>> from washington, "the mclaughlin group," the american original -- for over three decades, the sharpest minds, best sources, hardest talk. >> it's the 34th annual "the mclaughlin group" year end awards 2015 part two. here's the master of ceremonies, john mclaughlin. john: destined for political stardom in 2016. pat buchanan. pat: this one is for eleanor, tulsi gabbard, democratic congresswoman from hawaii. iraq war vet, very charismatic. has been really moving up. she's in number two or three

position at the d.n.c. real attractive. has a real future. john: how old is she? pat: you don't ask a woman her age, john. [laughter] pat: go ahead, eleanor. eleanor: she's young and i agree with you. i think she's poised for bigger things. i'm going to go a couple of rungs higher. hillary rodham clinton is almost certain democratic nominee, poised to be our next president. stardom doesn't get any bigger than that in the political world. tom: speaker paul ryan. i think he's going to become instrumental in forging more deals with democrat, consolidating the conservative base in the party but also guiding the eventually -- eventual republican nominee on fiscal matters. clarence: i'm going to say abigail fisher. she's leading the -- she's a plaintiff in the anti-affirmative action case in -- that's going to the supreme court next year and this could end affirmative action on college campuses or strengthen it and it could be one of the biggest decisions. john: speaker of the house paul

ryan. second most powerful politician after the president. ryan will have the privilege to be speaker when the political pendulum swings next november election day putting him in a pivotal spot. destined for political oblivion. pat: angela merkel. i think the chancellor of germany has made a terrible mistake in throwing over the gates. she's losing her party in bavaria. if this continues, she's in deep trouble. even though she's "time's" person of the year. john: well stated. eleanor: i wound underestimate angela merkel's power of recovery. we'll check back in a year. oblivion, louisiana senator david vitter. lost in a cloud of scandal, governor of louisiana and will not run again for the senate so he will be gone. tom: the leader of the u.k. labor party imploding the party with him. john: why?

tom: because he's socialist and very strange. john: really? pat: hard left. clarence: got to be jeb bush that has led my -- most likely republican nominee list. he has now fallen drastically and if he does not get a nomination, which appears likely will happen, then i don't know what he's going to do politically after that. john: destined for political oblivion, brazilian resident dilma rousseff. the polls have dropped to under 10%. brazil's economy is shrinking. and the scandal and corruption is ongoing. best political theater. pat: donald trump arrives at the iowa state fair and tells all the little kids to take a ride on the trump helicopter. is a real winner all the way around. eleanor: bernie sanders giving hillary clinton a pass on her emails in the first democratic debate. tom: donald trump's interactions with various people in the media. clarence: i say john kasich coming across in the early

debates as very practical leader and organizer who mixed government work and did absolutely no good in the current contest. john: best political theater is the upcoming republican primary debate. the first four g.o.p. debates to accumulative audiences of 75 million viewers. it has to be the best political theater or republicans or people wouldn't be watching best political theater. pat: which now? worst political theater? worst political theater, isis is beheadings and their executions, their drownings and the horror show they put on the internet and put on social media. it is horrendous. eleanor: well in that vein but not exactly, the media scrum going through the home of the two san bernadino shooters. the press descended like

vultures in trying to pick apart whatever findings they could get that weren't already absconded by the f.b.i. tom: i'm going to use that and say what the islamic state is doing and show how it can actually in that propaganda sense lead to a very cumulative destructive effect, that destsruction towards violence. clarence: i would say in terms of having the least impact that was desired would be barack obama's isis speech that recently on prime time on tv nd trying his mightiest saying something new but it's a reiteration of what we already knew, basically. it didn't have much impact. john: worst political theater. the democratic primary debates. the first two debates attracted a cumulative audience of 24 million viewers. the first g.o.p. debate topped that number in just one debate. by the second g.o.p. debate,

the republican cumulative total was 48 million. double the number, eleanor, of viewers of the two democratic debates. eleanor: i don't think they're all going to turn into votes, john. [laughter] john: you hope. eleanor: good entertainment. john: most underreported story of 2015? pat: the ferguson effect, to be exact, on police and their declining to get out of cars and really do aggressive policing and the effect that is having on the rising murder rate and crime rate in various cities. the evidence is anecdotal but it's there. clarence: it's anecdotal. eleanor: i guess i would give it to the republican ongoing war against science whether it's climate change or even investigating the psychology behind all the shootings. they wouldn't allow funding on research for gun violence. tom: chinese imperialism in the

