Democratic Primaries

ChrisWeigant

(952 posts) Fri Dec 27, 2019, 10:59 PM Dec 2019

My 2019 "McLaughlin Awards" (Part 2)

{Program Note for DemocraticUnderground.com readers:
This is part two of my yearly roundup column of what is going on in the political world. For the duration of the 2020 campaign, I've been instructed to post under the "Democratic Primaries" category rather than the "General Discussion" category, whenever the primary race is discussed. This discussion may be a large part of the column, or a very small part. Just wanted to clarify this up front, to avoid any objections that most of the post is "off topic."}

Welcome back to the second and final installment of our year-end awards columns! If you missed last week's column, you should probably check that out, too. Oh, and another DU note: due to an editing error, last week's column was posted as the "2018" awards.... whoops! We regret the error....

But enough of that, let's get straight to the awards, as these columns are already long enough as is.

Destined For Political Stardom

I considered giving this award to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, but she won it last year and we already gave her Most Charismatic. Stacey Abrams was also a contender, for her response to the State Of The Union and her repeated mentions as a possible vice-presidential pick.

Serious consideration was given to Pete Buttigieg, but there are too many uncertainties with this choice. If he wins the nomination or is named someone else's veep, then the "destiny" in this award would be rather immediate, obviously. But if he isn't on the eventual Democratic ticket, then his path to political stardom would be missing a few steps. Say Pete isn't on the ticket -- so what else would he do next? It would be just about impossible for him to win a statewide race in Indiana, so that rules out governor or the U.S. Senate. He could conceivably become a House member, but that's no guarantee of political stardom. The "next steps up the ladder" available to other politicians are closed to Mayor Pete, which means about the only other thing I could see him doing would be winning the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. So while Pete is indeed a fresh young face on the Democratic scene, the paths forward for him are limited (if he's not on the ticket next year). So we decided to give him a pass.

We could look across the aisle and predict that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is destined for a second act in politics, one way or another. But giving her any sort of positive award would leave a bad taste in the mouth, we freely admit.

So instead, we're giving Destined For Political Stardom to the four freshmen House members who make up "The Squad." We'd be willing to bet that far into the future the term "Squad" will be remembered, as in: "Well it's no surprise she is such a strong voice now, remember she started as a Squad member." Much like the Civil Rights leaders who went on to reform the system from within, we'd be willing to bet the Squad continues to be the benchmark of strong voices who show the diversity of the Democratic coalition for the next generation to come. Which is another way of defining "Destined For Political Stardom," really.

Destined For Political Oblivion

So many to choose from in this category: Herman Cain, Kirstjen Neilson, and all the other former Trump buddies whose careers have been trashed by their association with the Orange One.

One thing missing from the Democratic campaign -- for the first time in an entire generation -- has been the Clintons. They used to be the kingmakers of the Democratic Party, at least up until Hillary lost (twice). Their absence is notable indeed, but "political oblivion" is a little harsh, considering their records of public service they've already chalked up.

From the campaign, a few names stand out. Beto O'Rourke may be headed for political oblivion, after his flash-in-the-pan appearance on the national stage. And Tulsi Gabbard was a strong contender for the Destined For Political Oblivion award -- although she may reinvent herself as a Fox News personality.

From the Republican side we have a whole bunch to choose from, starting with Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, who were the first and second members of Congress to publicly support Trump. They're both now officially guilty of federal crimes, which we think is entirely fitting.

We sincerely hope that all the yahoos on the Republican side during the impeachment hearings are Destined For Political Oblivion, most especially Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.

But there's one obvious choice here, we felt. Rudy Giuliani is most definitely Destined For Political Oblivion. He was once known as "America's Mayor" and was loved by many. This is no longer true, after he reinvented himself as Trump's top legal toady -- after Michael Cohen stepped down from the post, of course. Now Rudy's a ranting, raving lunatic, as just about any of his recent television interviews prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. But this act is only going to be welcomed (even on the right) while Trump is in office. Once Trump's gone, Rudy is not going to get many bookings, unless some cable show needs some comic relief.

Rudy Giuliani took his own shining legacy, threw it into a Dumpster, poured gasoline on it, and lit the match. If the universe has any sense of justice, he is Destined For Political Oblivion in the very near future.

Best Political Theater

We had a lot to choose from here, too. Our favorite was seeing Donald Trump getting loudly booed (complete with a "Lock him up!" chant) by a crowd at the World Series.

We could have gone with House testimony, either any of the impeachment hearings or seeing Michael Cohen vent his spleen at his former boss -- that was pretty downright theatrical.

Bernie Sanders got a nomination for agreeing to a Fox News townhall, after the D.N.C. decided not to give them a debate. The moderator tried to trick Bernie with two audience questions, but much to the surprise of all, even a hand-picked Fox News audience was visibly and strongly in favor of Medicare For All. Seeing that blow up in the face of Fox was pretty priceless, we have to admit.

The State Of The Union had two theatrical moments. Nancy Pelosi's "clapback" at Trump was one of the most amusing photos from any State Of The Union ever. Even better was the way all the freshmen women -- all wearing "suffragette white" -- absolutely stole Trump's thunder. Trump had a line touting himself (of course) for creating lots of jobs for women. The Democrats then amusingly pointed to themselves as proof, since Trump had a lot to do with getting them all elected in the midterm sweep. This brought a round of laughter, and Trump's punchline (which was actually a nod to the Democratic women) fell flat immediately afterwards.

