I just spent a few hours watching the Electoral College vote. Now, admittedly I am a pretty wonky political guy, but I have never before paid even the slightest attention to the formality of each state's electors meeting to cast their official ballots to elect the next president. It was always an afterthought, a mere formality. Something you'd hear about maybe a day or so after it happened, because it was of no real consequence. Even in the midst of the 2000 Bush v. Gore fight, nobody really paid much attention to the Electoral College, because it simply wasn't all that relevant to the legal fight.

Today, though, was different. I learned for the first time that the Electoral College meets on "the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December," as well as all sorts of other nuts-and-bolts trivia about the process. And I certainly wasn't the only one learning these things, and watching just as closely. Thankfully, there were no reports of violence or obstruction from any of the states (even Michigan, where such worries were strongest). American democracy did what it was supposed to do today, the only difference was that this time a whole bunch more people were actually watching.

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President Donald Trump, as we all know full well by now, has truly become the thing he hates the most: a total loser.

He's lost the 2020 election so many times, it's hard to keep track of them all. First, he lost when all the votes were counted. Then he lost after he demanded they recount the votes. Then he lost when all the states certified their results. Then he lost when all the states named their electors to the Electoral College. Monday, he's going to lose the biggest one yet, as the Electoral College votes 306-232 for Joe Biden.

And throughout it all, Trump's been the world's biggest sore loser. He's been filing dozens of flimsy lawsuits, and then repeatedly losing them in court. Over and over and over again. Pretty much every single argument the Trump clown car of lawyers has made has been duly laughed out of court -- even by judges Trump himself appointed.

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Well, this year both year-end holidays fall on a Friday, so I haven't completely decided how to handle our two annual awards columns. I basically have two options.

The first would be to run the first awards column next Friday (the 18th), and then run the second one the Wednesday following (the 23rd). This would mean I'd get them both over and done with before the holiday week.

The second option is to run both the columns on Wednesdays, the first one right before Christmas (the 23rd) and the second right before the New Year (the 30th). This would give me more time to prepare -- and these columns involve an insane amount of preparation, because I have to review the entire year's worth of political news. And one year under Trump is like five normal years. Consider, if you will, that one year ago today the overarching subject was Trump's impeachment. Nowadays, that seems like a lifetime ago, but it really was only a single year.

But whichever I choose (and I will keep people posted on that), I've still got to put together all the awards categories. And, like I did last year, this year I'm reaching out to my faithful readers to solicit nominations. I got plenty of great ones last time around, so this is definitely an exercise worth repeating.

I'm also going to make an assumption with these nominations. My normal policy is to never use a commenter's name in an actual column's text (to cite it, to give credit where it is due) unless I have express permission from that person to do so. But for today, I'm flipping that rule around. I'm going to assume that anyone who posts a nomination in a comment here is also giving me permission to cite them, if their nominee becomes the award winner. If you do NOT want your login name used this way -- or if you'd like credit under your real name (rather than the login), perhaps -- you must explicitly tell me that within the comment itself. So let me know up front if: (1) you don't want credit, or (2) you want credit under a different name, otherwise I'm just going to assume permission has been given.

So, everyone ready? It's a long list, and it's in two parts. Obviously, right now, I'm much more concerned with the first part of the list, because those will all be in the first column I'm going to write. So everyone get their wayback machine ready, take a trip through 2020, and give me your best ideas for the following categories:

Biggest Winner of 2020

Biggest Loser of 2020

Best Politician

Worst Politician

Most Defining Political Moment

Turncoat Of The Year

Most Boring

Most Charismatic

Bummest Rap

Fairest Rap

Best Comeback

Most Original Thinker

Most Stagnant Thinker

Best Photo Op

Worst Photo Op

Enough Already!

