from washington the mclaughlin group. the american original. for over two decades the sharpest minds best sources, hardest talk.

it's the 30th annual mclaughlin group 2011 awards part two. here's the master of ceremonies john mclaughlin. >> destined for political stardom, 2012, pat. >> senator rand paul will emerge as the chief anti- interventionist and opponent of republicans taking us to war in iran. >> elizabeth warn contending for the senate seat against scott brown in mazz has the

potential to win the seat and galvanize democrats across the country. >> josh mandell is a republican running for senate? ohio. former marine. couple tours in iraq. >> andrew cuomo, the governor of new york who has brought forward a balanced budget bipartisan with democrats and republicans in that state. something that hasn't occurred in a long time. >> i know you are are eager for this envelope? >> i am indeed. i wish to thank you. what's going on, friend? let's see it, car nak. >> j. carson. >> car nak the magnificent? >> destined for political stardom in 2012, ong song chris dimino hi. already famous as a nobody prize winner. now no longer under house arrest she can openly campaign

as emerge as a political star. she is destined for political star dominique, pat, in 2012. >> takes my breath away. >> sarah palin a shopping around a new reality show. but they are not lining up to take it. >> rich? >> nancy pelosi. when democrats fail to take back the house she will no longer be the leader of that caucus. >> senator harry reid, the democrats are going to lose control of the senate and he will no longerk majority leader. >> destined for political oblivian in 2012, ricky assange. the five major newspapers in the world collaborated with assange. now they blame all of them. assange, for publishing leaked documents which they also published. that endangers people's lives. pat, best political theater of

2011. >> david cameron walks out of the uu summit, goes home to a reception, stands up for sovereignty and independence. finest hour. >> wait a minute. is that abuse of him or praise? are you being sarcastic? >> praise. >> you mean he rejected the euro zone, move right out of it? >> they said up yours. take your treaty and you know what you can do with it. >> he wants to protect great britain. >> he wants to protect their sovereignty and independence. >> don't you? >> john, conservatives don't like the euro zone. they don't like the euro dollar or anything. so they love london standing up to it. but my best theater is the parade of republican front runners all flawed, trump, bachmann, perry, cain and now gingrich. >> rich?

>> the drama of history turning. you couldn't take your eyes off of it. >> mark? >> i would say with cain's 999. a phrase that captured a heck of a lot of people with the idea of simplifying the tax code. i thought that was great. >> the european union's late and ineffectual response to the sovereign debt crisis. that is spread from greece to portugal to italy and appears to be in spain. the action moves at the pace of french cinema glacially. you get it? worst political theater, pat? >> occupy wall street and its clones, john. this is not the 1950s, children. >> this is not the 1950s we're living in either, pat. i think worst political theater is the audience at the republican debate that booed a gay soldier. >> rich? >> donald trump dragging everyone around in this absurd birther goose chase.

>> to me it was the gop debates. just the whole series of them. as if that's going to be the determination, unfortunately, of somebody that's qualified to be the president. >> the worst political theater, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu lecturing president obama at the white house. it's tough as an american to watch our president be lectured like a school boy on international television. especially when he is sitting in the white house. is that okay with you? >> what do you think, john? >> okay. worst political scandal? >> fast and furious. the atf sent 2,000 all weapons and modern weapons into mexico to the cartel to trace. they got a border patrol guy killed. these guns were being used in the cartel wars. >> bipartisan tie arnold schwartznegger's love child and anthony weiner's tweets. >> that's it.

one word. weiner. enough said. >> i thought he would say that. as long as we're talking about this, i would add in dominique strauss-kahn getting involved in a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful story for the new york city tabloids. >> what's the story? was he framed? >> well, i don't know if you have read the report on it. it certainly indicates that it's not a, shall we say, a black and white story because there is no doubt that there is a lot of very fishy information going on with that story that goes back to french politics. >> the worst political scandal of 2011. the u.s. senators and representatives and their staffs have information that would send wall street insiders to jail. okay. most underreported story, pat? >> the progress of run paul. he win straw polls, regular poles, he wins debates in the votes and he gets no credit whatsoever. >> what kind of credit do you wanted him to get, pat? >> i would like the media to

treat him with fairness, eleanor. >> okay. most underreported story is the positive impact the people are feeling of the affordable care ability, otherwise known as obamacare. >> rich? >> the secret war against iran where elements of their nuclear program continually explode accidentally and mysteriously. >> we have 48 million people in this country living below the poverty line. 17% of the population. it's a disgrace. you almost never read about that. >> most underreported story of 2011 india's drastic reduction of its poverty rate. the u.n. says that india's poverty rate will drop from 51% to 22% over the last 25 years. okay. the most overreported story of 2011, pat? >> the liberal media hype for jon huntsman, who is at about 0% at the same time they're