Pelosi had plenty of theatrical moments with Trump this year, in meetings held at the White House where Trump was feeling cranky and stormed out of the room. The photo of her wagging her finger at Trump was pretty awesome (as she recounted it later, this was when she was saying to him: "All roads lead to Putin with you" ).

Two bits of theatricality from House hearings were worthy of consideration, the first when Steve Cohen decided to have some fun with the fact that the attorney general of the United States was blowing off a House hearing. Cohen chose his metaphor and ran with it: "Cohen brought a statuette of a chicken, which he placed in front of the empty chair Barr should have been sitting in, and if that weren't enough to drive his point home, he also brought in a bucket of KFC, which he proceeded to eat from." Heh. Good times.

Even better was when Joe Cunningham questioned the head of the N.O.A.A. on the subject of how "seismic air guns" harm right whales and other ocean life. Cunningham brought an effective prop to make his point:

[Representative Joe] Cunningham reached for the air horn, put his finger on the button and turned to [N.O.A.A. administrator Chris] Oliver.

"It's fair to say seismic air gun blasting is extremely loud and disruptive... is that correct?" the congressman asked.

"I don't know exactly how loud it is. I actually never experienced it myself," Oliver replied.

So Cunningham gave Oliver a taste of the 120-decibel horn. An earsplitting sound filled the small committee room. An audience of about 50 gasped and murmured.

"Was that disruptive?" Cunningham asked.

"It was irritating, but I didn't find it too disruptive," Oliver said.

It seemed disruptive to at least one person in the room. Subcommittee Chairman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) broke into the debate to say an aide, who is pregnant, informed him that when the air horn sounded, her baby kicked.

Cunningham, who represents Charleston and other coastal cities, pressed on. What if it happened every 10 seconds for days, weeks and months, he said. He asked Oliver to guess how much louder commercial air guns are than his store-bought air horn. When Oliver didn't bite, he told him the sound from air guns is 16,000 times that of his air horn.

Nothing like bringing the right props to spice up a hearing, eh?

But our winner of Best Political Theater goes to Joe Scarborough and all the Democrats who helped him popularize the term "Moscow Mitch." Mitch McConnell, at the start of the summer, was blocking every single attempt to beef up America's election system so that it could better sustain attacks upon it -- like the attacks Russia launched in 2016. There were Democratic bills and bipartisan bills, but Mitch wouldn't consider any of them. This led to the Morning Joe bit that went viral:

[President Donald Trump] is aiding and abetting [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's ongoing attempts to subvert American democracy, according to the Republican F.B.I., C.I.A., D.N.I., intel committee. All Republicans are all saying Russia is subverting American democracy and Moscow Mitch won't even let the Senate take a vote on it. That is un-American.

Immediately, "#MoscowMitch" became a trending hashtag. This went on for weeks, and it worked amazingly well, because it obviously really got under McConnell's skin in a big way. McConnell petulantly complained about the label and Democrats, sensing an opportunity, began using it whenever referring to him.

The reason why this won Best Political Theater was because, in the end, it worked. Eventually McConnell was forced to allow election security bills to go forward, and by year's end hundreds of millions had been budgeted for it. This was a clear win for Democrats, a win for voters across the country, and an embarrassment for McConnell. Or, as we like to call him, Moscow Mitch.

Worst Political Theater

Another category with no shortage to choose from. The government shutdown which began the year was pretty bad theater all around. The impeachment hearings were pretty bad theater -- whenever any Republican opened their mouths.

The worst political theater from the impeachment saga, though, was the GOP yahoos who "stormed" the House hearing room and began posting selfies and otherwise using their phones -- inside a secure location where no such phone use is legal. Nothing like the "party of law and order," right?

But we have to give the Worst Political Theater to the entire stupidity of Sharpiegate. Seriously, this was bad from just about any angle you look.

The tweet which launched it all off:

In addition to Florida - South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already Category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!

The Weather Service -- in Alabama, mind you -- responded 20 minutes later:

Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.

This led to a weeklong festival of idiocy from Trump, the White House, and (eventually, and shamefully) federal government departments who all bent over backwards in trying to make reality fit Trump's fantasy, so he wouldn't look like the moron he so clearly is. Your tax dollars at work, folks. We wrote up the entire stupid timeline while this bad theater was still playing out, if anyone's interested in revisiting the Wonderland of Trump forecasting the weather (and then demanding the weather change when it turns out he was wrong).

Our favorite footnote is that this could even have been included in Trump's articles of impeachment. Here's the relevant federal law:

Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.

Worst Political Theater by far. Cringeworthy, in fact.

Worst Political Scandal

Inviting the Taliban to Camp David on the same week as 9/11 didn't actually happen (because there are still some adults left in the Trump administration, we suppose), so it wasn't that big a scandal. If it had taken place, it would have been worthy of Worst Political Scandal, obviously.

We already gave Trump the Biggest Turncoat award for his shameful betrayal of the Syrian Kurds, although that one could have fit here, too.

In a year without Trump, we would have had to give Worst Political Scandal to the multiple blackface incidents in politicians' pasts (that yearbook photo with the K.K.K. robes was the worst example, obviously).