pacific which draws distinct parallels to the japanese empire in the 1930's. clarence: from what we've seen some police officers do says that they are staying in the cars but the most underreported story to me, though, is the shootings of people, especially young black males in particular that are not by police officers, by just the regular homicides that have been driving up the crime rate and are -- we've become unnerved to it. john: at the "wall street journal's" annual chief financial officer conference, only 22% said the t.p.p. would have a positive impact on their corporation. the other 78% said it would either have no impact one way or the other or hurt that business. so the answer to that is obvious. the most overreported story of 2015. pat? pat: the election of 2016. [laughter] you can't turn on the tv

without the talking heads of all three cable channels. it is a fascinating election, john. but i have to say it's wall to wall. it's wall to wall. eleanor: it's trump in polls. i guess, you can justify it, it's an important election. there are a lot of candidates. so i'm going to give the award to the feuer over starbucks coming out with a cup that was only red and was seen as an attack on the war on christmas. [laughter] get a life. tom: i think the obsession in terms of debate coverage, not so much the debate themselves but the predebate coverage and the post-debate coverage on cable. the minutia. john: you mean minutia? clarence: i got to say, pat's right the coverage of the campaign which i'm a political junkie, but come on. there's been a -- this has exposed just how driven by

ratings we are. both tv ratings and nextel cup circulation, etc., because trump's presence is bringing out millions of viewers that wouldn't be watching otherwise. that's good for the process overall. but it is a shame that it's driven for reasons that don't have directly to do with public service. john: the most overreported story of 2015. the mischaracterization of the influx of immigrants into europe has "syrian refugees". many were from as far away as afghanistan and sub-saharan africa and ukraine. asylum seekers including 34,000 syrians and 53,000 albanians and kosovos. biggest government waste. pat: the government played $43 million for a gas station in afghanistan that actually cost

$500,000. they think they are building the watergate exxon in afghanistan. [laughter] eleanor: the select committee on benghazi which is like the eighth or ninth congressional investigation cost $5 million. big waste. all they found was a dry hole. tom: the failure to reform medicare, which is a key program that would bankrupt my generation or i think it can be reformed even in small ways without having a negative influence on people's ability to access medical care. clarence: the biggest waste is the obama care repeal votes that don't go anywhere and i have now officially lost count of how many votes there have been and they're still going on. john: you going to try to figure it out? clarence: i don't know what good it's going to do because obama care is here to stay. eleanor: exactly. john: we'll see. biggest government waste. $2.7 billion in u.s. tax dollars. the obama administration gave

an energy department loan guarantees to spanish solar power from al-bengoa for the u.s. green energy project. from insolvency to bankruptcy, we'll see. but it dwarfs the $530 million wasted on solyndra. best government dollars spent, pat? pat: first responders. whether it's in charleston, domestic terrorism of these crazies or islamist terrorism, in san bernardino, these guys are always there first. they're cops and they go in there and they risk their lives and they do it again and again and again and it's happening more often. john: eleanor. eleanor: i'll say amen to that i'll add obamacare subsidies. 17 1/2 million people have health care in this country that they didn't have before, and the enrollment period was extended because -- pat: aren't we going to repeal obamacare? eleanor: no, we are not going to repeal obamacare.

[laughter] best money spent. tom: we'll see how that plays in the election. the united states secret service got a lot of negative criticism. but every day, the officers and the agents of that distinguished agency put their lives on the line for a very noble cause. american democracy. clarence: recent replacement of no child left behind. revamped education program. i'm hoping it works now. john: 7.7 billion on special perations command. socom most operations worldwide, carrying out the hazardous missions of hostage rescue, located and eliminating terrorist leaders. money very well spent. boldest political tactic? pat: chinese communists taking underwater reefs to create islands to enable them to claim the entire south china sea. like it or not, it is as bold as it can be. eleanor: boldest tactics, black lives matter. tom: paul ryan with the bid in

solidarity -- clarence: trump's decision to call for a temporary halt to more muslims coming in the country which happened to coincide with ted cruz making significant gains against him in the polls. it's a reckless move. it smells of desperation but certainly bold. john: it's the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in making a gamble and making a direct address to the u.s. congress. warning of the dangers of a weak nuclear agreement with iran. netanyahu failed to stop the agreement and his relation with obama is worse than ever. boldest political tactic. worst political scandal. pat? pat: it's volkswagen which has fixed their converters or whatever it is to prevent the carbon dioxide emissions. they destroyed the reputation of the country. they're going to be sued

bms and billions of dollars. the damaged the reputation of germany because this is the car company that is germany. it's a horrible mistake. eleanor: i had that one too, but i'm going to add the -- let's see. is it exxon? which they've been -- exxonmobil. their inner communications reveal that they understood the damage that their product was doing to the atmosphere many years ago and they basically covered it up. tom: i would say the known unknown of hillary clinton's emails. i suspect something might come out and that might be the big one. clarence: it may well be in chicago with mayor rahm emanuel apparently -- well, sitting on the video that led to the recent police shooting scandal. he survived his mayoral re-election but the state attorney, anita alvarez, faces one in march and she looks like she's going to go down. john: pretty serious.

