2024 Year in Review—McLaughlin Group Style

Every year since college, my best friend Dan and I have compiled our observations on a wide range of topics that reflect on the year that has just expired. We follow the well-established template of "The McLaughlin Group" program. (My 2023 column is at this link.) We lost the venerable John McLaughlin in 2016 after decades of shaping how political analysis and debate programs should be done.

Here’s an episode from my senior year of high school, for perspective.

McLaughlin left a lasting impression on American culture that we still feel today. Steve Deace hosts a popular conservative podcast for the Blaze that routinely utilizes the format of the McLaughlin Group—calling it the Deace Group—that even uses the familiar theme music from McLaughlin’s long-running PBS production. At the end of every year, the panelists—two conservative, two liberals, and the host—would give their grades on a variety of news topics throughout the year.

Here now is my take on the year that was, in the style of the McLaughlin Group.

Biggest Winner of the Year

American optimism. Not only did we survive an insane election year, we’ve positioned our nation to thrive.

Biggest Loser of the Year

CRT and DEI departments at American institutes of higher learning. Lots of pink slips getting handed out.

Best Politician of the Year

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) who provided so many entertaining moments as he grilled hapless Democrat witnesses and nominees.

When he wasn’t doing that, he was verbally undressing reporters who asked stupid questions:

Worst Politician of the Year Award

Tim Walz. Man, there was a reason few people had heard of this guy before Kamala Harris tapped him as her running mate.

Most Defining Moment of the Year

Laken Riley. Jocelyn Nungaray. Rachel Morin. These female victims—among thousands of others—of brutal attacks by illegal immigrants put faces of real people to the debate about building the wall and closing the border. The invasion facilitated by the Biden regime has real victims, and will continue to have real victims for years to come.

Best Spin of the Year

That Kamala Harris had a chance. There were many good reasons why she didn’t win a single delegate in the 2020 primary, but the Obama world and the DNC, with the help of their lackeys in the corporate media, tried to convince us she could be the savior after the Biden glitches could no longer be covered up. The bicoastal elites running the party painted themselves into a corner with their terrible choice of Biden in 2020, and ended up forced to play a game of chicken after he bombed the debate. Unlike 2020, they couldn’t cheat their way out of this situation.

Most Boring Politician of the Year

Gavin Newsom, who has chosen to “Trump-proof” California in the Resistance 2.0. America has grown weary of all the resisting, and is ready to unite in service to a pro-America agenda. Blue-state governors have jumped on board in a doomed attempt to get the band back together, but America has moved on from their shenanigans.

Most Charismatic Politician of the Year

JD Vance. Seemingly out of nowhere, the junior senator from Ohio vaulted into America’s consciousness by eloquently articulating the strengths of the MAGA agenda. Oh, and those dreamy eyes. Almost single-handedly, his stare into the camera during the vice presidential debate completely undermined whatever legitimacy Tim Walz may have hoped to generate.

Bummest Rap of the Year

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker somehow committed a hate crime by praising marriage in a commencement speech at a Catholic college.

Honorable Mention: Mark Steyn, who inexplicably lost a lawsuit brought against him by climate cultist and pugilistic liar Michael Mann. Steyn has spent years exposing the fraud of Professor Mann’s “hockey stick” graph of atmospheric temperatures, so Mann sued him. The D.C. jury ordered Steyn to pay Mann $1 million in damages.

Fairest Rap of the Year

Claudine Gay, virulent anti-Semite and serial plagiarist, only ascended to the position of Harvard president due to DEI pervading the higher education establishment. On the occasion of her resignation, she of course blamed systemic racism for her difficulties.

Best Comeback

Donald Trump completed the greatest political comeback in American history in at least a century, and probably ever. In doing so, American voters gave him and his agenda a clear mandate to clean up the mess created by the guy who took the presidency from him in 2020.

Honorable Mention: Beards. For over 100 years, conventional political wisdom said a man running for office faced long odds if he sported facial hair. JD Vance changed all that by getting elected as Vice President. Other notable sideboards in Trump’s nominees include Kash Patel, Russ Vought, Jamieson Greer, Adam Boehler, Brandon Judd, Ronald Johnson, and Mike Huckabee. Make Muttonchops Great Again!

