from washington, "the mclaughlin group," the american original. for over two decades, the sharpest if. for such a small word it packs a wallop. if i live to a hundred. if social security isn't enough. if my heart gets broken. if she says yes. we believe if should never hold you back. if should be managed with a plan that builds on what you already have. together we can create a personal safety net, a launching pad, for all those brilliant ifs in the middle of life.

you can call on our expertise and get guarantees for the if in life. after all, we're metlife. it's the 29th annual "the mclaughlin group" year-end awards, 2010, part ii. here's the master of ceremonies, john mclaughlin. >> destined for political stardom 2011. pat. >> ken, the attorney general of virginia is going to be in a year-long battle in a head to head battle with obama over obama care. it may go right to the supreme court and obama care could go down, and cucchinelli will go down. >> he says this is non- constitutional. >> there are a lot of ifs on the way to stardom. my choice is steny hoyer. he's been in congress 30 years. he's always been overshadowed

but he's in a position to deal with john boehner and the republicans. i think if anything happens in congress next year that's positive he will be in the middle. >> i've got four newly elected republicans, marco rubio, alan west, from florida, susanna martinez the newly elected governor of new mexico, carolin >> biggest winners? >> destined for plately cal stardom. >> jeb bush because of his national leadership in the field of education, which is going to become day? >> manicuring. >> destined for political stardom in 2011. new york city mayor mike bloomberg, approval ratings from both republicans and democrats drop the more people will ask bloomberg to throw his hat in the ring for run for president in 2012 as an independent destined for political stardom in 2011.

what do you think of that? >> i say that's a low probability outcome. not because he isn't a star but because i think he's going to stay away from running or even indicating that he'll be involved in presidential politics. >> destined for political oblivion, pat. >> the euro zone, it is coming down this year. ireland or greece or spain or portugal will default, the banks will come down, the euro zone will be yesterday. >> eleanor. >> don't ask/don't tell. the congress is acting as if they didn't or if they don't the courts will act, and we're going to end he that policy which has been really unfair and is a violation of the civil rights of a number of people. >> margo. >> cap and trade, and any other legislation that's linked to this now discredited notion of man-made global warming. >> mark. >> the two national fiscal commissions after the congress and the president went through with a trillion dollar deficit program, that so-called tax

bill that's just going to add a trillion dollars to the deficit. politically irrelevant. >> destined for political oblivion, florida independent charlie crist. he was once a finalist for the gop vice presidential candidacy. today he's a talented politician with new home. today, he's toast. pat. >> >> sarah palin beats a halibut to death in a boat, blows away a friendly caribou who is approaching her, and raises the ratings of the living channel by 5 million people. >> eleanor. >> i give it to president obama, president clinton, their appearance together in the white house briefing room. it was like two commanders of armies coming together. g shows like sarah palin's alaska. what's the category? best political theater. i'm going give to the glenn beck's restoring honor rally. it was astonishing that he was

able to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to come on >> motor. >> jon stewart and steven colbert gathering a quarter of a million people in washington to celebrate the end of anger in politics. >> we'll look forward to that. >> best political theater, christine o'donnell's television ad during the delaware senate race where she declares, quote, i'm not a witch, unquote. we haven't heard accusations of witchcraft as an issue in a u.s. senate race ever before this. best political theater. okay, worst political theater, pat. >> i've got one that will surprise you. i'm not a witch, john, i'm you. [ laughter ] >> i had the same one for worst political theater. much as i admire christine o'donnell and wanted to see her in the united states senate. >> eleanor. >> worst theater, sarah palin killing bambi and bludgeoning the halibut, and at the risk of mixing my met that force or my fish, she jumped the shark on

that. her polls are dismal. 80% of women do not like sarah palin and cannot imagine her as president. >> what about ratings on the learning chapel on sunday night? >> through the roof. >> i don't think that's going all that well, either. >> monica? >> the show is doing quite nicely. i'm not worried about sarah palin. >> it will now. >> worst political theater, nancy pelosi with that absurdly cartoonish giant gavel that she schlept to the house of representatives on the day of the time obama care vote. >> mark. >> i would say it was the terrible acting of so many political lead whers the wikileaks exposed a lot of their private communications trying to give suggestion that these weren't significant. >> worst political theater, the confirmation hearings for the u.s. supreme court justice elena kagan featuring a stacked democratic majority, a candidate who never served on the bench, and practically no

paper trail to question her on her command of the law. >> worst political scandal, current number nine in a high end prostitution ring turns out to be the governor of mort's state of new york. >> now hosting spitzer parker. >> parker spitzer. >> eleanor. >> bp oil spill which is being litigated now in the courts, civil suit, potentially criminal suits, and i want to point out that that gavel i believe was used toga veal when medicare was passed. so there was some fine history there that was >> the category is, worst political scandal. leaving the tax rates in the resolution of the tax rates to each other's performances. i'm getting signals to move faster. >> worst political scandal. the failure to hold public officials accountable who said it would only cost $25 billion for the congress and the country to take over fannie mae and freddie mac.

