Bumbler of the Year? The competition begins on the right
By David Neiwert Wednesday Dec 31, 2008 1:00pm
Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal calling for a counterpart to Time's "Person of the Year" award -- a "Bumbler of the Year" for the biggest boobie of the past 12 months.
It's not a bad idea, really. But he names Hillary Clinton as his favorite to win in 2008. Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrisey thinks Rod Blagojevich, Hugo Chavez, and Elliot Spitzer all would be better nominees.
Well, there's little doubt about Blago and Spitzer and Chavez all bumbling to varying degrees, the first two especially. Hillary, on the other hand, did indeed wind up looking the bumbler, but that was largely due to the contrast to Obama's extraordinary competence.
As it happens, Obama left his tracks even more indelibly down the backs of Republicans this year. If you want to find bumblers, you might want to look there first.
Indeed, all these ostensible "liberal" bumblers (Chavez does not qualify) were mere pikers -- more in the way of mediocrities -- compared to the right-wing bumblers on parade this year. The three biggest public displays of idiocy and incompetence this year came from Sarah Palin, John McCain, and most of all George W. Bush.
Palin: Who can forget the painful Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric interviews? The visit to the turkey farm? The Perky Conservabot debate with Joe Biden? And the best thing about Palin is that she's the GOP's Great White Hope for 2012.
McCain: The list of mistakes is endless, from the "suspension" of his campaign just prior to the first debate to the insistence that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" to his selection of Palin as his running mate. And those were just the big mistakes. It seemed as though every day, McCain's campaign was trying to recover from some fresh gaffe or tactical blunder. It's a credit to the power of Kool Aid that he was able to win any states at all.
George W. Bush: The economy, stupid. 'Nuff said. Without doubt, the biggest and most consequential blunderer of them all.
Funny how right-wing folks always manage to see incompetence on the other side of the aisle (and there's plenty there to be remarked, make no mistake), but keep the blinkers on when it comes to their own little cesspool, isn't it?
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the year of the Rat is ending, at the cab I'm celebrating ten departing rodentia
http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/
the cretin in chief is in his own league.
Fitting that 2009 is the Year of the Ox, isn't it. The poor little beast will have a lot of their sordid burdens to bear.
Or, if we're lucky, he'll kick them all to the curb.
I'll be tickled pink the day I don't have to see a photo of that drunken idiot embarrassing this once great country.
This guy went to war with Russia on the bad advice of Karl Rove and John McCain. But unlike Bush who used a big country to pick on a little one, Saakashvili was a small country provoking a big one and was left with Rove's empty promises when that provocation came back and bit him in the ass.
This is so priceless!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kid379OjuC0
Ha!!
Perhaps the U.S. Senate Democrats and Harry Reid will start the new list as they go into the next Senate short one vote in support of their first 100 day agenda keeping a Republican strangle hold on legislation? Blocking Blago appointments are in the Republican play book to obstruct the First 100 Day agenda?
Suckers!
I love how Hugo Chavez just gets thrown into so many conversations with nothing to back it up. Every single person that says he is bad, and I've asked why?....and NO ONE can tell me a single thing. It's funny to watch them squirm about dictator or illegal elections, when it's America that does not allow their elections to be independently monitored. Brainwashed Amerikans!
Im for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi for being such bumbling cowards.
Eliot Spitzer.
Paulson's SUPPOSED to know what he's doing. What a fool, an evil and dangerous fucking fool.
Spitzer -- How could a Princeton-Harvard guy, a supposedly really smart guy, make himself so vulnerable to his enemies? Just mind boggling stupidity.
you mean that dude who wants to change the constitution of his country to make himself president for life. The guy who's been shutting down radio stations whose views are not entirely consistent with his own. The guy who has evidently been supporting guerrilla movements in neighboring countries. Clearly he is just a prince of a guy.
And don't use any MSM links. Try getting some documentation from other sources.
But also a right wing toady in bed with Bush and Big Oil, then he'd have the adoring MSM all up his ass and you'd never had read the stuff you just regurgitated.
