>> this is "the chris matthews show." >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> the time for commanchinge has come. >> near the top, that's right, best politics of the year. biggest surprises and the sheer nerve of some people. it's the angry award show. and we have the highlight reels all ready to show you. is it something i said? time to hit the return counter with all of those things you wish you didn't have to deal with. those things you wish you said you're sure you shouldn't have but that time of year to get it all right. finally, my favorite time of the year. has to be somebody's. who got what they wanted? who will remember 2010 as one in

a lifetime? i'm chris matthews. merry christmas. welcome to our annual award show. with us today, huffington post howard fineman, bbc's katty kay, nbc's norah o'donnell and "time" magazine's joe kleine. our first award, president obama's best move this past year, was it the tax cuts deal or pulling all combat troops out of iraq or putting general petraeus into afghanistan after that embarrassing "rolling stone" piece on general stanley mccrystal and his team or the wall street reform? howard, you get to pick it. >> i'll say it was the tax deal because it was a tactical retreat that will allow him and democrats to fight another day. chris: well said. does anybody challenge that for the best of the year? >> yes, with a caveat. i thought the petraeus move was brilliant because he was going to the good into trouble from the right and from conservatives for firing mccrystal and putting petraeus in charge really tamped that down and showed he was still serious about the war and also petraeus has been doing a heck of a job. >> i would agree with joe.

i'm attempted to say getting rid of mccrystal and moving petraeus in. it was how he handled it. it was fast. it was smooth. there was no second guessing. it was a nip and tuck and it was competent. chris: i think it was more strategic than tax cuts, it was done correctly. he had to get the troops off the beach like the brits did in world wari. i if he didn't cut that down, the republicans would come in, in january and cut the taxes and get all of the credits for it and woe look like a klutz. >> right. chris: that was the best of the year for the president. the next category, president's worst move this year, was it moving slowly on the big oil spill down in louisiana or allowing health care to stay way out front instead of focusing on jobs this year. if you're getting into that debate over the mosque being set in new york over ground zero, right near the beginning of the fall elections or was it the tax cut deal again? because some think twheapt the best or worst deal. i want to go to katty. >> i will go with the mosque

debate almost to the flip side of what i said about the petraeus/mccrystal thing. it was obama at his most eequiv cam. didn't show him in charge. he said one thing. he didn't say another. you didn't know what he believed about it. that was in a sense affecting his pncsiderey. sometimes it's hard to know what this guy really stands for. chris: he said i agree with the principle of the right to set it up. >> right. >> i vote for the slow burn on the oil spill because it consumed this white house for months and it showed that the white house had trouble getting its footing, how to respond. not that the president did not look like a leader who could command the issue and he kept saying, go down and vacation right in the gulf and spend the day there. mrs. obama went overseas so the white house looked out of touch. >> health care. it was at variance with what the american people really cared about, which was jobs. it was the worst move of his first two years. chris: put it all together, howard, you start here putting together bad and good -- >> i agree with joe on health care. that's the gift that keeps on taking.

>> yes. >> yes. >> keeps becoming less and less popular. beyond all that one other thing did he that overall is good is he made himself more familiar to the american people as a person and as a family. the polls show that what people liked best about barack obama is his personality, his equitable personality and the fact he's a family guy. there lr 10% or 20% of the american people who will continue to hate and fear him and his wife. but everybody else has kind of accepted him. chris: so et gettable -- >> as a member of the family and that's a key, key thing for a guy who came out of nowhere with the strange background. >> but after talking about the things -- nobody's commented on it but i think it's a real important thing that the polls show about him. chris: is that a foundation? we see in our polling the last couple of weeks, is that a foundation for better presidency s to come, norah? >> there's no doubt and getting out there and showcasing his

family will have to involve the warming up of michelle obama, who is still extremely dift trustful of the president. >> i disagree completely. >> why? >> i haven't seen it out there. i think people real like michelle obama. >> she's distrustful of the press and doing a lot of different things. >> knowing her, and the two young kids, people are still -- whatever they think aheut tbo policies, there areti sll sometimes there's pride, people say please, whatever, with these very nice choices to vo. chris: even gender wise, i now have a good sample to ask, do the american people like having a first lady who's basically a spouse, stays back, does a few causes like childhood obesity but basically doesn't come out front? >> she is very comfortable taking a step in that role. she hasn't done what others have did which is say i had a fantastic career. now i'm going to be in the white house and still be involved in

politics. michelle obama said i had a fantastic career. now i will be first lady and look after the kids. and i think it's her ease with that role. chris: she hasn't chosen to be a partner in policy. >> she is very much behind the scenes. she's a powerful adviser behind the scenes but she wants to be mom in chief. she was very protective of her children in making sure not only she speppeds too with him but ese prthident. 6:30 must leave the oval office and be at the dinner table. >> the crazy right had the whole angry black woman thing just teed up and she hasn't given them a chance to run away with it. chris: politics this year, generally there were plenty but here are four to kick around, the rich candidates spending millions to get nominated for big jobs to lose in november? meg whitman, $140, tons of money, linda mcmahon up in connecticut the tea party backer, senator jim demint, put

