Thanks once again to the intrepid folks at Lake Superior State University, this year's "Official Banished Words List" has now gone viral. Whoops! I guess we're going to have to rewrite that sentence, since "viral" was on the top of the list of words and phrases that have just become so annoying that -- for the good of the language (and, of course The American People) -- the only possible reaction is to banish them completely from our lexicon.

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Mildly Good News

President Barack Obama had a mildly good month in the polls during December. Not a fantastic month, mind you; maybe not even a great month... but a mildly good month, nonetheless.

Continuing last month's trend (if you can even properly call it a "trend," that is...), Obama once again charted an unbelievably stable month in terms of approval ratings. The mildly good news was in his disapproval rating, which dropped significantly over the course of December. In fact, Obama had the second-best month he's ever had, in terms of a dropping disapproval rate. The note of caution, though -- which makes this only mildly good news for him -- is that all of the drop in disapproval went to the "undecided" category, and none of it translated into a bump in approval.

Let's take a look at Obama's actual chart, to see what I'm talking about:

[Click on graph to see larger-scale version.]

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[Note: This was the most interesting and fun Friday column of last year for me to research and write, so I thought it'd be a fitting end to this week of re-runs. Originally run right before Independence Day, it has a definite patriotic tilt to it. Here's wishing everyone a happy new year tonight, and a happy 2011 for all!]

[Originally published 7/2/10]

[Program Note: Our usual Friday Talking Points column is going on a one-week hiatus, so that we are able to present a special offering today, for the Independence Day weekend. So as not to cause withdrawal symptoms among our fan base, we offer up two do-it-yourself suggestions for discussion this week (which sounds way better than: "assigning summer homework"), which were so unbelievable that they deserve mention here before we get all patriotic. The first comes from Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, who just wrote possibly the most monumentally stupid column she's ever penned (which is saying a lot, for her), titled: "Obama: Our First Female President" -- bringing the art of emasculation to new lows. Secondly (and much more fun to respond to) was John Boehner's interview with a Pittsburgh newspaper, in which he described the effort to pass Wall Street reform as "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon." Democrats have begun jumping on Boehner's comments, as well they should. Feel free to write your own talking points on these subjects in the comments section. Friday Talking Points will return in its normal time slot next week.]

The Revolutionary War lasted a lot longer than most of us realize. Begun in 1775, the war didn't end for six long years, and wasn't fully resolved for another two. During this time, American forces had some notable victories, and also more than a few ignoble defeats at the hands of the British. Some of these battles have been inscribed on the nation's consciousness so deeply they are remembered in name (if not in complete detail) by its citizenry more than two centuries later. For instance, as schoolchildren we all learned the following names: Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Fort Ticonderoga, Valley Forge, and Trenton (or "Washington crossing the Delaware"). This litany of sacred spots (which includes Valley Forge even though no battle was fought there, since we all know the name), began with "the shot heard 'round the world," and ended decisively with the surrender of the British General Cornwallis, at Yorktown, Virginia. Yorktown was the endpoint of the war, we all learned as children, and the surrender of the British forces to the ragtag Americans was the decisive victory which forced the British to negotiate an end to the entire conflict. But what we weren't taught is that this battle may not have been such a key one if it hadn't been for a naval battle which had happened over a month earlier. This battle -- called variously the "Battle of the Chesapeake," or the "Battle of the Virginia Capes" -- is one very few Americans have even heard of. This is probably due to the fact that no Americans took part in the battle -- or even witnessed it (except perhaps from afar) -- because it was a slugfest between the British and the French navies. But if the Battle of the Chesapeake hadn't happened, it is very likely General Washington wouldn't have won the Siege of Yorktown, and the American Revolution would have continued on for a lot longer than it did -- and may have been lost, in the end. Which is why it's a shame that almost nobody remembers such a turning point in our country's history.

