret Service agents past his adoring cult members, a day or two after entering the hospital with a deadly, contagious disease.
Enough Already! - Proud Boys
Worst Lie - Anything about COVID-19 that exited Trump's mouth or his tiny Tweeting fingers
Capitalist Of The Year - Elon Musk. He succeeded in blackmailing CA to 'reopen' despite the pandemic, resulting in thousands more deaths. Then he proceeded to slap the state in the face by announcing he's packing up and moving to TX
Honorable Mention - Kamala Harris. Though her campaign ended before the first caucus, by year end she is only a heartbeat away from the Presidency. More importantly, she is now and will be for the next four years, the most visible example of a powerful woman, Asian-American / Caribbean-American / African-American.
Person Of The Year - Anthony Fauci
Now that I've submitted my thoughts, I'm reading the previous submissions.
John M from Ct[3]: These were ones I hadn't remembered and/or considered.
Most Defining Political Moment - DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD
Turncoat Of The Year - LINCOLN REPUBLICANS
Most Original Thinker - JARED KUSHNER - You've GOT to explain this one!
Worst Photo Op - TRUMP HOLDING UP BIBLE
Capitalist Of The Year - JEFF BEZOS - merely because Amazon is raking in money during the pandemic? Or because of something else that he did this year?
andygaus [7]:
Worst Politician -- Lindsey Graham - he won re-election, so I guess it depends on your definition of 'worst'
Most Charismatic -- John Lewis - please explain. I don't remember Rep Lewis doing much this year. And I hardly think someone's death makes him 'carismatic'
Person of the Year -- George Floyd - please explain your thoughts on this one.
TheStig [12] - first of all, your ending disclaimer is perfect. It is hard to avoid giving many awards to Biden for the terrific accomplishment of removing 'The Stable Genius' from power.
Most Defining Political Moment - Tulsa rally - interesting choice. It encapsulates both Trump's vanity -and- Trump's incompetence
Most Original Thinker - Rudi - made me laugh!
Best Photo Op - the fly on the VP (funny)
Worst Photo Op - the ramp (sad trombone music for Trump)
Honorable Mention - Mike Dewine - please explain 'lost his nerve'. I haven't paid much attention to Ohio's COVID-19 trend line. Was it better or worse than surrounding states? And now you think it's worse than surrounding states?
John From Censornati [13]: Spot-on!
Best Comeback - Herman Cain tweeting from the grave
Enough Already! - Democrats appearing on Fox