But once again Trump trumps everyone else, because the quid pro quo with Ukraine was easily the Worst Political Scandal. Trump tried both a carrot and a stick (an Oval Office meeting and withholding military aid) to force a foreign government into doing his dirty work for his own re-election campaign. That is, as many Democrats pointed out, one of the "worst case scenarios" (a president doing such secret deals with foreign governments) that the Founding Fathers warned us all about when they wrote the impeachment part of the Constitution. It goes beyond "collusion" and "quid pro quo" and the Republicans who are now attempting to defend the indefensible will all go down in history as sellouts to their own oath of office.

Trump is now only the third United States president to ever be impeached. That stain will remain on his legacy for all time. It was clearly the Worst Political Scandal of the year.

Most Underreported Story

Bernie Sanders's campaign?

There are a whole slew of underreported stories to choose from this year, including (but in no way limited to) all of the following, in no particular order:

Trump should be banned from Twitter for constantly breaking the rules of use.

Taxing rich people more is wildly popular with the public.

The candidate pulling as little as one-third of the primary vote could be the eventual nominee in the Democratic Party -- as Trump proved last time around for the GOP.

The end of the Clinton machine in Democratic politics.

Voter suppression continues apace in red states.

The War On Women continues apace as well.

Rick Perry was doing exactly what Trump accuses Biden of doing -- trying to muscle a crony onto the board of a Ukrainian petroleum company.

Republicans in disarray! [Sorry, couldn't resist that one...]

The legislative graveyard that is Mitch McConnell's Senate.

Trump's unprecedented stonewalling of Congress.

Trump's use of immigrant labor at his properties.

Guns killed more people than traffic accidents in America for the first time.

The strike at General Motors.

Corporations are paying only 11 percent in taxes now, and the wealthiest Americans are paying an effective tax rate of only 23 percent -- which is lower than the average for the bottom half of American households, who pay over 24 percent.

Jared Kushner is a slumlord in Baltimore, as his companies own multiple rat-infested apartment buildings.

Again, this is only a partial list. But our winner of the Most Underreported Story of the year is that the economy may be doing great for the wealthiest, but it is not doing great for much of anyone else.

The trade deficit under Trump is up, not down. The annual budget deficit is now scraping one trillion dollars, even though he promised he'd make it disappear. Manufacturing has been in a recession since the summer.

Since Trump got elected, and contrary to his boasting, 51 coal plants have been shuttered and eight coal companies have filed for bankruptcy. Steel companies are also closing plants they optimistically opened when Trump introduced his tariffs.

Possibly the worst pain is being felt out in the heartland, though, as farmers are taking it on the chin. Trump's idiotic trade war with China has destroyed many farmers' livelihoods, and will likely continue to do so for the next decade -- because once the Chinese customers have found another source, they likely won't be coming back. Farm bankruptcies are soaring, even with Trump shoveling tens of millions in taxpayer money into a futile effort to bail farmers out from the blowback of his tariff war.

Meanwhile, Trump's Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, has been rubbing salt in the farmers' wounds. At an appearance in August, Perdue tried to crack a joke: "What do you call two farmers in a basement? A whine cellar!" It didn't go over well, shall we say.

In 2013, farm income was over $120 billion. In 2018, it was only $63 billion. That's a pretty stark turnaround, and it can all be laid at the feet of Trump and his trade war with China and the rest of the world.

You'd think the media would be all over this story, since it is a tale of Trump screwing over his strongest supporters. But, alas, like all the other economic bad news, it wins the Most Underreported Story of the year.

Most Overreported Story

Whenever we don't have anything else for this category, our default fallback is always the headline "Democrats In Disarray." The media loves to write these stories whether they are true or not, which is why it is always a contender in this category.

Or there's always the weather to talk about. Literally. The weather is now national news, if anything more than a strong breeze happens upon any town anywhere (but most especially on the East Coast, where all the viewers are).

But this year we have two stories which bugged us for being overreported. Our runner-up was actually aided and abetted by the media, because they didn't just overreport it, they created it. During the first four or five Democratic debates, we got a long segment -- usually at the very start of the evening -- on each candidates' stance on Medicare For All and Obamacare and the public option.

Now, we realize that people are indeed interested in hearing the Democrats' stance on health care reform, but after the first two times it happened it was really just overkill to trod the same ground in every single debate. There are, after all, other issues to talk about. The whole thing smacked of the media goading Democrats into ripping into each other for nothing short of their own amusement. This got pretty tedious.

But for sheer volume, our winner of the Most Overreported Story was Elizabeth Warren's D.N.A. test -- which actually happened over a year ago.

The problem with this entire storyline is that the media all came to a conclusion that turned out to be wrong, and they've absolutely refused to admit this, ever since. Their conclusion? "Warren is toast -- her campaign is over before it began."

This is a non-story. It didn't play out the way the media predicted. And yet they continue to beat this dead horse even to this day. Case in point, when Warren released her plan (she's got a plan for everything, of course) to address issues important to Native Americans and then accepted an invitation to speak to a Native American group, the only thing the media could focus on was her ancestry -- even though none of the Native Americans cared. Warren answered questions from the audience, and (as one mainstream report grudgingly admitted): "She did not receive any questions about her own background." Native American leaders spoke to the gathering as well, and one of them warned the media that their continued focus on Trump calling Warren "Pocahontas" in "a racist way" was offensive. Another made a similar point, in blunt fashion:

Some media folks have asked me whether the president's criticisms of her regarding her ancestral background will hamper her ability to convey a clear campaign message. I say that every time they asked about Elizabeth's family instead of the issues of vital importance to Indian country, they feed the president's racism.

