Year-End Awards — Part 1
(Format shamelessly borrowed from The McLaughlin Group.)
Biggest Winner:
“Barack Obama” is too easy, so I’ll go with accidental New York governor David Paterson, for his (thus far) adept ability to maintain a generally favorable score with most New Yorkers. (Give it time, though.)
Biggest Loser:
Gays and gay rights, which despite the judicial marriage victory in Connecticut lost every major political battle in 2008.
Best Politician: (Note: This is not a good award to win.)
Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who while serving as Hillary Clinton’s lead attack dog in the primaries tried everything in his power to hurt Obama — up to and including suggesting that his own constituents were racists who would not vote for Obama in the general election.
Worst Politician:
Again, “Blagojevich” and “Spitzer” are too easy, so the award goes, as a tie, to Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, both of whom somehow believed all through the Republican primaries that demonizing your own record was somehow a brilliant campaign strategy.
Most Defining Political Moment:
John McCain pretending to suspend his campaign in the wake of the financial crisis, only to inject himself into Congressional negotiations that he had no business attending and wrecking the process with his unstable, illiterate blather. P.S. Are we still “all Georgians“?
Turncoat of the Year:
Joseph Lieberman of course, with honorable mention to Democratic New York State senator (and soulless bigot) Ruben Diaz, Sr., for threatening to defect to the Republicans if the New York legislature tried to schedule a vote on gay marriage.
Most Boring:
Joe Biden, no contest.
Most Charismatic:
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who tirelessly debunked the Prop 8 bigots in cable news debate after cable news debate. I don’t like the man, but he really shone during the campaign.
Bummest Rap:
Wall Street “greed.” There is no logic in blaming something new on something as old as Eve.
Fairest Rap:
The UAW, for its fundamental role in destroying the Big Three automakers for the past twenty years.
Best Comeback:
A tie: The Second Amendment (but see here) and John Maynard Keynes (but see here).
Most Original Thinker:
Besides me? Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, for dusting off an archaic provision of the Canadian constitution and invoking it, creatively, to dissolve Parliament in order to stay in power. We are not amused. But we recognize cleverness when we see it.
Least Original Thinker:
Pope Benebigot XVI. Now and forever.
Best Photo Op:
Any variation of the “Wall Street Facepalm.”
“Enough Already”
Bailouts, with honorable mention to Michael Bloomberg.
Person of the Year:
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who made social networking respectable for adults (all 150 million of them) and is amassing a well-deserved entrepreneurial fortune in the process.
Leave your picks in the comments. Part 2 here.
Filed under: Politics