we're up north of 150 billion and it's going up. >> the worst political scandal is president obama's attempt to persuade joe says tack to drop out of the pennsylvania race, democratic primary so that u.s. senator arlen specter would win. worst political scandal. most underreported story of 2010, pat. >> the illegal aliens are going home and they're being deported, their numbers are reduced and nobody is mentioning that fact. the attrition policy is working if the obama administration would pursuit stronger they'd after great record ?oomplt excellent. eleanor. >> most underreported president obama's accomplishments, i'll mention one that a lot of people don't know about, the student loan reform which got the banks out as middle man. republicans are going to try to repeal that. >> the gallani verdict. he was acquitted of all but one charge when he was tried in civilian court. this was a disaster for the

obama holder policy, and this could mean the death nail for that process. >> mark. >> the most underreported story is the vulnerability of the nation's computer networks, especially in the electrical power grid and the financial system to hackers which could, if we ever get into a serious situation, could bring this country to a halt. >> interesting. most underreported story of 2010, the spike in the u.s. poverty rate this year poverty climbed to a 15-year high. 44 million americans today live at or below the poverty level. most underreported story of 20 10. okay, the most overreported story of 2010. patrick. >> the suffering of lindsay lohan. >> overreported. >> i've seen it on cable tv constantly. >> eleanor. >> i didn't know you watched that stuff, pat. i give it to the tsa pat-downs. >> interesting. >> bristol palin on "dancing with the stars." >> mort. >> i would say it was the oil spill in the gulf, the story

that went on and on forever. >> the most overreported story of 20 10. the tea party movement. it's overreported that the coverage created a caricature of tea partyers portraying them as angry racists, too old, too white, too male, the most overreported story of 2010. biggest government waste, pat. >> iraq war, 4,500 dead, 36,000 wounded, $1 trillion down the drain, 500,000 iraqi widows and orphans for what? a country that didn't threaten us, didn't attack us and didn't want war with us. >> i'll say amen to that and had a tax cuts to the rich. >> those are important. >> he was about to say amen in return. >> biggest government waste, so much to choose from but i'm going to give it to the $6.4 billion in stimulus money that went to phantom congressional district. >> mort. >> the pat-downers and screeners at airports when

biometric screening can do the same thing without uncovering private secrets. >> right on. particularlily the iris screening. it cannot be duplicated by any other person. one per each. >> same with fingerprints. >> no, the fingerprints, not true. the japanese were able to mimic fingerprints. the biggest government waste, the death penalty. an individual death penalty case could climb to $100 million, much of it spent at the litigation level. also, dna evidence has exonerated nearly 300 death row inmates. at least 39 of those have been executed despite evidence of innocence. biggest government waste. best government dollar spent, pat ?ai. think the money spent for the haitian victims of the earthquake and the pakistani victims of those horrendous floods in that country. >> eleanor. >> the gm bailout. gm is now doing quite well, had a very successful ipo, and they've got a great share in the market in china. i'll throw in all the other bailouts. the bankers have paid back their money. even aig. >> a basket of bailouts.

>> best government dollar spent, the salaries of general david petraeus and ray 0 dee odierno. >> mort. >> the fake bombs that we used to catch would-be terrorists. >> best government dollar spent, the bush tax cuts, the extension of those will add #% to gdp growth, a far higher boost than all of president obama's stimulus spending, plus cash for clunkers and first- time homebuyer's credit combined. best government dollar spent is that. >> lisa murkowski gets upset in the al lags could senate primary, she's beaten, she puts herself on as a write-in, runs and wins back her senate seat. there is more than one mama grizzly in alaska. >> excellent choice. i think it's mine. >> boldest tactic, i am not a witch, i am you. >> monica.