worst political scandal, china's intelligent service hacking the u.s. office of personnel management. o.p.m. and stealing the files and identities of more than 22 million u.s. federal employees. bad, bad, bad. best idea of 2015. pat? pat: i'm going to give this to barack obama for resisting pressure and everything else to put large numbers of american troops into iraq and syria. eleanor: hear, hear. i would also add, which pat won't agree with, but the supreme court legalizing same-sex marriage. [laughter] tom: yeah. i'm going to say the small reforms that came through congress in terms of reforming the social security disability fund. clarence: i'll plug a rival newspaper "the new york times" and their sort of cardboard viewer of virtual reality videos with the use of the iphone that i think is going to in many ways,

revolutionize the future of media news and otherwise. john: what's the downside of the iphone? clarence: the iphone? the downside is it's expensive. john: what about the kids using it all the time? clarence: that's up to the parents. tom: new generation. what's yours, john? john: i see you're flattering "the new york times." clarence yes, i am. john: best idea of 2015. russian billionaire yuri milner. $100 million project to find intelligent life in the universe. milner is a physicist and has put together a team of scientists to scan radio signals from the billions of stars and 100 galaxies closest to earth. don't you love it? pat: good for him. john: worst idea of 2015. pat: putting women into combat. john: what? pat: putting women in combat in

the american armed forces. eleanor: women were already in combat. it just opens up jobs and gets them on the right pay scale. worst idea is barring all muslims from entering the u.s. thank you, donald trump. om: the refusal to put a limited number of special forces to call on air strikes on isis in syria. clarence: those are all good suggestions for bad ideas. i'm going to pick trigger warnings. the notion that you need to warn students of anything disturbing or provocative in the literature they're going to be reading in class. this is -- what is university for but to be provocative? john: worst idea. president obama's decision to stop prosecuting u.s. citizens who pay ransom to terrorist groups like isis. kidnapping for ransom not only helps finance isis' terrorism but it also makes us people -- makes u.s. people more

attractive as hostages. worst idea. sorry to see you go. pat: the confederate battle flag, john, is departing and i would add the great yogi berra, who i loved and admired. eleanor: senator barbara boxer and barbara mikulski. two women who were trailblazers. they announced again they won't run again in 2016. tom: the u.s. military personnel who died this year in combat operations but also those who lost their lives due to mental health issues. clarence: i'm sorry to see john boehner go the way that he did go. it was noble for him to try to set things up so we wouldn't have to worry about government shutdowns for a while as he headed out the door. but it was really more of a result of the chaos in the house than the productivity of it. john: boehner was a class act. clarence: he was a class act but not a class act on capitol hill. john: sorry to see you go.

cecil the lion. who was killed by a trophy hunter. the u.s. dentist walter palmer. he's back hunting in zimbabwe. his wife gave him full chance -- full -- his wife gave him a -- tom: well, i'd leave it like that. let's go to the next one. john: well, i kind of like it. you're taking over the show now? clarence: yeah. john: gave him full clearance to go. she's the daughter of rob -- of former wife of robert, conrad bob. you remember him. pat: he's still around. 90 years old. john: 15 minutes of fame. pat: governor martin o'malley, presidential candidate. it'll be february 9, the new hampshire primary -- sorry to see you go. eleanor: i give it to kim davis, the county clerk who

refused to issue same-sex marriage certificates and briefly went to jail and briefly was a hero on the right. tom: george pataki and jim gilmore who only received media attention that they were so negligible in the polls. clarence: i have to pick up pataki and gilmore as well but i'm going to switch to kim davis. eleanor: ok. john: 15 minutes of fame. major brad, air force reservist by claiming that the house selection committee -- house select committee on benghazi was doing a political hatchet job on hillary clinton. he worked as 10 months before being fired for poor job performance. he is now suing for wrongful termination. best spin of the year, pat? benjamin netanyahu said there will be no palestinian state on my watch. said i'm ready to go back into negotiations.