cutting ron paul dead. >> eleanor? >> casey anthony trial. >> rich? >> occupy wall street. you have a motley collection of wine any youth aging hip piece and homeless people gathering in a park and other cities in the country and the media swooned. >> i share that. that was my most overreported story. >> the most overreported story of 2011, the false story that america is in decline. the press. especially the financial press, keeps saying that america's days are numbered and that china will soon be the most powerful country on the planet. the true scholars are saying that america will still be on top in 2050. number one. four decades from now. take that. >> what about my book suicide of the. >> where is it? are you selling it? >> it's selling, but i am not selling it now. >> the biggest government waste, pat? >> $500 million loan guaranteed to sill end ra.

the green rack tears walking off with that kind of money and other dollars poured into electric cars and all the other eleanor nonsense. >> i love it all, pat. and if we live long enough we'll enjoy the fruits of all of that green stuff. biggest waste, the $1.4 billion in surplus dollar coins stockpiled by the u.s. treasury commemorating all the deceased presidents. >> pat nailed it. sill ind ra and the entire green industrial complex. >> the congressional salaries paid to the congressional leaders who couldn't agree on a debt reduction program to the great detriment of the united states. they deserve to be paid zero. >> what are they paid? >> over $200,000 a year. >> arele? the biggest government waste, the war in afghanistan. $2billion per week. but osama bin laden is dead. al-qaeda is all but gone from the country, and the afghan

government is negotiating with the taliban. okay. best government dollars spent, pat? >> keys off you, john. i think seal team six taking down bin laden and the targeted hits on al-qaeda itself. but i agree with you on afghanistan. >> eleanor? >> best government dollar i would say unemployment insurance in this time. >> rich? >> every penny spent on hell fire missles. >> i was going to say killer drones, which is exactly what you were referring to, rich. but i would also add the salaries of the people in the counterterrorism unit of new york city police who have done an unbelievable job in taking care of the terrorist threats to new york. >> the best government dollars spent, the money spent to bury osama bin laden in accord with muslim traditions. killing bin laden was a spectacular feat, but it would have been marred if the handling of the corpse offended

devout muslims. also, a land burial would have created a shrine for al-qaeda. bold exist political tactic, pat? >> newt gingrich saying that actually the palestinian people don't exist. they are an invented people. they are all arabs. >> horrible, huh? >> no, i mean, he spun this thing. i got to give him credit. >> he was talking as an historian and his view happened to match those of the evangelical christians he is courting in iowa. there is always method to his madness. >> i wouldn't go that far. >> well, i would say stripping the collective bargaining rights in wisconsin and ohio. bold political tactics back firing to a certain exbe tent. >> eleanor stole mine. scott walker is the bold exist. plowing through after dems fled the state. >> what do you think? >> newt gingrich taking on

these televised debates as a way to completely revive his political career and reputation. who would have thunk? >> the bold exist political tactics, president obama's decision to go negative in the current campaign 2012. there were high hopes he would be a unifying president. class warfare. if he loses in 2012 obama's legacy will not be as a unifier. it will be as a divider. you got that figured out, pat? best idea of 2011? >> america coming home from iraq as of january 1. and the next best idea is coming home from afghanistan by 2014. >> eleanor? >> to take to the streets the ab youth movement and the occupy movement in ts >> rich? >> y left. li. it's migred to e e of

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senatoafr he declon floor wa 70% of what pla. thrrt 3%. >>ispresident obama blaming republican policies for the weak economy after he go whatever he wanted for two years.sp to follow on that was to blame the republicans for fainto rive at a debt reduction agreement when in fact they trh and he walked away from it on friday morning. >>ay be sn of of the year, see chair bernanke. also his decision to ldpress conferences. it worked. both the press and the public lid e invaof the fed chairman holdinpress conferences. okay. the most overrated, pat? ovrad,john, i

think is the threat from iran. we are ttg l th mine from he. we got to go to save ourselves when ir represents no threat whatsoever. >> texas governor rick perry o mease frtrne with lots of money, lots of promise and it turns out he s posed in the debates as someone who cannot think on fe. the republican debates were the best idea ever. >> rick perry. the idea of him was sogo. we, i would say the most overrated was the euro. e ros now virtually collapsed and may bring about a hu llse the entire european economy. >> most overrated, the u. budget will cut $1.2 trli. e national debt is 15 trillion. 1.riioisa opin the bucket. it won't even pay for the long- terminterest on our bt most overrated, pat? mostunderrated, pat?