Worst Lie

Capitalist Of The Year

Honorable Mention

Person Of The Year

Again, the second part of this list is less important now, because I'll have more time to get this together -- and I will probably run another of these solicitation columns after the first awards column is posted, seeking out your suggestions for these categories:

Destined For Political Stardom

Destined For Political Oblivion

Best Political Theater

Worst Political Theater

Worst Political Scandal

Most Underreported Story

Most Overreported Story

Biggest Government Waste

Best Government Dollar Spent

Boldest Political Tactic

Best Idea

Worst Idea

Sorry To See You Go

15 Minutes Of Fame

Best Spin

Most Honest Person

Most Overrated

Most Underrated

And, as always, the final category is "Predictions," where you can make wild-eyed predictions about what is going to happen in 2021. Got any ideas, for any of these? Let me know.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

President-Elect Joe Biden has been making lots of news with his slow rollout of nominees for various cabinet choices, top advisors, czars, and agency heads. So far, Team Biden has taken a very systematic approach, choosing one or two main areas each week (such as pandemic response or the economy), and then rolling out entire teams of top advisors all at once. This helps the media and the public keep their focus on individual areas of responsibility, and as a result it gives all the Biden picks lots of good press (for being so gradual and comprehensible).

Of course, as with any incoming Democratic president, there are a lot of groups vying for influence in the upcoming Biden administration, some playing pure identity politics (arguing for more of a certain minority or gender or what have you) while others are playing more of an ideological game (trying to get more progressives appointed, for example). With each new announcement, some groups are happy while others are disappointed. Such is the nature of filling out an administration, it is worth pointing out, and such is the nature of the Democratic Party's various wings and power centers (the Will Rogers quote: "I am not a member of any organized political party -- I am a Democrat" springs to mind).

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That title can be read in one of two ways. The first is more poetic, based on the old "de Nile ain't just a river in Egypt" joke. As a river ends, it empties into the sea through a large delta. Or it can be read the way math and science uses the term. "Delta" (Δ) is the Greek letter used to signify "change in" (a rocket scientist talks about "delta-vee" instead of "change in velocity," for instance). Either way, though it signifies that the rampant denial in the Republican Party right now is soon going to have to change, and that that day is rapidly approaching.

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And so 2020 finally draws to a close. As the Queen of England might say, it's been a real annus horribilis all around. Except for that one glorious day in November, of course. Well, OK, one glorious (and maddening and nail-biting) week, actually.

But finally -- finally! -- we only have 45 days more of "45" in the White House. And next year promises to be one heck of a lot better all around. Starting at the stroke of noon on the twentieth of January, of course.

The last few years here, I've been pretty depressed writing about politics (who wouldn't be?). In fact, one December I came incredibly close to just giving up on the idea of political blogging altogether. "What is the point?" accurately describes how I felt, at that point. But I pushed through, and you folks helped a lot. When I solicit donations at the end of the year, I consider it paid forwards, not backwards. In other words, by accepting your money I am committing to blogging for another full year. And this is the first year in a very long time that I am actively looking forward to doing so again. Oh, sure, President Joe Biden will likely disappoint me in many ways (just like Barack Obama did), but they will at least be sane and rational ways, not "acting like a petulant five-year-old throwing a tantrum" ways. And that will make a world of difference in how I go about my job, that much is certain.

So for the first time in four years, it is indeed with a joyous heart that I am asking all and sundry who read this site on a regular basis to help support it for the next calendar year. This site has remained ad-free for more years that I can count, and to guarantee this remains so for all of next year, we would really love to hit our pledge drive target. So, once again, we are subjecting everyone to shamelessly adorable kittens, to help soften your heart (and loosen your wallet). Even kittens are ever so generous, after all....

I picked it out myself!

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That headline is meant as a joke, because the much-more-typical headline of its type (that lazy political writers love to use) is: "Democrats In Disarray." But this week the Trump circus is finally beginning to realize that it's almost time to fold its tents and leave town, and the result has been the party beginning to eat its own, as it tries to figure out how to cope with the looming post-Trump era.

The problem for the Republican Party is that it has completely sold its soul to Donald Trump. And only now are they beginning to realize how high a price they've paid. There really is no Republican Party left, it is now nothing more than a personality cult feverishly devoted to their Dear Leader. Unfortunately, all the Dear Leader cares about is how fervently everyone worships him. Nothing else matters to him. The Dear Leader couldn't care less about the Republican Party or its future without him.