eleanor: donald trump. we're going to build a huge wall in mix -- and mexico's going to pay for it. tom: the iran nuclear deal has variable inspection protocols that will work. clarence: rachel, who became famous for having everyone think she's black and say, no, i'm actually white. john: the best spin of the year, the hunky dore with obamacare. health co-ops are closing down. united health care may pull out of the exchanges. premiums and deductibles have risen astronomically. and it is millions below projections. superspin. the most honest person of the year, pat. pat: house majority leader kevin mccarthy on his way to being speaker is asked, what you accomplished with the benghazi hearings, he said, we accomplished something. we drove down -- down hillary's poll numbers. at which point he blew up the committee and got himself eliminated from the -- from the

open road to the speakership of the house. eleanor: i have kevin mccarthy in that category too. but he committed what in washington is called a gas, he blurted out the truth, because that committee was created to tarnish hillary clinton. tom: jim comey, director of the f.b.i. clarence: i have to go with mccarthy as well. john: pat's destined for stardom. is my most honest person. democrat representative of hawaii, military veteran tulsi gabbard, criticized barack obama for refusing to say that islamic extremists are the enemy. she warned, until you recognize who the enemy is, you cannot develop an effective strategy. the most overrated, pat. pat: republican governors as presidential candidates. two of them are gone. the others, if you add all their votes together, probably

12%. eleanor: i've been resisting piling on jeb bush but i think you have to considering he was thought to be the giant killer when he announced in the spring. had all the money. he scared mitt romney away from running again. he was going to sbeep the field. i believed it -- he was going to sweep the field. i believed it at the time. underperformed. tom: i'll go with hillary clinton. she's the presumptive nominee. she's struggled to be an effective campaigner so far. clarence: jeb. i was the one who rated him apparently. john: definitely. the most overrated, the economic benefits to u.s. companies of president obama's trans-pacific partnership trade agreement. 22% of c.f.o.'s said the t.p.p. would have a positive impact. 78% says the t.p.p. would either have no impact at all or hurt their corporations. the most underrated, pat. pat: it's the american people. it's not the national rifle

association. under barack obama, purchases of gone from nine million a year to 18 million. it's the american people who are unsettled who are driving these gun sales. eleanor: actually, a lot of people have multiple guns. have arsenals in their back yards. pat: i'm one of them. eleanor: i'm not pointing to that. the most underrated, president obama, the opening with cuba, the iran deal, the climate accord. none of those would have happened without him. those are three major legacy items. tom: i would say the most underrated in this political campaign is the american people as it relates to isis. you see people on the ground, you will see the military capability of this country. clarence: i think most underrated is paul ryan for his outreach to black and hispanic communities and building a real poverty agenda and being on one side of an important anti-poverty debate that unfortunately is not happening amid all the other -- tom: he has done very well on that in terms of leading to the

advantages of being able to dialogue on those issues and take republicans into areas where frankly they have just ignored for far too long. and there is a need. [inaudible] john: you think the most underrated? tom: you think it's all rhetoric with ryan? john: excuse me. excuse me. this is not a poker game. the most underrated, donald trump becoming the next u.s. president. underrated. beltway insiders say they're fed up with traditional politicians and washington in general and ready to embrace major change. do i make myself clear on that? tom: the question with trump will that continue -- pat: will that go the distance? eleanor: he's appealing to a segment of the republican party, and most of his proposals, when they're put forward in polls to the broader public -- pat: the anti-establishment group in the republican party has about 70% of the vote now.

john: new year's resolution all prediction, pat buchanan. pat: the invasion of europe from the middle east, the near east, north africa and sub-saharan africa will continue indefinitely. eleanor: the climate change accord reached in paris earlier this month is a welcomed wake-up call for politicians in government to connect the dots between climate change, mass migration and terrorism because they're all together and i agree with you. europe is really struggling and after the flood of refugees from the middle east comes migrants from sub-saharan africa because of routes. tom: and iran will continue to cheat on nuclear deals. clarence: as voters get more engaged moving toward iowa, the current lineup in the polls is going to shift drastically and donald trump will not win iowa and maybe new hampshire. john: our new year's resolution

is to bring you the most inciteful and unbiased analysis of the twist and terms in the u.s. presidential election. we will focus on what matters most in deciding who gains control of congress and the white house. mclaughlin.com, you won't find anything like it anywhere else. happy new year. bye-bye.

emanuel ransom: when i first came to clarkston, the ku klux klan used to march in front of my house. maria hinojosa: today, small-town georgia has changed in some unexpected ways. we're sisters, you know, we were separated at birth. hinojosa: now whites are in the minority in clarkston, and it's home to refugees from over 40 different countries. graham thomas: you wonder if i've got any buddies anymore that think the way i do. should white america be afraid of becoming a minority? this is the new america-- black, brown, asian, lgbt, immigrants. the country is going through a major demographic shift and the numbers show it. the face of the u.s. has changed. christina ibanez: we're american. we care about the same things. but yet we also want to preserve our culture. i just see it destroying what we had planned to happen here. hinojosa: by 2043, we will be a majority non-white nation.