>> i ineupes the euro crisis. th e igring the demographic winter. they don't have a birth rate th llenable it to stay alive. the population is agek. agg. vet to mother nature, who visited upon japan an earthquake and tsunami, and in this country we had outs and fires. and with global warming up her sleeve, there is lots mo t co. >> i think john boehner s been surprisingly deft in keeping his caucus together. >>e most underrated thing that has happened to the country is the ener om naragad l that came out of fracking. it will change our whole independence on the ise of energy. evything will diminish the power of those countries that use this as a weapon against us for years. >> related to th, st underreported -- underrated, canada and mexico.

president obama's farm policy has largely shifted to asia. the president igri e fact that canada and mexico are the u.s.' largest trade markets. he should also focus on latin america. macropredictions? this is a group discussion. pat, what's your macroprediction. >> euro zone is going to me do oblyearly next year. i think italy or greece or both, i think it's going come down and bring down those european banks. i tell u,thcoeqnc when it leaps the atlanta ics, i think they will imperil barackoba'-ectn. yolook at the financial times, other publications over there, the pessimism is pandemic among a lot of writers who thought it ulwork out. >> these 27 nations that are in the ue, the broad eu, they are going to go it alone? there is t in be any european union? you're talking about the -- >> if you collapse, for example, if italy defatsth

banks come storming down and there is no way don tania ritacco -- contain it. >> is that a fundamental distinction? people can get confused. the entire euro zone is made up of27 nations. -- the european nation is made up of 27 theu ne could go down. that means they are still in the european union. but they do not have a collective opinion, a position onic is that correct? >> that is correct. but if the euro zone does go down, pat'sable right, you will see a recession in europe will compare to the great depression we had in the 1930s. you will will have a waste land for the banking and naia d.wi it affect the united states? >> without a question. >> our biggest trading partners are right here in this

hemisphere. >> yes. >> but we have a problem with the k.rrt? >> correct. >> that's one reason it will come back here. >> there are a lot of if's in the bloom and doom that you are projecting. i always end up with barack obama's defeat. i would point out that ily angela merkle, she has en shwd in how she is handling this. the euro zone or the euro is really an invention, an exrintpuedbyth germans. they have benefited a lot from it. she is taking a lot of potil sks. i'm still counting on merkle to pull the euro -- >> you think that angela merkle is going tot money to save greece and italy? >> well, that's, in effect, what she's doing anthe german

public doesn't much like bailing out of the country -- but in the end they will benefit more if they do that. they areonly going to put money in it seriously if they can control those countries. john, there is a school of thought from the beginning on the euro atenal you would have a crisis that would force a greater consolidation of europe and you would have inevitable centralization. there is a horn of a dilemma here. you can't have a -- hold on -- you can't have a single currency without a single country -- >> we are becoming bored. >> mine is about as macro as the euro zone because it's looking ahead to the next year, and that is virtual certainty there will be a third party movement because americans elect is putting in place the structure for somebody to win. if newt gingrich wins, even if he doesn't, they will be lining up to run. i don't know who benefits.

>> i'll tell you who could benefit if we could get him to change his mind, and that's the mayor of new york. michael bloomberg. the president of the united states. >> listen, he had a real chance the last time because the whole financial crisis broke during that election campaign. he would have had unique credibility. he just couldn't imagine that at that point. he is a very talented guy. >> is he made for that job? he knows economic. he brought new york out of a recession. >> he has done an outstanding job in new york. >> how about the secretary of treasury? >> i agree. i think especially if gingrich is a nominee, which i doubt. but if he is, you could get ron paul in there and that could suck bloomberg in there. but what state is mayor bloomberg actually going to run? >> new york city. obama will carry new york city as the democratic nominee against the independent. >> so. third party or independent party. you ought to know. >> how do you create a party? >> if bloomberg is in there --

>> what's the name of your party? >> if bloomberg is in there, obama loses. >> i predict the u.s. will start a path in 20 that will lead to be the manufacturing leaders in the auto industry. new year's rezlations. >> get to worrying on my memoirs. >> i have had a smile through the political fights ahead and to tap into pat's knowledge about third party candidates. >> i just got married this year so i resolve to get used to being wrong about everything. >> i am going to spend as much time as i can with my two young children. >> stay on top of the ratings. happy new year's. bye-bye. óóññ