Many, including Joe Biden, kind of expected a snap back to some sort of political normalcy, post-Trump. But now we all seem to be trapped in a conundrum summed up by the song title: "How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?" Trump, it now seems, isn't going anywhere. His biggest decision right now is going to be when he will announce his bid to retake the White House in 2024. Will he surprise everyone and announce before the Georgia Senate runoff elections in early January? Will he go the standard route of waiting until after the 2022 midterms? Probably not, because Trump himself seems to be favoring what could possibly be the rudest presidential campaign launch since Andrew Jackson's in 1824. Trump is leaning towards not only not attending Joe Biden's inauguration, but instead trying to beat Biden's television ratings by holding a simultaneous rally where he announces his 2024 bid. But whenever it happens, what seems crystal clear is that Trump is not going to gently fade into the background.

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I tried, really I did. I sat down to watch President Donald Trump's new 46-minute-long video in full. But I just couldn't do it. I made it about 15 minutes in, and then just had to skip ahead to the last 10 minutes, to see the big finish.

This, I firmly believe, is precisely why Trump and his team released it as a social media video instead of choosing another route with a much larger audience -- like asking the broadcast networks to carry an Oval Office speech in primetime, for instance. Because I think Trump's advisors knew full well that going that route would have meant running a gigantic risk -- that the networks would all cut away from the speech mere minutes after it began. That would have been the ultimate snub for a president who only truly cares deeply about his own television ratings. So they must have talked him into not going that route, to avoid that particular embarrassment from happening.

The reason the networks would have cut away -- even from a primetime presidential Oval Office address -- is the same reason I couldn't sit through all 46 minutes of the video: it consisted of nothing more than warmed-over lies and half-witted and half-baked conspiracy theories. The entire thing, from beginning to end. That's what I had been warned before I tried to watch it, and that's precisely what it turned out to be. The best description I've yet heard (and I apologize because I didn't save the link to properly cite this) is that it was exactly like George Costanza's father celebrating "Festivus" by launching into "the airing of the grievances." Some old outer-borough White guy, angry at the world because it isn't the way he'd like it to be, in other words. And not the least shy about letting you know precisely how he feels about that.

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Today was a notable day for Democrats, because for the first time in almost 58 years, the state of Arizona now has two Democratic senators. Senator Mark Kelly -- astronaut and husband to Gabby Giffords -- was sworn in today, since the election he just won was a special election (meaning he didn't have to wait until January to take his oath). And I for one would like to thank outgoing seat-warmer Martha McSally for personally making this possible.

In 1952, Republicans began their rise to power in Arizona by electing Barry Goldwater to the Senate. For those who don't immediately recognize his name, the best way to describe him might be "Ronald Reagan before there was a Ronald Reagan in politics." Goldwater was "Mr. Conservative" personified (yes, people actually called him that). He was also the GOP's presidential candidate in 1964 (when he got crushed by Lyndon Johnson's historic landslide). Goldwater -- and Reagan, who followed in his ideological footsteps -- had an outsize influence on the Republican Party as a whole, dragging it far to the right in much the same fashion that Bernie Sanders has recently done (in the other direction, of course) for the Democratic Party. And after Goldwater, this Senate seat was held by none other than John McCain. That is the seat the Republicans just lost, which is why it's such a big deal.

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There's a Senate leadership battle going on in the Democratic caucus right now, but there's also a bigger issue at stake than just who gets to lead Democrats on the Judiciary Committee next year. The bigger reform Senate Democrats are now considering is whether they should adopt new rules to fundamentally change their leadership structure, to lessen the weight of seniority in office.

The specific committee leadership battle in question is being waged because Dianne Feinstein finally became convinced, after the most-recent Supreme Court justice confirmation hearings, that she had outstayed her welcome as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Her move was applauded by many Democrats, it's worth noting.

But with DiFi stepping down, the top committee spot will open up. Normally, this would automatically go to the next-most-senior Democrat on the committee, which in this case would be Dick Durbin. However, another committee member, Sheldon Whitehouse, is making a bid for the job as well.

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