Warren spoke of creating a cabinet-level position for Native American issues, stopping pipelines on Indian land, and reversing a horrendous Supreme Court decision, Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, all issues of importance to the audience. None of the mainstream media coverage paid any attention at all. In fact, almost all of the questions they asked the attendees were about Warren's ancestry, to the exclusion of all else. The only one who correctly reported on the meeting -- to their credit -- was HuffPost, whose headline was: "Native American Forum Focuses On Elizabeth Warren's Policies, Not DNA Test."

This was not an isolated event. All year long, the media has been unrepentant over their misread of the situation one year ago. They all declared her candidacy dead, and yet the reality is that the voters do not care -- not even Native American voters. But that won't stop them from the next round of stories, if this year was any indication. For us, the Most Overreported Story was the "fake news" of how Elizabeth Warren's campaign ended with her D.N.A. test.

Biggest Government Waste

There are two clear contenders for the Biggest Government Waste this year. The first was the "national emergency" at the southern border. There was no emergency, but Trump wanted to declare one, so he did. What a gigantic waste of time and money. After declaring a national emergency, Trump went golfing.

Which brings us to the real winner, which is "Trump golfing." Over a hundred million taxpayer dollars have gone to Trump's golf outings so far (there's a running total at TrumpGolfCount.com, if you're interested). Trump has played between 100 and 230 games of golf during his presidency -- the exact number is unknown because he won't even admit when he's playing, out of shame. Trump promised, during his campaign, that he'd be far too busy to ever play golf as president. This was because Trump used to rip into Barack Obama for playing golf. But Obama mostly played on military courses, which saved the taxpayers all kinds of money in presidential security. Trump, of course, plays on his own courses. This means that the Secret Service and his whole entourage has to spend money at a Trump property, which is nothing short of blatant graft. And far from being "too busy" as president, Trump has already set new records for presidential golf outings. The millions we all pay for extra security -- to Trump's own properties, as well as all the Secret Service preparations -- was easily the Biggest Government Waste this year.

Best Government Dollar Spent

How about the salary of Ellen Weintraub, the head of the Federal Elections Commission? She released a very germane statement back in June, just after Trump had said inn an interview that he'd welcome dirt on his political rivals from a foreign country:

Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election. This is not a novel concept. Electoral intervention from foreign governments has been considered unacceptable since the beginnings of our nation. Our Founding Fathers sounded the alarm about "foreign interference, Intrigue, and Influence." They knew that when foreign governments seek to influence American politics, it is always to advance their own interests, not America's. Anyone who solicits or accepts foreign assistance risks being on the wrong end of a federal investigation. Any political campaign that receives an offer of a prohibited donation from a foreign source should report that offer to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Later on, in October -- when foreign election interference had moved from theoretical to proven fact -- she retweeted this message, prefaced with an image of a microphone and the words: "Is this thing on?"

Heh.

Instead, however, we're going to give the Best Governmental Dollar Spent to "investigating Trump." Bob Mueller's investigation cost tens of millions of dollars. But not really, because in actual fact Mueller's team made money for the Treasury. There were so many people found guilty of so many crimes that tens of millions more was recovered than was actually spent. The whole thing was a money-maker, plain and simple.

Likewise, at year's end, we saw Donald Trump paying a whopping two million bucks in penalties for running a sham charity that fleeced United States veterans. So that investigation paid off, as well.

In terms of reaping financial rewards, the Best Governmental Dollar Spent was on investigating Trump and his merry band of wrongdoers.

Boldest Political Tactic

This was a year with several bold tactics deployed, so it was hard to pick a winner. Nancy Pelosi's lightning-fast impeachment was pretty bold, but necessary. If she had chosen a slower route, impeachment would have dominated the next six months, rather than the presidential election.

Speaking of impeachment, Tom Steyer deserves a big nod. He put a lot of time and energy -- and tens of millions of his own money -- into the impeachment movement, and he started doing so over a year ago. What at the time seemed like a quixotic move has now become reality, so Steyer deserves credit for getting ahead of the pack on it in such a bold way.

Donald Trump has to be our runner-up in this category, because even though we certainly don't agree with him, you've got to admit that his "total stonewall" tactic was the boldest ever attempted by any president. His concept of "blanket immunity" from testimony from his aides and his refusal to turn over any documentation at all to Congress is going to set a very interesting precedent for the future, that's our guess.

But we went a little more positive, because we have to award the Boldest Political Tactic to the Green New Deal introduced by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Now, at the time, we had plenty of reservations about what was contained in the Green New Deal, because it is quite breathtaking in its scope. In fact, we still have most of the same reservations about the plan. But that doesn't stop us from also admiring the boldness in such an audacious proposal.

We see the Green New Deal as an aspirational document rather than as proposed legislation. But it certainly aspires to a lot, that much is beyond doubt. So when we considered Boldest Political Tactic of 2019, we had to admit that the Green New Deal deserved the honor.

Best Idea

There were all kinds of great ideas from the Democratic House this year, from the very first sweeping ethics-reform bill (H.R. 1, the "For The People Act" ) to proposals to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote to capping credit card rates to any number of other great ideas. Far from being "Do-Nothing Democrats" the House is proving to be a wellspring of good ideas that might eventually become reality if Democrats can ever flip the Senate and win back the White House.