>> boldest tactic, governor jan brewer signing into law that arizona illegal immigration law. >> mort. >> the computer geniuses who boldest political tactic. president obama's enlistment of former president clinton to take his place at the podium and sell skeptical democrats on the idea of extending all of the bush tax cuts. obama's calculation was that failure to okay, here it is, best idea of 2010. pat. >> after a shellacking in 2010, barack obama embraces the bush tax cuts, works with the republicans, gets a deal, and starts bag up in the polls. >> eleanor. >> i'm going abroad. the coalition government, the unity government in england, conservative prime minister david cameron, and the liberal democrat deputy nick craig, and together they're able to take the heat as they're steering the government through a lot of

os tear tee measures that have prompted protests in the street. >> monica. >> the obama administration's decision to keep guantanamo bay open and to teen top terrorists like khalid shaikh muhammad in prison proving that president bush was right. >> whoever came one the idea for the movie of the social network. >> the computer worm which derailed iran's uranium enrichment program. nuclear uranium can be processed to make the bomb. 21st cyber warfare at its best. worst idea of 2010, patrick. >> the feds' quantitative easing, buying up bonds and inducing inflation and a future american economy. >> supreme court decision in citizens united which took the cap off of contributions, many of them anonymous of corporations and unions, flooding the political process. >> monica. >> building a mosque at ground

zero which would be a huge victory for the insidious stealth jihad happening now in america. >> mark. >> trillion dollars in tax cuts without putting anything in for subsequent reductions in government expenditures to balance off the revenue losses. >> worst idea of 2010, president obama's rejecting vice president joe biden's advice to limit the u.s. military role in afghanistan through surgical operations, all technology, notably drones, and rejecting biden, obama has de facto committing to keeping military forces in afghanistan until late 2014. worst idea of 2010. okay, sorry to sea you go, pat. >> al hag, our friend in boston, the white house days, and joe soben, the best con serbive writer of his generation. >> the gore marriage. they announced in june after 40 years that they're separating. sorry to see that go. >> general stanley mcchrystal who is still very much with us but we did lose the nation's top counter insurgency guy

because of some very impoll ticked comments he made to "rolling stone." >> ted sorenson, the architect of phrases like "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. " he was a marvelous man. >> sorry to see you guy, white house economic guru larry somers. the former harvard university president was the only one who acknowledged how global trade means lost american jobs gone overseas. sorry to see you go larry. okay, 15 minutes of fame, pat. >> pfc bradley manning. welcome to leavenworth, bradley. >> eleanor. >> shirley sherrod, the usda official who was fired for having -- when her remarks were taken out of context by a conservative activist. i'm flattered by her. you had a negative 15 minutes. mine is a positive 15 minutes for her, not for the scandal that followed. >> velma hart. she was the woman who respectfully but emotionally

challenged president obama over his economic policies, and she famously told him that she was exhausted from defending him. she has since lost her job. >> christine o'donnell who won the republican primary for the senate in delaware and took away a sure republican seat from that seat. >> 15 minutes of fame. joe miller, the republican senate candidate from alaska. morel got his 15 minutes after being endorsed by sarah palin and the tea party but miller lost the election in -- to a write-in candidate and incumbent, namely lisa murkowski. miller has been hung out to dry since then. 15 minutes of fame. best spin of the year, pat. >> larry king. i want to spend more time watching my kids play little league ball, when he didn't want to go. >> he will eleanor. >> he will be missed. he had a very -- his own style of interviewing. >> did he indeed. >> very successful. best spin, billions of dollars of corporate money is not a problem in the political process because we spend more b

in that as well. best spin of the year, that healthcare reform was about healthcare. it was never about healthcare. it was about government control. >> mark. >> the best spin was that obama care would in fact save money. >> the best spin of the year, president obama's own post-mid- term spin. voters sent him a message, he says. the message according to obama was compromise with the republicans, but exit polling shows that the voters message was not compromise. it was block obama's agenda. best spin of the year. okay. the most honest person of the year, pat. >> my favorite socialist, bernie sanders forced the fed to admit that it spends $3 trillion bailing out everybody in the western world. >> eleanor. >> richard holbrook who with his dying breath said we should end the war in afghanistan. >> monica. >> i'm going to give it to fidel castro who finally admitted this year that socialism doesn't work and he is moving to privatize all of

the state industry. >> mark. >> stanley mcchrystal, our former general in charge of counter insurgency in afghanistan and his press conference. >> most honest person of the year. did you finish? >> yeah. >> first lady, michelle robinson obama. when asked by sarkozy, the first lady of france, how michelle liked living in the white house, michelle responded, it's hell. the most honest person of the year. the most overrated, pat. >> mahmoud ahmadinejad of iran. no, he is not adolf hitler. >> eleanor. >> overrated, the surge of democratic voters in '08. they didn't show up for the mid- term. >> monica. >> most overrated, hillary clinton as secretary of state. in every major foreign policy issue she's either been a failure or awol. russia, china, iran, north korea, the middle east peace process and afghanistan. >> you don't agree with that, mort. >> no, i don't. the two million students in