...about corruption and watch how fast they change the subject when he drops a whole lotta truth on the air.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28365...
wasn't Chavez the guy who, making a speech at the UN shortly after Bush spoke, said (whiffing the air) "I can still smell the sulfur"?
One-liner of the year, IMO.
"DEVIL..."
Hey, Peter G... Been reading The Economist, have we? MSM press on Chavez is about as accurate and truthful as a White House press release about The Real Threat Posed by Saddam Hussein and His WMD's.
In direct response to your post:
1. "you mean that dude who wants to change the constitution of his country to make himself president for life"...
That power grab by Chavez was voted down by the Venezuelan electorate and is not going to happen.
2. "The guy who's been shutting down radio stations whose views are not entirely consistent with his own"...
The station broke the law and their license was not renewed. Also, the station in question frequently broadcast calls for an armed uprising against Chavez. If that happened here in regards to Bush, you think that station's license wouldn't get scrutinized?
3. "The guy who has evidently been supporting guerrilla movements in neighboring countries"...
If he did, he doesn't anymore.
Care to do a little more light reading on the subject? Excellent!
How about start HERE....
And then there's HERE....
And just for shit's and giggles, HERE.
Try reading what Noam Chomsky has to say about Chavez as well. Like THIS.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. Chavez is no angel, nor is he the last beacon of hope for democracy or anything like that. But I guarantee you there's more real democracy going on in South America right now than there has been in the USA for decades. Don't just buy capitalist propaganda wholesale.
Bush counldn't even hold the flag up correctly at the Olimpic games. I mean, is that so hard to do. I remember in the picture that was televised, his daughter got it right away. I guess she got the brains from her mom and not the chimp. Hell, even a chimp could have been trained to get it right.
Agree with ericthefool about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi too. Damn, Idiocracy is coming faster than expected.
I love "Ow! My Balls!".
have already reached the level portrayed in the film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlTgd5bummI
[Deleted. Offensive racist language-Sitemonitor]
Day after day, he was a complete and utter trainwreck. Fun to watch, too!
that a Kenyan "minister" who exorcises witches is cool!
commie?
Hillary bumbled a lot less once she dumped that bozo.
Bumbling Republican Operative of The Year: Tucker Bounds.
Bumbling Colonel Klink Look Alike of the Year: Henry Paulson.
2008 Jean van de Velde Trophy for Epic Bumbling on Live TV goes to ... John McCain, for canceling his Letterman appearance to rush off to Washington IMMEDIATELY in order to save the World Economy and then being caught by Letterman, on the CBS feed, still in NYC, explaining to Katie Couric about how only he, John McCain, could save the World Economy and so he would be heading off to Washington sometime really, really soon in order to do so. 'HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!'
Hillary's Bosnia story was a REAL bumble, though not exactly an innocent bumble.
I guess Sarah Palin gets my vote for head-bumbler. Everything that came out of her perky confident self was just stupid and ignorant. If she'd been Don Knotts, perky and self-confident and winky-flirtatious with America, we would all have been falling down the stairs with uncontrollable laughter.
Tucker Bounds: smarm personified.
Henry Paulson: priceless (pun intended) facial expressions.
Your last paragraph sums up McCain and his pitiful campaign perfectly ... you took the words right out of my mouth but said them so much better than I could have!
Thank you, *my friend*.
ps, sorry, I couldn't resist :)
should get honorable mention
to Phil Gramm as the more damaging friend of choice for John McCain.
McCain's performance on Bush's economy was his major source of defeat
as amusing as Ms. P might have been. Phil was responsible in a major way for both the economy and McCain's views on the subject.
Michelle "McCarthy" Bachmann gets a dishonorable mention at least - what an idiot.
I second (or third or whatever) Paulson. Also the big 3 auto execs, pretty much all of Wall Street, BillO, Sean, Rush, etc. I have a hard time seeing Palin as bumbling because she turned out to be exactly what I knew she was all along. How about Dana "What's the Cuban Missile Crisis?" Perrino?
On our side of the aisle John Edwards sure embarassed himself with that affair. Shame too. I would've supported him if he'd still been in the running by the time my state's caucus rolled around. Obama made as many blunders as Hillary which is not very many anyway. The difference was the MSM hammered Hill (and Bill) every step of the way and pretty much gave Obama a pass until the general.