Our runner-up for Best Idea was a general one pushed by the progressive wing: tax the rich. From Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax idea to all the other proposals to undo the Paul Ryan tax giveaway to the wealthy, the idea of taxing rich folks is now a key part of the Democratic platform. But we already gave Elizabeth Warren an award for this one, so instead we decided to look to the state level.

The legalization of marijuana in Illinois is an interesting case study for other states to consider, which is why it wins Best Idea of the year. Because of the pioneering work done by the other ten states that have legalized recreational adult usage, the concept of legalization has now become normalized. As a direct result, this has allowed other ideas to be included in the process, most of which are supported by almost every Democrat running for president.

The basic idea is not just to end the disastrous War On Weed, but to actually try to undo some of the damage done. Illinois is going to automatically expunge the record of anyone who paid a judicial price for possession in the past, and they're going to guarantee that a certain number of the permits for legal marijuana businesses go to minority-owned establishments. It is creative additions like these that make its new legalization law perhaps the best ever passed.

Also instructive was how it came to pass. The current governor, J. B. Pritzker, heavily ran on the idea of legalization and then after he won he followed through by putting a whole lot of political weight behind getting it through the legislature. This is also a model for other Democrats to follow, especially in states that don't have ballot initiatives. Being pro-weed is not the political suicide it once was, to put it as bluntly as possible.

Heh heh... he said "blunt." OK, we just couldn't resist, sorry.

Seriously, though, both the way it was used as a potent campaign issue and the way it was drafted both combined to make the new Illinois legalization law the Best Idea of the year.

Worst Idea

Howard Schultz running as an independent? Brexit?

Other than that, this category is all Trump's. Trump had plenty of bad ideas this year -- more than you could shake a stick at, in fact:

The non-existent "national emergency" at the southern border.

Naming Herman Cain to a Federal Reserve chair.

Hiring Rudy Giuliani as a private lawyer.

Space Force.

Sharpiegate.

Betraying the Syrian Kurds.

Attacking a witness on Twitter while she was still testifying on television.

And that's just a very short list which ignores hundreds of other bad ideas Trump has had this year.

Our runner-up in this category was Trump releasing the semi-transcript of his call to the Ukrainian leader. This was a really bad idea, from Trump's perspective, even if it turned out to be a great idea for citizens interested in what the president is doing in their name. But imagine how much differently it all would have played out if Trump had refused to release the transcript at the very start.

But our Worst Idea of the year was unquestionably "nuke the hurricanes." No, seriously.

To be fair to Trump, it actually happened at the very start of his presidency, but it wasn't revealed until Axios broke the news this year. We also wrote about it at the time, because we simply couldn't resist.

Trump didn't originate this incredibly bad idea, it was actually proposed at the dawn of what used to be called the Atomic Age. Nuclear bombs were going to be useful for all sorts of projects, the thinking went back then, such as excavating a canal in one fell swoop. One of these skylarking ideas was to tame hurricanes by precise placement of a few nukes.

Of course, at the time, the harmful effects of radiation and radioactive fallout were poorly understood. Not so in 2019, of course. Today the idea is just as insane as it sounds -- the concept of detonating a nuclear bomb which spews out radiation and fallout in the middle of a hurricane is now seen as downright delusional. By everyone but Donald Trump, that is.

Trump held a meeting to seriously explore the idea. So while it may not have been the worst idea of 1952 (or whenever it was first proposed), it definitely fits the bill for Worst Idea now. The most amusing part of the story came in a quote from one participant in the meeting: "You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting." After all, when the president proposes something, everyone else has to at least pretend to take it seriously. Even when it is the Worst Idea possible.

Sorry To See You Go

In a non-literal sense of the term, Californians were sorry to see Jerry Brown go, because he will doubtlessly go down in history as the state's only four-term governor (there's a new term-limits law that guarantees this).

Getting away from politics, we were saddened by the news of the death of "Grumpy Cat," although we hasten to point out that this is not the same as the cat in our logo, which was a random grumpy cat we found on the internet.

Other entertainment world deaths of note:

Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)

Caroll Spinney (Big Bird)

I. M. Pei

Toni Morrison

Tim Conway

Peter Fonda

Peter Tork

Eddie Money

Ric Ocasek

Robert Hunter

and, as we were writing this, news of the passing of Don Imus came in.

We do have two people we have to say we are NOT sorry to see go, Jeffrey Epstein and Lyndon LaRouche. 'Nuff said.

The political world saw a number of deaths this year. The ones we're most sorry to see go:

John Dingell

John Conyers

Elijah Cummings

and, finally, H. Ross Perot

15 Minutes Of Fame

We're just going to quickly list these, as is entirely appropriate for such a category:

Michael Cohen

Michael Avenatti

Michael Bloomberg (maybe)

Mike Gravel's Twitter feed

Julian Assange

Howard Schultz (hopefully)

Sean Spicer on Dancing With The Stars

Robert Mueller

Marianne Williamson

Andrew Yang

Tom Steyer

Tulsi Gabbard

and finally, Andrew Johnson, for being the only president who was impeached before anyone alive today was born.

Best Spin

I shamelessly included two of my own bits of political spin this year, because I really liked both of them.

The first was my suggestion for a slogan for the Democratic Party to use next year: "Do you really want this for another four years?" It works with just about anything Trump does or says. Run for the anti-exhaustion vote!

My second entry was born of my frustration out of the media calling anything progressive "far-left" or "fringe" or "out of the mainstream." The issue was universal background checks, but it could also include a whole raft of progressive ideas that poll overwhelmingly well with the public (like taxing the rich more) -- all of which I talked about last week, in the Most Stagnant Thinker award. Anyway, the line was: "Our position is not just the mainstream, it's the whole damn river."