pharris who rioted when the social security system will be broke by the time they get to the age they're worried about. >> the most overrated, the democratic party boasts that it has the edge in social media to build political strength. namely, using networking websites like facebook or twitter or my space, or four square, et cetera. the tea party and the gop has clearly caught up and surpassed so therefore their claim -- the democrats' claim is widely overrated. the most underrated, pat. >> the anti-war conservative movement which is battling the know 0 cons to prevent a new war with iran. >> underrated, i'm tempted to give to the hillary clinton just to counter monica's tirade, but actually i'm giving to the hud secretary sean donovan who is working very effectively and quietly behind the scenes to stabilize the housing crisis. >> monica. >> i'm tempted to counter eleanor's tirade there but i

will give most underrated to sarah palin who continues to be dismissed and mocked by the left and yet she has far more political and cultural influence than her critics give her credit for. >> mort. >> president hu jin tau of china with a investment that turned the country around in less time than any other major country. >> number two in the world in gdp? >> he yeah. >> most underrated. rahm emanuel. obama should have listened more to him. he called for an incremental health insurance bill not a three-foot-high comprehensive one. he was ignore okay, macro predictions. pat. >> i think there's going to be -- mort and i have been talking general collapse. governments are going to default and i think banks are going to collapse across europe, maybe in the united states, maybe states like california and illinois are going under. i don't know how, john, we

avoid a general financial collapse as great as it was in 2008. >> you mean the world? >> i think the world. i mean europe and the united states primarily. >> you're talking cataclysm? >> i'm talking financial, as george bush famously said this suck ser going down. >> oh, give mae break. eleanor. >> that's a little apocalyptic for the end of the year but i will play off of pat's saying that he's going to work on his nicks on memoir in advance of the centennial of nixon's birth. next year is the centennial of ronald reagan's birth, and they will begin with a flyover and 21-gun salute at the library, then a year worth of events culminating tin first primary of the republican candidates. and i think the reagan spirit will hover over the election process, but i hope they take the right message from it, because reagan worked with democrats. he was a former democrat, and he had a signature optimism, and i think divisiveness is

much more the order of the day, particular well sarah palin who is kind of derided president reagan saying, oh, he was really just an actor, as a way to inflate her own credentials. >> what is that all about? >> it was her way of saying that she and i do in the 21st century. >> i do agree with pat. >> you believe in an apocalypse now? >> i do agree with pat to some extent. i think debt cry cease that we' seeing around the world, that they will lead to some great new economic reset. i don't know what form it's going to take but i will say that the macro prediction in the united states we have had very long-term and continuing and stubborn high unemployment, and i think it's going to lead to some major psychological realignment on the part of the american people, because we -- apart from the grade depression we haven't gone through anything quite like this that has shattered our very assumptions about america that our children will have it

better than we, did that everything we knew to be true is no more. >> you think buchanan is going to experience that psychological realignment? >> are you already, pat? >> i'm worried about the financial realignment right now, john. >> the state and local governments are facing deficits in excess of $20 0 billion this year. they have no choice, by law, but to balance these bumming eats. i think a number of them are going to find it extraordinarily difficult. california is facing a $28 billion deficit, and $20 billion in deficits five years out. we have to find a way to address that issue. the washington is going to get completely embroiled in that because we cannot allow state and local governments to collapse. >> i don't think the republicans are going to bail them out. i think some of the states almost have to go under. they can't keep macing sacrifices and imposing them on basically a social safety net. >> what is going to happen? it's really what monica is saying. just as the inflation of the 170's really affected people's

attitudes. so, too, literally this high level of unemployment is going to go on, going to affect people's attitudes for consumption for years to come. >> have more faith in geithner, bernanke. >> i do, i do. >> things are going to turn around. i feel as though i'm presiding over a wake here. my macro prediction that the u.s. organized labor movement will rise again with renewed energy in their new role of collective bargaining, and a new role as a bridge between conservatives who want businesses taxed less to spur hiring, and liberals what want wages and benefits new year's resolutions. pat. >> publish my book that's just done and get to work on the nicks on memoirs to come out and to correct the record about richard nixon for his centennial date, which is 2013, 100th anniversary of his birth.

>> eleanor. >> i resolve to do more to embrings the future, post more on my facebook wall, tag my friends, and tweet. >> monica. >> last year i resolved to do a world war ii tour of europe, and i'm sad to say i didn't do it this year so i'm going to say it until i do it. >> is you're going to repeat the resolution? >> until i do it. >> mort. >> i'm going to have my children start to learn chinese. >> my new year's resolution, next august, in nevada, in the blackrock dessert, i will attend the burning manifest value. the festival is an american original. bohemians gather and salute america's artistic freedom. if any of you are there, say hello to me. >> if i recognize you. >> i will have a lengthy white beard and new year, bye-bye! life.