As Chomsky and many on this blog have noted innumerable times, the US is in effect governed by a single party with two very similar faces to it. At base, they are both corporatist, fascist parties who have no conception of a citizen-based democracy that calls for disinterested participation for the establishment and maintenance of the public good/common weal. Empires bring out the worst in primates. It's always been that way.
Not Bush - he'll get my villain of the decade award. Palin clearly wins the rookie bungler of the year but for best overall performance, McLame has it locked up.
2008 is going to be a hard act to follow for the reich wing bunglers!
Can anyone provide details on the technical differences between "bungling" and "bumbling"?? Thanks!
bumble- 1. bungle or blunder awkwardly; muddle 2. to stumble or stagger 3. to speak in a low, stuttering, halting manner; mumble
bungle - 1. to do clumsily and awkwardly; botch 2. to perform or work clumsily or inadequately, 3. a bungling performance
and we filled them.
same facial expression for at least 8 years. stepford bitch.
and, for Ms. Bachman's blunder on MSNBC, her opponent got a crazy amount of donations from outside of MN and nearly stole the election from her! She's one to watch for '09, too !
Happy New Year everyone. Yeah, it's OT but what the hell? This year has sucked in so many ways, I just wanted to end it on a positive note.
May 2009 be better and more positive.
I'd like to say it can't be as bad as '08, but I'll just say I HOPE it isn't and do my best to keep up my end of the deal.
Happy New Year to all!
It won't be as bad as 2008. How can it be? If we all do our part we can make a difference.
Hillary bumbled her way right into sec of state - how many that didn't make the list got that kind of job as a result?
I nominate this picture for Worst Photoshop of the Year.
Good god...did they even try? Palin has a mustard aura around her, and it looks like Bush's sleeves were tailored with child-safety scissors (the ones with the crazy jagged design on them).
And did someone punch John McCain in the hand? It's bigger than Laura Bush's head.
Please...if you don't know how to do photoshop...just put it down. Put. It. Down.
"And did someone punch John McCain in the hand?"
It was still in the door when the voters slammed it on him.
Bush was more of a holy terror, killer of thousands, wrecker of nations, and national disgrace than a bumbler.
So for that reason my vote goes to Mooselady for bubbler of the year. May she return in 2012 for a fresh crop of punch lines for our enjoyment. Preferably without the turkey throat slashing machine going in the background though.
a group vote? CONgress, for enabling, agreeing, implementing and basically doing jack shit to the Bush Regime?
In the deeper recesses of my being I know without a doubt that I failed to do the most I could to help my country and the people of that country in a time of true crisis. I allowed people that I hold in utter contempt to control the political, business, religious, educational, social, and perhaps spiritual dialogue of this country as I have allowed it to do for most of my adult life. At no time did I take the arguments that I have presented in the anonymity of the internet and present them face to face with ideologies that I believe will destroy the things I love the most and see protected the lest. There is nobody in Washington that deserves less respect than I do when I have done so little to help counter the results of these evil, violent, covetous, ignorant God damned people.
So put me on the list too.
You have felt a sense of hopelessness, like many of us, but did you write to your local paper about your feelings? Did you speak out about the ills of the neoconservatives to those at work, or your family and friends? Did you contact your Congressman?
Those are all things I did, and it all feels pitifully small. But its something, and I hoped others would do the same. You probably did more than you give yourself credit for.
Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have been quite so dramatic and started the post above with a little explanation. I was not in fact talking about me, the individual, but of a class of people I find myself a part of on line. And as to a sense of hopelessness, far from it; I love the sense of stimulation when I do come across an unimaginative dolt that thinks in the sound bites of the media and whose only recourse to argument is a personal insult. What I think I was saying was a bit of the old not judging the other guy until you make the effort to look at your own shortcomings. Next time I try to make a point I will not do anything but make the point.
Interpol agents arrest Bush and drag him to stand trial before the World Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Darn--that's what I hoped was happening in the picture.
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