"Moscow Mitch" was pretty good spin, but we already gave an award to it.

In the end, we had to go with a brilliant applause line we heard at Netroots Nation, from Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. It is also a campaign slogan that works for just about any Democrat running next year, and is downright brilliant in its simplicity and cadence. The winner of Best Spin was Senator Merkley, for his:

Dump Trump. Ditch Mitch. Save America.

Worst Spin

We're adding this award because we think it is necessary to distinguish the good from the bad. An example of "Worst Spin" would be: anything coming out of the mouth of Kellyanne Conway, for instance. Heh.

We have to admit we have a four-way tie in this category, all of which are interrelated. The first was "No quid pro quo," when there was all kinds of quid and quo everywhere you looked.

Mick Mulvaney admitting the quid pro quo on camera was pretty priceless:

Did [President Trump] also mention to me, in the past, the corruption related to the D.N.C. server? Absolutely. No question about that. But that's it. And that's why we held up the money.... We do that all the time with foreign policy.... I have news for everybody: Get over it.

The next was the idea that somehow the whistleblower was at fault for the whole crisis. I mean... what? Excuse me? The guy who called 911 anonymously is who we should focus on, rather than the bank robbery he reported in progress? It just boggles the mind, although apparently not over in Trumpland where the whistleblower has taken on epic stature as some sort of villain.

And the last one was just downright laughable -- the idea that the House was somehow being "unfair" to Trump. Our whiner-in-chief kept banging this drum even though the procedures for impeachment that were used were actually written by Republicans when they controlled the chamber. And to hear them complain about "secret hearings" and all the rest of their nonsense was also pretty ridiculous, at least for anyone who remembers the "Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi!" era of Republican control of the House.

Pretty much all of the spin coming from the White House about impeachment is the winner of Worst Spin this year.

Most Honest Person

George Conway, perhaps? Or maybe all of the Republicans and four-star generals and national security experts who have been writing scathing articles and op-eds about Trump all year long, on an almost weekly basis?

In a surprise move, we're going to give Rush Limbaugh an honorable mention in this category, for admitting something that Republicans never say out loud -- that they only pretend to care about fiscal responsibility and deficits when there's a Democrat in the White House. Here's his refreshing bit of honesty, from July:

Nobody is a fiscal conservative anymore. All this talk about concern for the deficit and the budget has been bogus for as long as it's been around.... How many years have people tried to scare everybody about the deficit? The years, how many decades of politicians tried to scare us about deficit, the national debt, the deficit, any number of things. And yet, here we're still here and the great jaws of the deficit have not bitten off our heads and chewed them up and spit them out.

But our real winner of Most Honest Person this year is Justin Amash, who looked at himself in the mirror and honestly decided he could no longer call himself a Republican. He honestly admitted what Trump was doing to his party, and he was honest enough with himself to leave it. He paid a political price for doing so, but at least he can look at himself in the mirror each morning and hold his head up.

Biggest Liar
We could fit this one on a tweet. President Donald Trump is the Biggest Liar not only of the year, but of the whole damn decade. He's now topped 15,000 lies while in office, and shows no signs of slowing down. By the time the election rolls around, it wouldn't surprise us in the least if that topped 25,000 or even 30,000. From "no quid pro quo" to Sharpiegate, there is no subject too big or too small for Trump to lie about. The White House is now staffed with people who are somehow unable to see the emperor's nakedness, and instead spend all day insisting that his invisible clothes are the most splendiferous raiment on Earth. Trump is without a doubt the Biggest Liar ever to corrupt American politics.

Most Overrated

In the same vein, we considered giving the Most Overrated award to "the supposed bedrock values of the Republican Party." Remember when they staked out the moral high road and denounced anyone they deemed not ethical enough? Yeah, those were the days. Remember when they were "the party of family values"? Or when they insisted "character" was the most important thing a politician could have? Or when they were supposedly for fiscal responsibility? Or hard work? Or law and order? This all seems quaint, in the Trump era.

But in all fairness we have to give Most Overrated to the Mueller Report. Breathlessly awaited for months on end, it turned out to not be the Trump-killer that Democrats were hoping for. Mueller didn't interview any of the Trump family, he didn't bother challenging any of Trump's stonewalling, and he refused to draw the obvious conclusion from the ten instances of obstruction of justice he laid out in the second volume of the Mueller Report. His testimony before the cameras was equally as overrated, as he confined himself to essentially just reading passages from his own report. The Most Overrated event of the entire year was the release of the Mueller Report, even though now it has largely been forgotten.

Most Underrated

How about Jim Mattis as a comedian? Here he is after he left the Trump administration, with some grade-A zingers at a charity gala:

I earned my spurs on the battlefield. Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor.

I think the only person in the military that Mr. Trump doesn't think is overrated is Colonel Sanders.

Heh.

We could make the case for several Democratic politicians for Most Underrated. Joe Biden has been consistently underrated in all the horserace coverage of the campaign so far. He's the frontrunner and always has been and yet his coverage certainly doesn't reflect this standing.

Bernie Sanders is also underrated by the media and by the party machinery. Like Biden, he has also remained incredibly consistent in his support throughout the entire campaign. And also like Biden, he doesn't get nearly the amount of coverage his standing deserves. Bernie is breaking all fundraising records and the media utters nary a peep about it. Bernie's support actually went up after he had a heart attack! If that isn't being underrated, I don't know what is.