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[Note: This time, next year, the big political news story will be the Republican primary campaign for who will take on President Obama in 2012. The first primaries and caucuses will be right around the corner (although, hopefully, they'll be in February, 2012 -- a modest improvement on how early the primary calendar has been pushed in recent election years). But while the horserace on the Republican side will threaten to become all-consuming for the news media, there will also hopefully be another big story during this week, next year -- the complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Or maybe not "complete," who knows? American politicians and media types have settled on the conventional wisdom that the Iraqi government is going to request that we stay beyond 12/31/11, but what this ignores is that the Iraqi politicians almost universally are saying that this deadline will stand. If it does, and if a new Status Of Forces Agreement is not agreed to by then between the two countries, then our troops will indeed be almost completely gone from Iraq in one year's time. Which made the following story from 2010 an important one -- because right up until it happened, conventional wisdom in Washington was saying it wouldn't. Perhaps this lesson -- when conventional Washington wisdom contradicts what Iraqi politicians are saying, the Iraqis proved to be right -- will have been learned by the end of this year. Perhaps not. We'll certainly see, one year from now.]

[Originally published 8/2/10]

President Obama gave a speech to veterans today on the progress of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The speech also addressed the situation in Afghanistan, as well as some more specific veterans' issues; such as Obama's poignant personal plea for soldiers not to hesitate to ask for help with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

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[Program Note: This was yet another one of those stories which were largely ignored by the mainstream media last year. Perhaps regional media in Appalachia covered it, but the national organizations mostly took a pass on reporting it. Which is a shame, because it seems to suggest the closing of a very dark era in the history of U.S. mining. Anyone who doubts the severity of the ecological destruction this practice causes should really check out this article on Crooks And Liars by fellow blogger Matt Osborne (of the intrepid Osborne Ink site), and view his two videos -- which lay bare (brutal pun intended) this rapacious mining technique's devastation in a very moving way. As you can see from Matt's article and his documentaries, even though the E.P.A. has taken baby steps in the right direction, there's still a long path to travel in order to ban this practice forever. If the whole subject is too depressing for you, then I guess you can read the article I wrote last month which shows some optimism in the American mining field, in a story that has recently gotten some attention due to China's announcement this week that they'll be cutting back their shipments of rare earth minerals to the rest of the world (which is more than just "significant," as they currently control 97 percent of the world market).]

[Originally published 4/22/10]

Happy 40th Earth Day, everyone!

Earth Day, as we all know, got going through the efforts of some starry-eyed idealistic hippie-types four decades ago. The "ecology" movement scored some of its biggest victories almost immediately, under (gasp!) President Richard Nixon, with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and passage of some updated federal anti-pollution laws. Since that time, it has become the very mainstream "environmental movement." Today (for instance), most people recycle things without a second thought for where the concept came from.

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[Note: Since it's Tuesday, I thought I'd run a favorite Tuesday-type article from last year. I promise, tomorrow I'll get back to being serious.]

[Originally published 3/2/10]

The title of this piece quotes the well-known philosopher Jeremy Hilary Boob, PhD. The full quote is, of course:

Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo
So little time! So much to know!

and comes to us from the Beatles movie Yellow Submarine, right before singing a song about Boob, Nowhere Man.

If you think this is building up to some deep and meaningful point, well, it's not. Sorry to disappoint you.

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[Note: This article ran the day before Barack Obama's first year in office concluded. It also ran one day before Massachusetts' special Senate election to replace Teddy Kennedy. I thought it was appropriate to run today because the White House, over the weekend, indicated that it needed to address this very problem -- getting outside Washington more often. I've added links to the note at the bottom, to another interesting article from last year, from two guest authors.]

[Originally published 1/19/10]

It is significant, to me at least, that President Barack Obama's true first anniversary in office is about to be overshadowed by a special election to fill a Senate seat in Massachusetts. Think about it for a minute -- Obama's milestones have been obsessively tracked by the media, with countless stories about his "first 100 days" in office (and even quite a few on his "first 50 days"), lots of followup "second 100 days" articles, and then a truly bizarre paroxysm of stories on the anniversary of his election night. But as we approach the real milestone, tomorrow at noon (East Coast time), any "first year" stories are likely to be buried beneath microscopic analysis of whatever happens tonight in the Bay State. This is a stunning turnaround from not just a year ago, but from a few months ago. And, as I said, it is significant, because many are now left wondering: how did we get here? How did Obama get to the point he occupies now, from where he was a year ago?