all kind of members, tea partiers, who were beaten in november. could have taken over the senate and didn't. rhode island democrat frank capo running for governor up there who had this to say to president obama when president obama passed him over in favor of lynn shafey to pay off an old debt. here he is. >> i never asked for president obama's endorsement. he can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as i'm concerned. chris: well, there's a class act. and nancy pelosi for staying on as house democratic leader even after the party lost big. norah, worst move of the year? >> worst move was probably the millionaire thing but i love that so many women have so many millions to spend. the silver lining. we have known and history is replete with self-funders, candidates who don't end up winning. meg whitman takes the cake with $150 million of her own money. i think it says something, look, when you're running for off and you have to ask people for

money to contribute to you, they didn't invest in your campaign in other 0 ways and i think that's one of the funding your own campaign. chris: very machiavellian, by the way. very smart. >> pelosi, pelosi, pelosi. chris: should not have stayed. >> the democrats do best with the core constituency, working people of this country. they need someone who reflects working people in the middle of the country to lead them. you know, for reasons, you know, it doesn't make a difference whether it's true or not but people see pelosi as sophisticated, san francisco, out of the mainstream, she was who the republicans ran against all year. not barack obama. and i think that her staying on was an act of hubris. >> i think the democrats loss the house for other reasons than just nancy pelosi. crs what did you think about what joe just said? >> i think joe's absolutely right. but i would say that the biggest mistake of the year was sharon engle, who was running against harry reid in nevada, putting on

a frankly racist ad about immigration against hispanics. what planet is she on, if the republicans are going to have anchance of being a true majority party, they're going to need a huge percentage of the hispanic vote. george w. bush in 2004 got 40% of it. she got less than 30% of it out there, way down below. and hry reid won that race going away because of what sharon engle did. that is the exact huge mistake that all republicans in the future have to somehow figure out how to come to grips with and avoid if they want to go forward. chris: a disease that party is suffering from. >> those opposing the dream act which would enable latino kids college or o t into the military have citizenship. those people are going suffer. chris: let's go to the next category. the annual foot and in mouth prize. maybe i should be up for this pimesm time. joe biden's a friend of big oil. at ha ouse hearing, here he is, when bp was on the carpet, he

apologized for putting them on the carpet. >> and this shakedown, i apologize. chris: it was british prime minister gordon graham campaigning in the hinterlands and count iring a woman upset about immigration and forgetting he was wearing a mic. >> all of these eastern europeans welcome them in. >> should never have put me with him. ridiculous. chris: the truth sometimes is spoken. get in trouble for it. robert gibbs kicked up a storm with democrats when he said this on "meet the press" back in july. >> i thire thenk's no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause republicans to gain control. there's no doubt about that. chris: again, telling the truth. finally, was it nevada republican candidate sue loudon, who many think lost her primary fight out there when she advocated this old-fashioned health care solution. >> you know, before we all started having health care in the olden days, our

grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. >> gordon graham lost the election because of that comment. it was truth but it revealed what the brits thought gordon brown was, which was this pompous, cold, heartless guy. but i would have to add another one, which was hamid karzai bragging about the fact he got bags of cash from the iranians and was an act of patriotism. only in afghanistan. >> the worst gaffes are the ones that show you something about the person that you suspected all along but you -- they had been trying to hide in public. and that's exactly what gordon brown -- gordon brown would lose the election anyway but he tried to show he was a nice guy and clearly he wasn't that nice a guy. the other foot in mouth is not exactly but you have it rice, the ad i am not a witch with the backdrop. if ever you have to declare yourself not a witch --

ch dis:ron't look like one. when we come back, who will get the annual prize, wikileaks guy, sarah palin, glenn beck? and look for incredible voicemail messages.

chris: welcome back to our annual awards. the nominee for the hutes pa award, the head of wikileaks said his organization has a duty to get the truth out to the world. our resident sarah palin who's often nervey but set a lot of nerves on edge with this one -- >> how is that healthy change stuff working out for you? chris: wow. or was it fox tv's glenn beck who had the nerve to hold his rally at the lincoln memorial on the very an rersry of martin luther king's 1963 "i have a dream" speech? or was it the army colonel who refused an order to deploy to afghanistan because he wanted to see the commander in chief's

birth certificate. howard? >> i don't think it's any of those things. i think it's all of the republicans in congress who were for earmarks until a couple weeks ago, and then they decided we hate earmarks and we are totally against them. we wish the democrats would allow them to go through but we're against them now. >> in the end they loved them. >> and they have so much hutzpa. >> and for defitic reduction. is it a tax cut and they're chomping at it. chris: i know, spending. >> but also obama is wanted for the physical museum. chris: the republican says they're such big conservatives. >> there has to be a word for glenn beck, who is a charlatan, really he retires the cup not just for that rally but the phony fro fesseral air he has