Nancy Pelosi was certainly underrated as a politician exactly one year ago. Several members of the incoming Democratic freshmen were ambivalent (at best) over Pelosi regaining the speaker's gavel. Some speculated that it was really time for her to go. At the end of the year, nobody's saying anything like that any more. Pelosi's skills at herding the Democratic cats are unparalleled and often underrated.

From the other side of the aisle, Donald Trump is also underrated by many. He won an almost-impossible race last time around and he's going to be an incredibly formidable opponent next year as well. Democrats should be wary of just writing off Trump's chances, because that didn't work out so well last time around.

But the winner of this year's Most Underrated award is: The Suburbs. Everyone talks about the voters in the cities and the rural voters, but there's real strength and real numbers living out there in the 'burbs. And the Democrats are doing a bang-up job of winning over their votes.

This was the story behind the blue wave of 2018 and then the continuing high tide of the 2019 elections. The suburbs flipped. They used to be halfhearted Republicans (in the "I'm a country-club Rockefeller Republican" sort of way) who didn't mind all the social issue nonsense from the party as long as they delivered on lowering taxes for wealthy folk. But Trump was a bridge too far for them.

In the future, someone's going to come up with a snappy name (like the "Reagan Democrats" ) to describe this monumental sea change out in the 'burbs. This shift could be the key to winning the 2020 presidential election, and the Democrats taking back the Senate. For all the attention on this subgroup of the Democratic Party or that one, the suburban vote is the one to really watch this time around. Because the Republican Party is underrating suburbian political strength at their own peril.

Predictions

Before we get to predictions for next year, as always we like to review our record from last year. The following list is from last year's column, where we tried to predict the outcome of 2019. So let's see how we did:

The current government shutdown will end with Trump getting zero money for his wall. It will go on for longer than anyone now expects, but in the end either Trump will just cave or the Republicans in Congress will get tired of getting beaten up over the issue and join with Democrats to override a Trump veto of a budget bill. Either way, Trump gets no wall money at all. Democrats chalk the whole thing up as a big political win.

Brexit does not happen. Teresa May fails to get a deal that Parliament and the Europeans can live with, and so when faced with the daunting prospect of a "hard Brexit," May will call another referendum at the last minute. This time "Remain" will win over "Leave," and the whole sorry exercise will come to a screeching halt. This will roil British politics, but the U.K. will stay in the European Union, and there will be no border checks in Ireland.

Under Nancy Pelosi, the House will investigate Trump within an inch of his political life. So many scandals will be uncovered that it'll be tough to count them all. At least a few of them will shock Trump's base to their core, as the Emperor's new clothes are finally revealed to all.

Trump's tax returns will be made public, one way or another. This may even launch a second independent counsel's investigation when his financial ties to Russia (including possible Russian mob money laundering) are exposed for all to see.

Bob Mueller will wrap up his investigation by questioning all of Trump's immediate family under oath. At least one of them will wind up being indicted (best guess: Donald Trump Jr.). State-level indictments of Trump's family will also be handed down in New York state. Trump will not be able to issue any pardons for state-level crimes, of course.

Trump will not wind up being impeached in 2019, but the ceaseless news of his scandals will drive his public opinion approval rating below 35 percent. Trump will refuse to believe these numbers, insisting that they are nothing more than "fake polls." But congressional Republicans contemplating running for re-election will become increasingly willing to buck the president politically (in an effort to save their own political hides).

The economy will slow considerably, but not fall into an official recession. Growth will slow, however, and the deficit will explode, as the full impact of the Trump tax cuts are made evident to all. This will rob Trump of his most favorite talking point, heading into the 2020 presidential contest.

Trump's tweets will (finally!) begin to be largely ignored by the mainstream media. Trump will fly off the handle one time too many, and people will just give up caring what idiocies he tweets in the early morning hours. OK, we realize that we're going out on a limb with this one, we admit; but sometimes you just have to give in to wishful thinking, right?

Trump will be challenged by at least two major GOP contenders in the Republican primary. This will drive him crazy, of course. Or "crazier," we should say.

The political world will become increasingly centered on the 2020 presidential race, and over 20 (!) major Democrats will decide to make a run for it. Winnowing this field will be particularly brutal, and will not be complete by this time next year.

Our predictions for the Democratic frontrunners next December: Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, and Kamala Harris. Bernie Sanders will run but will be eclipsed by the other progressives in the race (who are less one-dimensional, politically, and more youthful in appearance). Beto O'Rourke will astonish many by deciding to sit the race out. Joe Biden will run, and will be the initial frontrunner (on name recognition alone), but eventually will fade as Democrats decide to pick someone new.

Let's go back to the top of the list and see which ones came even remotely true. First off was our prediction that (1) the government showdown would go on for longer than anyone expected, (2) Trump would not get any wall money, and (3) Trump and the GOP would cave, leaving Democrats the victors in this battle. All of these came true to one extent or another (it was the longest shutdown in American history, in fact), so we're going to call this one correct.

Brexit did not happen in 2019, but then again neither did a second referendum. So we're going to only claim half a point for this one. Especially since Great Britain is now on the path to actually leave the European Union early next year.