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First, the bad news -- we'll be running repeat columns all week here at CW.com. I'm going to start a tradition here, I think, of running my five personal favorite columns from the past year in the last week on the calendar. This tradition may need some adjustment in the future, but the way the calendar falls this year, it's going to work out perfectly between the two year-end holidays.

One of the main reasons I'll be running past favorites this week is to devote my time, instead, to fixing up the site a bit. I'm almost done with updating (and, in some cases, writing) all of the static-text pages here (such as "About The Blog"), so that's one item I can almost cross of the list already. My next priority is to get the "Email Chris" page working again, as it has been broken for about nine or ten months, which is simply inexcusable (sorry about that). And my third priority will be to fix some annoying site bugs. I'll also be doing some chores that have slipped my attention in the past few months, and exploring a few writing projects that have been on the back burner for too long.

As for the good news -- the first person who commented last Wednesday on my article over at The Huffington Post was right -- Lawrence O'Donnell did indeed lead off his MSNBC show that night (12/23/10) by reading a quote from that day's article. Here's the transcript of his opening remarks:

As one blogger for The Huffington Post puts it, quote, "Obama had two choices after the midterm election. He could either have had a battle royale with Republicans over tax cuts for the wealthy and risk losing this battle. Or Obama could have cut a deal quickly in return for allowing the Senate time to move on many other important issues. He chose to deal." So, did the gamble pay off?

This quote was provided by the Daily Howler site, where they thankfully dug out my name to add to the story (which O'Donnell somehow neglected to do). I have written to MSNBC's The Last Word folks requesting a video of this segment (since it was not posted on their show's website for some reason), which I hope to provide here in the near future (or, at the very least, provide a link to view the video).

Anyone with too much time on their hands who is bored by repeat columns this week, feel free to send the show an email asking them why this clip isn't up on their website. Maybe they'll fix this oversight if enough folks show an interest. It's worth a try....

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Welcome back to our annual year-end awards column!

In case you missed it, Part 1 of our "McLaughlin Awards" (named for the television show where we get these categories, of course) ran last week, so check it out.

Also for your convenience, here are all the previous years of these columns as well:

[2009, Part 1] [2009, Part 2]
[2008, Part 1] [2008, Part 2]
[2007, Part 1] [2007, Part 2]
[2006, Part 1] [2006, Part 2]

   Destined For Political Stardom

If I was taking the category literally, here, I would award this to Kim Jong Un, the dictator-in-waiting in North Korea. In the first-ever-of-its-kind dynastic communist state (I don't think Marx or Lenin approved much of familial royalty-style dynasties, personally, but what do I know?), the third in the line of Kim Jong Il (father) and Kim Il Sung (grandfather) certainly is destined for a personality-cult stardom in North Korea, one way or another.

In our own dynastic political world, here in America, we have our runner-up for the "political stardom" award, none other than Rand Paul, son of the revered-by-libertarians Ron Paul. Paul (the younger) just won a Senate seat, besting Paul (the elder) who is only a lowly House member. On the Republican side of the aisle, though, Rand Paul seems destined for much more attention than most incoming freshmen senators -- due to his last name, but also due to some (shall we say) creative ideological positions he took during the campaign. One way or another, my bet is that Rand Paul's name is going to be in the news a lot in the coming year.

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[Program Note: This column originally ran three years ago, and every so often I dust it off and run it again, to allow me to do some Christmas shopping and whatnot. What with Part 2 of our "McLaughlin Awards" running tomorrow, there just wasn't time to put together a column today. Don't forget to check back here tomorrow (or over the weekend) for the second part of our year-end roundup, and for today I hope you'll enjoy my "go to" Christmas column. Thanks again to everyone who has donated in our 2010 Holiday Pledge Drive, allowing us to exceed our fundraising goal. And hope you've all got your shopping and wrapping done, too.]

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