In commemoration of the ball dropping last night, CMR has meticulously created a list of the biggest ball drops of the past year.
1) THE MEDIA – The media in this election year fell just a teensy bit short of its responsibilities. Their coddling of Barack Obama was a disgrace for which they are now seeking a repayment in the form of a bailout from the government. From completely ignoring the cesspool of Chicago politics to sending hundreds of reporters to Wasilla Alaska. From Chris Matthews and his tingling leg to the sycophantic NY Times turning down an editorial from John McCain just days after publishing one by Obama, the media has proved that they are as biased as we all feared. Put it on their gravestone. The mainstream media died in 2008.
2) Plaxico Burress – The guy finally signs the mondo contract he’s been pining for and he literally shoots himself in the foot thus essentially voiding his contract and abandoning a possible Super Bowl bound team just weeks before the playoffs.
3) Rod Blagojevich – C’mon. How could he not be on the list?
4) The New England Patriots – The Patriots had a chance at immortality with a win for a perfect season but something happened on the way to perfection. The offensive line forgot how to block. And Tom Brady forgot that you were allowed to throw short passes. But to be fair, Tom Brady spent more time on his keester than most of the fans at the game. But he is the guy who publicly mocked someone prediction that New England would only score 17 points. They scored 14.
5) The McCain campaign – Ha! Where do I start? For not making any clear distinction between Obama and himself they should win an award for incompetence. For not pinning the responsibility for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac square on the shoulders of the Dems they should win an award for stupidity. But mostly their 2008 ball drop is for their handling of Sarah Palin. By hiding her away from the media for so long they raised the stakes on her network interviews so high that it was almost impossible for her not to fail. She should’ve been out on the lines talking to reporters where she could control the environment. The McCain campaign threw her to the wolves and expected the wolves to be nice. Idiots.
6) John Edwards – Former presidential candidate John Edwards’ political future and reputation were fumbled away when he admitted having an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter and fathered a newborn baby…oh yeah, he did all that while his wife was battling cancer.
7) Eliot Spitzer – Yeah. Yeah. New York Governor was visiting prostitutes and was forced to resign.
8) “Conservative” columnists who forgot they were conservative. Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker, and Christopher Buckley all praised Obama in one form or another while attacking the heck out of Sarah Palin. I mean, they savaged her. What made it worse was that they all complained about how mean conservatives were being to them and patted themselves on the back for speaking truth to power while they were actually just parroting what every one of their friends in the media believed. Coincidentally, Noonan and Buckley were both trying to sell books at the time. Parker’s motives are still unknown but a lobotomy is a possible explanation.
9) President George W. Bush – President Bush essentially forgot or declined to bring us all along in his thinking on anything. He absolutely abdicated his responsibilities to communicate with the American people and thus damned the Republican party for years to come.
10)Doug Kmiec – This guy’s amazing logical inconsistencies captivated a nation. And he seemingly loved every second of it. Kmiec, a Mitt Romney supporter, turned around after his guy didn’t get the nomination and endorsed pro-abortion Barack Obama. Kmiec then attempted to convince Catholics that voting for a radically pro-choice candidate is actually a pro-life decision? He didn’t just say it might be. He tried to make the most radically pro-abortion Presidential candidate in history sound like the best thing to happen to babies since pacifiers?
I know there’s lot more major ball drops for the year so feel free to add them in the combox.
January 2, 2009 at 4:47 am
I would also add National Catholic Distorter in there. Seriously…NCR deserves three major awards CMR! Cmon guys….
1st award: award for most ignorant newspaper in the world.
2nd award: most anti-Catholic newspaper which is actually Catholic (sorry Commonweal and America maybe if you step it up this year you might be NCR).
3rd award: Golden crap award: given to the newspaper which is able to put forward essays that are written by adults that it looks like a 7 year old wrote.
With writers who say “we are Catholic and LOVE the Church!” whilst also saying that they reject certain sacraments, the priesthood, the authority of the pope, believe in relativism, think abortion is ok, think the Church needs to modernize…o cmon…need I say anymore? These guys parody themselves.
-Christopher
January 2, 2009 at 5:57 am
Don’t forget, with Kmiec, folks like Cafardi. I get not wanting to vote for republicans, but to be enthusiastic about Obama…idiots.
January 2, 2009 at 2:30 pm
No objective reporting from the MSM died years ago, we are just smelling the corpse now.
By the way Edwards never admitted he is the father of the baby.
January 2, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi for misrepresenting the teachings of the Catholic Church and thus misleading millions of ignorant Catholic Americans in the process.
January 2, 2009 at 3:10 pm
“Faithful Citizenship”–need I say more?
January 2, 2009 at 7:22 pm
The USCCB.
What a pro-life teaching moment wasted with the 2008 presidential election. Utterly wasted.
Yes, some came out and gave crystal-clear positions on voting for pro-abortion candidates, but when the conference as a whole fails to present the Church’s teaching in a lucid manner, it is a gross dereliction of their office to teach, govern, and sanctify.
I suspect the any rally against the malicious Freedom of Choice Act will be just as successful. Then they will be faced with having to close or sell the Catholic hospitals in this country.
January 2, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I’ve got a big one — and a happy one! Check out the following website:
http://ravingatheist.com
The Raving Atheist has declared his faith in Christ Jesus, and while I don’t know what particular church he plans to affiliate with, he can’t go too far off since he attributes the “beginning of the end” to reading The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton!
January 4, 2009 at 2:34 am
The French 4×100 men’s freestyle relay team: Seeing the US trump the arrogant French team was the best moment of the 2008 Olympics.
Also, the MSM and President Bush for ignoring China’s horrible human rights record.
January 4, 2009 at 3:39 am
I might add: everyone who honestly believes that Sarah Palin was a valid choice for Veep. Just because we’re seriously lacking honest political and moral leadership from the Republican party, doesn’t mean we should find ourselves quivering like jelly when they choose to toss someone remotely interesting out to us. Ironically, Mitt Romney would have been the best choice, once the economy tanked. Barring that, perhaps Mccain should have pressured Jindal.
Of course, I’d also raise the question whether we want to indulge (continue indulging?) this oddly pleb-o-centric conception of political leadership. As unpopular as the school may be around these parts, I’m much more comfortable with a leader who has attended Harvard with proven leadership experience (note, that doesn’t include Obama), than I am with someone who is “just like me.”
Doesn’t this odd anti-intellectual trend remind anyone of Ronald Syme’s analysis of Augustus Caesar’s rise propoganda machine?
Sorry, hitting a couple notes, so the post may not be exactly coherent.
January 4, 2009 at 2:54 pm
: everyone who honestly believes that Sarah Palin was a valid choice for Veep.
Why, because she had a couple of bad interviews? Seriously, the people who need to apologize are the people who keep repeating this tired mantra. they have taken the bait from the MSM, hook, line and sinker.
Saraha Palin is an impressive figure who showed a lot more fortitude and political insight than any of the three other male bozos running for VP and President.
No, it is people like brave anonymous who dropped the ball, mindlessly following the media herd and casting misinformed ballots.