Most Original Thinker

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He still has a lot of hare-brained liberal ideas, but his ongoing crusade against Big Pharma and the Make America Healthy Again movement has sparked a long-overdue national discussion on how we’ve gotten so unhealthy. Bringing him in to the MAGA coalition was a genius move by the Trump campaign. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, he has the opportunity to turn the Swamp inside out.

Most Stagnant Thinker

The radicals who ginned up college protests in favor of Hamas terrorists on campuses across America. Antisemitism went out of vogue in 1945 for a reason.

Best Photo Op

We may just have to retire this award, or at least rename it. Donald Trump raising his fist after getting shot and exhorting his supporters to FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! made crystal clear the stakes of the 2024 election cycle. The NeverTrump movement largely melted away after he survived this assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Worst Photo Op

So many to choose from. The Democrats and radicals like supposed “reporter” Taylor Lorenz dancing on the grave of Brian Thompson has to top the list. A deranged lunatic shot the CEO of United Healthcare to death in New York City a week before he was set to celebrate Christmas with his wife and children. The sordid celebrations revealed something deep and dark within their souls that should concern every American. Of course, they justified their glee over the premeditated murder by blaming Thompson for insurance denials and other aspects of the sorry state of healthcare in America, almost all of which were created or exacerbated by Obamacare.

Enough, Already (also known as the "Shut Up and Get Out Award")

Environmental activist nutjobs throwing soup and paint on priceless works of art. They seem to have faded away after one of them tried to get to the Mona Lisa, only to find it safely protected behind a couple of feet of glass.

Worst Lie of the Year

Joe Biden: “I will not pardon him [son Hunter Biden],” June 13, 2024. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, possibly America’s most inept employee, repeatedly hammered this point. On December 1, Biden issued a blanket pardon for Hunter covering a ten-year period beginning in Biden’s term as Vice President. This should come as no surprise, as Biden’s other giant lie—that he never discussed Hunter’s business dealings—came completely unraveled near the end of 2024.

Joe Biden has always been a compulsive liar.

Capitalist of the Year

Javier Milei. His basic-sense policies of cutting spending and eliminating whole governmental departments have caused Argentina’s inflation rate to drop from the hundreds to under 3%. He has also slashed taxes and unleashed prosperity—a lesson America desperately needs to learn for its own economy.

Person of the Year

Donald Trump. He defined the entire year.

Honorable Mention

Elon Musk. So many consequential actions this year, including rescuing stranded astronauts on the International Space Station. His greatest contribution, however, has to be how he has transformed X to be a bastion of free speech in an era of institutional propaganda.

Destined for Political Stardom

JD Vance. The 2028 presidential primaries promise to be fascinating, with lots of qualified Republicans who might go for the nomination. But Vance figures to have the inside track.

Destined for Political Oblivion

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The ultimate demonstration of the Peter Principle. Once America got to know them, the voters couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. Even the notion of Harris running for governor of California seems far-fetched now.

Destined for the Other Kind of Oblivion

Hamas and Hezbollah. They’ve already been mostly eliminated. But the incoming Trump administration has signaled to Israel they have a green light to do whatever it takes to secure the region from the murderous animals who carried out the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

Honorable Mention: Boeing, which needs to undergo a corporate soul-searching if it wants to survive at all.

Best Political Theater

The month of July. Quite possibly the most remarkable week in American history occurred July 13–21, 2024. On a bright Saturday afternoon in Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman almost blew Donald Trump’s head off at a rally. A firefighter and father of two, Corey Comparatore, sacrificed his life to save his family from the rain of bullets. A few days later, Trump honored him at the RNC Convention, wearing a bandage on the ear grazed by the bullet. A few days after that, Joe Biden announced he would cease his campaign for reelection, causing a scramble by the DNC to decide what to do next.

Worst Political Theater

The anti-Trump lawfare. The transparently corrupt attempt to throw Biden’s political opponent in jail by any means necessary went down in flames precisely because it had no basis in actual law.

Honorable Mention: the pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic protests on college campuses supporting the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

Most Under-reported Story

Joe Biden’s obvious incapacity. When he bombed the presidential debate with Trump on June 27, the entire mainstream leftist media complex expressed shock and dismay, despite signs of Biden’s steep decline emerging as early as his 2020 election bid. Remember when he would call “lids” on his campaign activity at 9:30am in 2020? The whole sordid affair revealed the collusion and mendacity of the bicoastal elites who run the DNC and MSM. All of a sudden it was a crisis that Kamala Harris had to swoop in to solve, with the help of Obama behind the scenes.