Nancy Pelosi did lead House Democrats to investigate the heck out of Donald Trump, however we have to admit that none of the resulting scandals (indeed, it was tough to keep track of all of them) made his base support waver at all. His job approval ratings are perhaps the most stable in the history of presidential polling, and this did not change over the course of the year. So we're only awarding ourselves half a point for this one, for a rolling total of two right out of three guesses.

Trump's tax returns are still not public, so we swung and missed on that one.

Mueller did not question any of Trump's family, and while New York is indeed conducting investigations and court cases, it didn't rise to the level predicted. So a clean miss for this one, too.

Trump was indeed impeached in 2019 (even if the documents haven't made it to Mitch McConnell yet), his approval ratings have not fallen much, and so far Republicans in Congress are still backing him (because they are terrified at the political retribution he can call down upon them if they buck him). So another miss here.

The economy has indeed slowed down, and the deficit did indeed explode (over $1 trillion once again). We are not in a recession, either. So we're going to award ourselves a full point for this one. But by our count, that's only three right out of seven so far.

People ignoring Trump's tweets turned out to be nothing short of wishful thinking. Sigh.

Trump was challenged by two Republicans in the GOP primary race, but neither one of them can accurately be described as "major," so we're not even going to claim a half-point for this one.

The hopefully-final tally for Democrats is that 29 of them ran for president this year. As of now, 14 of these have dropped out. So that one was pretty spot-on, for a rolling total of four out of ten.

We almost completely blew the last one, as of the four we picked to be frontrunners at this point, only one of them actually is. One of our choices (Sherrod Brown) didn't even run. Kamala Harris has dropped out, and Cory Booker is teetering on the brink of being forced to do so as well. Beto O'Rourke did indeed run, and Joe Biden is the clear frontrunner at this point because to date he has not faded in popularity much at all.

That leaves us with a 4-for-11 record, which is pretty dismal. Only 36 percent right, which is worse odds than flipping a coin. Oh, well, there's always next year, right?

Speaking of next year, let's move on to predicting what's going to happen in 2020.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un delivers his "Christmas present" on either New Year's Day or the day after. Much to the surprise of many, this comes not in the form of an I.C.B.M. test but rather with another nuclear test explosion. Trump flails in response.

Trump's impeachment trial takes place in the Senate, and at the end of it four Republicans actually cross party lines to vote for Trump's removal. However, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia also crosses the aisle, leaving the final vote at 50-50. No tiebreaker is necessary, since the requirement is actually 67 votes.

Brexit finally happens. It is not as bad as some predicted, but it's nowhere near as good as the promises made to the British public. By year's end, there are political movements calling for a vote to leave the United Kingdom in both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Trump loses in the Supreme Court over his stonewalling argument, and his income taxes are finally released and made public. What he was hiding turns out to be: (1) he's nowhere near as wealthy as he claims, and (2) Russian oligarchs do indeed hold the note on enormous loans to Trump, explaining his love for Putin.

More impeachable behavior is also uncovered after Trump aides are forced to testify before House committees. But Nancy Pelosi refuses to start a second impeachment proceeding, explaining that we're too close to the election to do so.

China continues to stifle free expression in sports, using the power of their gigantic market to do so.

And let's just close the list (and this article) out with our election predictions. Elizabeth Warren surprises everyone by winning Iowa. However, Pete Buttigieg comes in second and then wins the New Hampshire primary. Bernie Sanders pulls an upset in Nevada on the strength of the Labor vote, and then Joe Biden wins in South Carolina on the strength of the African-American vote. This leaves the field almost exactly where it is before the first four primaries, with no clear winner.

On Super Tuesday, Bloomberg does better than expected, but fails to win any state. In fact, in most states he fails to even meet the 15 percent mark, which leaves him with no delegates. He drops out within weeks, but does continue to run ads to help downballot Democrats and the party in general (while refusing to endorse any of the other candidates).

Slowly, the race narrows as Pete Buttigieg drops behind. Eventually Biden picks up his share of the voters, while Warren and Sanders continue to split the progressive vote. By the convention, though, Biden will have picked up enough delegates to secure the nomination.

Biden chooses Stacey Abrams as his vice presidential pick, which shouldn't really come as a surprise. Warren and Sanders would just reinforce how old Biden is, while Kamala Harris doesn't really bring much to the table (Biden needs no boost among African-American voters, and California is going to vote blue no matter what).

In November, Biden beats Trump like a drum by absolutely crushing him in the Midwest, just as he had predicted all along. In fact, Biden's victory is so big it even precludes Trump from claiming that "the election was rigged!" (which you just know he'd do if it is even remotely close).

However, I leave everyone with a truly terrifying thought -- what will Donald Trump be like as a lame duck? He'll have three months to sit and fume about his loss, and he's already proven he doesn't care a whit about the norms of expected presidential behavior, so the sky will be the limit for what he'll occupy his time doing. One prediction: he's going to pardon not only everyone from his administration currently in jail, but he'll also issue proactive pardons for every member of his family, including himself. Of course, this won't stop any of the state-level prosecutions....

So we come not only to the end of the year, but also to the end of our yearly awards. Have a happy new year, everyone! And to end in true McLaughlin fashion, we say to all of you:

"Bye-bye!"

If you're interested in traveling down Memory Lane, here are all the previous years of this awards column:

2019 -- (Part 1)
2018 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2017 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2016 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2015 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2014 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2013 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2012 -- (Part 1) )Part 2)
2011 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2010 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2009 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2008 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2007 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)
2006 -- (Part 1) (Part 2)