when he's broadcasting in which he promotes thee ridiculous conspiracy theories by john birch society nut cakes. it's outrageous 0. >> i will also add wikileaks though. even though you can debate the merits and otherwise putting this material out there, whether they are right or wrong to do it or right or wrong to have reactions, and i think there's a very solid debate to be hadver that. but i do think he has changed our access to information forever. i'm not sure whether there are elements -- there were elements of both but there's certainly hu change. >> the hutzpa part of it is he views himself as a huge figure. there's nothing modest about his own claims for himself. >> you call him leader of wikileaks and then corrected it to head of wikileaks. leader is how he sees himself. chris: i always said i never men an australian i didn't like. i'm still out on him. and caught on tape, the wost of

the, charlie crist the losing independent candidate in the florida senate race who left a message for democratic opponent kendra meek suggesting he quit the race so he can try and win? or california's jerry brown who did end up winning despite the flap over this insult to a part of meg ribbon, who thought his call had been disconnected. chris: or jimmy thomas, like supreme court justice harry thomas, who had the bright idea to leave a voice message for anita hill, suggesting she apologize to thomas over the testimony she gave way back when? or actor mel gibson, who had this to say to his girlfriend and the mother of his children --

chris: that was a calvacade of hate. what do you think of that one? >> it's the mel gibson. it's just appalling. and it reveals, it's another instance it reveals something about this guy you had suspected but wow, this is for wse. and he has been hounded out of hollywood because of that case. >> this has not been a good year for australians. >> i have -- chris: i still like them generally. >> wouldn't mel gibson play julianna -- >> i have to give the trophy to jeannie thomas for really ripping the scab on an old wound out of nowhere. chris: motivated for loyalty to your spouse but leaving a voicemail for someone -- >> and then came back and said she wished she hadn't done it. >> and then had to step down from her association from the tea party group, which is he said was not related to that. clearly, it brought up a lot of -- a lot about the old clarence thomas/anita hill hearing. chris: i still like living

dangerously. i'm sorry, mel gibson, great movie. "operateheart" was good, too. when we come back, who will get comeback of the year award?

chris: welcome back. there are were a lot of comebacks in the midterm election and one makes our top four comebacks of the year and that's the incoming governor in california who last was governor

three decades ago. and then george w. bush, whose memoir did better than anyone predicted and helped raise his approval numbers. jay leno who retook his late-night spot and got his groove back and there is the return of the man in gray flannel suit, don draper in the cast of huge hit "mad men," big comeback for madison avenue of the '50's and early '60's. norah? >> i have to give it to george w. bush who, of course, was a controversial president and left with pretty low approval ratings but his book ldso 1.75 million copies and it's the best-selling book this holiday season. chris: your thoughts? >> i'm a connoisseur of weird politicians. and jerry brown's first debate against meg whitman was just a classy creative incisive weariness hndis service of candidacy. great performance. >> we're missing the most one. chris: comeback of the year. >> obviously personified, bill

clinton. >> yeah. >> when he came into the -- i spent a lot of time into the press room these days. unfortunately i wasn't there when he came back. bill clinton walks in and easy as pie for the next half hour explain what's real life in washington, in politics is all about. chris: which is? >> take the deal. >> otherwise you go down the drain. take the deal. the gestures, whole thing. so happy. >> you can never go wrong with bill clinton. joining howard, why not. chris: we'll be right back with our big question this week, who had the very best year of everybod you may have heard his name already. be right back. lightning fast. lightning strong.

verizon 4g lte. rule the air on the most advanced 4g network in the world. chris: welcome back to our annual award show. who had the very best 2016 c13 chris: welcome back to our annual award show. who had the very best 2010? we have four nominees of our own but you may have had others. our four, tea party movement itself, changed walk. the flip side, republican leadership in the congress like mitch mcconnell and john boemiter. big year for them but they also now have to deal with the coming challenge of handling the tea party. or was it the royals over in britain, with the engagement of the future king and queen. good year for the queen,kiing a

elizabeth and monarchy. or was it hillary and bill clinton, already mentioned. she posted another idea as secretary of state and he was pivotal helping democrats around the country as well as 4e7ing president obama sell his big tax cut deal. howard, you started this. who's the all-time winner of the zeer >> i mentioned the clintons personally but i'm actually going to say the tea party. some people say it's oversold or counterjournalism saying it wasn't that big of a deal. it's a huge deal. and they will be the driving force in the congress overtime next two years. not the liberal democrad h. the tea party. >> i'm agreeing with howard this morning. he's very wise and debonair. chris: anarchy? >> i will go with the tea party because of what if you think about it this has been the most phenomenally fast rise of an movement in american politics. r yeaa and a half yalo -- chris: do you think it will descend this year? >> it may but a year and a half yalo we donjou know anythoug abt it.

>> i will vote for j mn btcmiter, who proved real men can do it multiple times. chris: in a secret hat. >>ly go with the tea party with the caveat, even though they were the biggest winners this year because they set the debate, they will be the biggest lbilers of next year bmuause thy will have to vote and you wlil see another tea party movement, restrained. chris: that said, tea for three, please. thank you, round table a. ward givers, howard fineman, kati ok, norah o'donnell and jtcyear?lei that's the group. thank you for watching. merry christmas and happy new thank you for watching. merry christmas and happy new year and see you here next week.

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