Honorable Mention: That time our Secretary of Defense went AWOL and faced no consequences for it.

Most Over-reported Story

Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Super Bowl to cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Biggest Government Waste

The Inflation Reduction Act, a $1.2 trillion giveaway to the green energy scam.

Best Dollar Spent

The money spent by the Trump campaign on the support of Kamala Harris for transgender “rights.” Polls showed voters had no idea how radical a position she had staked out on taxpayer funding for prisoners to get sex change operations. Seeing that ad moved a swath of voters to Trump who support the basic sense positions of not allowing child mutilations, protecting women’s sports, and not using taxpayer dollars for such extreme social experiments. Plus it had the best tagline of any ad in modern times: “She’s for they/them. Donald Trump is for you.” Devastating.

Boldest Political Tactic

Trump’s campaign expanding his coalition by welcoming the Teamsters Union, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and former leftists who saw through the lies of the progressive elites. MAGA welcomed them with open arms, when the leftists ignored them.

Best Idea of 2024

Trump going on podcasts. Reportedly at the urging of his son Baron, Trump appeared on long-form podcasts with gigantic audiences. He came off as authentic and likeable, and completely bypassed the heavily biased gatekeepers of the corporate media.

Worst Idea of 2024

The massive expansion of “green” energy at the expense of the environment. A monumental waste of taxpayer money on programs doomed to failure, that will do nothing but create environmental waste and kill untold numbers of birds, whales, and other vulnerable species they say they want to save. The only good news that came from the “Inflation Reduction Act” that ushered in the Green New Deal? They didn’t have enough time to spend all the money, and Trump will inherit around half a trillion in undedicated funds from the law. That should come in handy for paying for the border wall and starting mass deportations, among many other Trump agenda items.

Sorry to See You Go

Dame Maggie Smith, James Earl Jones, Bob Newhart, for all the wonderful characters and laughs they brought us.

The Kim Jong Il Not Even A Little Bit Sorry to See You Go Award

OJ Simpson, because obviously.

Morgan Spurlock, who created the deceitful documentary Supersize Me. I wrote this on X on the occasion of his death from cancer:

https://t.co/KuB8CLb6eq

— jeffery reynolds (@ChargerJeff) May 25, 2024

15 Minutes of Fame

Pete Buttigieg. He’ll get to the bottom of the St. Francis Bridge collapse and Boeing’s mechanical oopsies any second now.

Turncoat of the Year

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who betrayed the DNC and his democratic supporters by making sense and supporting Israel. Keep your eyes open for a possible change of party.

Most Honest Person of the Year

Special Counsel Robert Hur, who recommended not proceeding with the classified documents case against Joe Biden. By his reasoning, a jury would consider him a sympathetic figure as an elderly man with a bad memory. This confirmed what we all saw—our president was no longer there.

Most Overrated Person, Event, or Story of the Year

Barack Obama, who believed he could still parachute in and save an election solely on the force of his personality. A funny thing happened on the way to Election Day—America has grown tired of his sanctimony.

Most Underrated Person, Event, or Story of the Year

The Loper Bright case at the Supreme Court. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court overruled Chevron deference, which previously allowed federal agencies to interpret ambiguity in federal statutes when writing rules and regulations. This principle led to massive overreach by the federal bureaucracy. In its ruling, SCOTUS took great strides towards making the federal leviathan more responsive to the people. The long-term consequences have yet to be felt.

Grade the Planet 

We’re at a solid C+, with a lot of reasons for optimism over America’s future. We’ve decided as a society to give Western culture one more chance to advance humanity, but we’ve dug ourselves quite a hole to get out of.

Macroprediction

We are about to embark on a renewal of the American spirit of independence, prosperity, and national unity of purpose. The voters didn’t coalesce around that idea until the very end of the election cycle, but they now realize what’s been missing in our country since the beginning of the Obama era. America craves that sense of optimism again.

New Year's Resolution

Same as last year’s, only moreso: To tell the truth and cut through the BS.