December was a busy month for Barack Obama, with many conflicting events pulling his poll numbers in different directions for differing reasons. And although December marked the first time Obama's monthly average sank below the fifty-percent threshold, this dip mostly happened before the month actually began, and Obama stayed remarkably stable after the dip was absorbed.

Now, I do realize that we're all getting sick of looking back at 2009, and although I really would much prefer to be writing about looking forward to 2010, we simply must provide a final glance rearwards before moving on to prognosticating the future. Because it is time once again for Obama Poll Watch -- our monthly look back at Obama's approval ratings for the previous month!

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Welcome back to my annual outright theft of The McLaughlin Group's awards categories for the past year in politics. What's that? We're sorry, but out lawyers insist we instead use the phrase "my annual legally-allowable constitutionally-protected parody" instead. So sorry. For those of you who missed it, Part 1 of this column ran last week, on Christmas.

Which brings up a point. One of the categories today is "Worst Idea," and I have to say on a very personal level that "writing these columns on Christmas and New Year's Day" was my worst idea of the year. Thankfully, this calendar coincidence won't happen again for a number of years, because it is too much work for what is supposed to be a holiday!

Hung-over grumblings aside, though, let's get to it.

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Ku ka punohu ula i ka moana;
Hele ke ehu-kai, uhi i ka aina;
Olapa ka uila, noho i Kahiki;
Uina, nakolo,
Uwá ka pihe,
Lau a kánaka ka hula.
E Laka, e!

-- Traditional Hawaiian "Oli" or "Tiring Song"

In years past, I've opened these year-end articles with a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic "Song of Hiawatha," in honor of Lake Superior State University (which, by all rights, should really be named Gitchee Gumee State University), the intrepid folks who tirelessly publish each year's official "Banished Words List."

But this year, in the spirit of our Hawaiian president, I decided to go with a different native-American-influenced theme. The above is from the hula ceremony, and is introduced (on the web page where I found it) with the following:

The girls of the olapa, their work in the tiring-room completed, lift their voices in a spirited song, and with a lively motion pass out into the hall to bloom before the waiting assembly in the halau in all the glory of their natural charms and adornments:

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While that may seem a rather redundant headline the day before a world-wide party is scheduled, it was actually less provocative than my original concept of selling the theme that America needs more than two viable political parties, which was: "Party! Party! Party! Party!" But then I noticed I had already used one exclamation point in a headline this week; so I realized if I ran my original choice, I would be jeopardizing my standing among the Professional Journalists And Wannabes Who Play One On The Web Guild (the beloved PJAWWPOOTWG, pronounced like... um... well, it's best not to try to pronounce the acronym until you've got at least three stiff drinks under your belt). Where was I? Oh, right, party headlines.

While my generation was the first to use the word "party" as a verb (known technically as "verbalizing" it... no, wait, that can't be right... "verbizing" it perhaps?), we were not the first to heartily endorse the concept. When I was growing up, friends of my parents had a sign in their den, over the built-in bar: "I support the two-party system. One party a week is not enough!" Showing that, while the language may indeed change, the party instinct is as old as mankind. Or at least as old as my childhood neighbors (who seemed pretty old to me at the time).

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Program Note: First off, my apologies for the brevity of today's offering. But, in exchange, we are promising you instead a column this Thursday, on New Year's Eve itself. And don't forget to tune in Friday, for Part 2 of our Annual "McLaughlin Awards," as well, on New Year's Day.

Thursday's column, with luck, will be another year-end tradition -- the annual "banished words" list from northern Michigan. Last year, I wrote about the list and had such fun doing so that I'm going to end 2009 by doing the same. But this means that today is pretty much the last chance you have to enter phrases you'd like banned from everyday usage by your peers. And 2009 was a rich year for grating phrases, from "death panels" to "teabaggers." In any case, check out the official Lake Superior State University "Banished Words" site, and enter your nominations today!

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Democrats should realize, by this point, that they're going to have to reposition themselves a bit if they stand any chance in next year's midterm congressional elections. Fortunately for them, there are two issues out there just begging for exploitation. The first is the Republican Party, who has reportedly decided they are going to run next year on taking something away from voters which Democrats have given them -- the healthcare reform bill. And the second is a little-noted bill introduced a few weeks ago by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), John McCain (R-AZ), and Russ Feingold (D-WI), which would bring back a chunk of the banking regulations passed in the Great Depression known as "Glass-Steagall." Together, these two issues present an opportunity for Democrats to reap some of the populist anger brewing out there in the electorate.

Not that it's going to be easy to do so. The Republicans, after all, are reacting to a movement (the Tea Partiers) which is routinely labelled "populist" itself. But there is populism and then there is populism. After all, both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin -- for very differing reasons -- were called "populist" by the media at one time or another during last year's campaign. Populism is not so much a political stance (as "conservatism" is, for instance) as it is a political tactic. Meaning it can be used equally well by either side of our current American political divide.

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Welcome once again to our year-end wrapup and awards ceremony. Honesty dictates that I immediately genuflect to The McLaughlin Group, from whom I have stolen all these award categories. We will begin this week with Part 1 of these annual awards, and then next Friday on New Year's Day, we will present Part 2, with reduced volume levels (for those who are nursing hangovers... ahem).

Before we begin, though, we have to insert a free plug, for another year-end awards column with a slightly different theme -- awards for idiocy in the mainstream media (a subject near and dear to my own heart, I confess). Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting has their "2009 P.U.-Litzer Awards" up, and I heartily encourage everyone to read it as well, because it is excellent and well worth your time.

And, for comparison, it simply wouldn't be Friday around here if I didn't throw in a few plugs for my own columns, so if you'd like to peruse my McLaughlin Awards from years past, here are the previous three years' worth:

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[Program Note: This column is a repeat of the first Christmas column I wrote, which originally ran on December 20, 2006. Sorry for the re-run, as getting tomorrow's end-of-year awards column is enough of a challenge over the next two days. Here's wishing our faithful readers have a very happy twenty-fifth of December tomorrow, as well, and that you've all managed to be nice enough (and conceal any naughtiness to a sufficient degree) that the day brings you some merriment!]

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Speaking as someone who generally enjoys a good conspiracy theory just for the "creative writing" aspect alone, in all good conscience I simply must report this shocking news: I have uncovered a big, fat conspiracy that is no mere theory. We're either being lied to, or we're joining in the propagation of the lie ourselves, with merriment. In actual fact, it would not be hyperbole to call this the father of all conspiracies.

And almost every single one of us has participated in this gigantic hoax, in one form or another, at least once in our lives. For many, it happens like clockwork on a regular basis. And it seems to prove Hitler's point about the "Big Lie" -- if you repeat it often enough, sooner or later a certain segment of the populace will accept it as being true.

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These days, it takes 60 votes to do just about anything in the United States Senate. That is a fact that galls many, especially since it is a fairly recent development. While the filibuster (or, the more polite modern version, cloture) has been around for a long time, it simply has not been used as such a blunt instrument before in the fashion Republicans are now swinging it around. Which has led to calls to either abolish the filibuster, or scale it back in some way. But proponents of such action should really think long and hard before they do. Because, eventually, the shoe's going to be on the other foot for Democrats in the Senate. This is something which usually gets lost in this debate, or brushed off when mentioned. It really shouldn't, though.

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