2015 Awards

Story Of The Year:  The rise of ISIS.  Admittedly, they're just one such threat among others, but it's no longer possible to pretend they're the JV team.

Person Of The Year:  Donald Trump.  An easy call.  Hate him or despise him, no one shook up politics more than Trump.  His candidacy may have seemed like a joke at first, but there's no question he's now the leading candidate in his party (which he says is Republican).  It'll certainly be interesting to see how it plays out in 2016.

Winner Of The Year:  Vladimir Putin--he had a pretty good run in 2015.  Runner-up: Fidel Castro.  It was a long staring contest, and he won.

Loser Of The Year:  Jeb Bush.  Some thought (though I don't know why) he'd be the GOP frontrunner, but he's not even doing well among the also-rans.  Runner-up: Scott Walker, who burned out early.  Second runner-up:  Brian Williams.

Winner/Loser Of The Year:  Rahm Emanuel.  He was reelected, yet today finds his entire career on the precipice.

Top New Personality.  Bernie Sanders.  Okay, he's been around a while, but he's never been on the national radar. Feel the Bern.

Face Of The Year:

 

Runner-up: Rachel Dolezal

Biggest Non-Story: Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate deal, which don't change anything (if we're lucky).

Biggest Story That Meant Absolutely Nothing In America:  FIFA head Sepp Bladder forced to step down due to scandal.

Most Talked About Story That Meant Absolutely Nothing:  Deflategate.

Same Old Story:  More gun attacks.  More calls for gun control.  More people buy guns.

Dud Story Of The Year:  Hillary Clinton's emails.  Doesn't matter what they say or show, people who support her will keep on doing it, people who hate her don't need new reasons.  Runner-up:  Gamergate.

Oddest Controversy:  Dressgate--is it black and blue or gold and white?

Biggest Story We've Already Assimilated:  The Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage is a right.  Now it seems like it's always been that way, when only a few years ago it was so controversial (or actually, unpopular) that Democratic candidates opposed it. 

To Be Continued Story:  Another major affirmative action case has been heard by the Supreme Court.  The decision will be handed down in 2016.  Past decisions have actually declared much of what is done at colleges as illegal, but there's been massive resistance.  So will the Court try once again to settle the issue, or will they give in and say go ahead, do whatever you want?

Biggest Story Still To Be Bigger Story:  Refugee crisis from the Middle East.  Will it reshape Europe?  Will it reshape politics? Runner-up:  Is the Republican Party splitting apart, or can it pull itself together before the Presidential election?

Most Overhyped Story: Ahmed Mohamed brought a contraption into his high school which he claimed was a clock he built, though it didn't look like anything so much as a bomb.  He was arrested and questioned by the police.  His story went viral and many saw it as an example of racial profiling and Islamophobia.  He became celebrated around the world as a young inventor and was even invited to the White House.  It's unclear precisely what happened, but whatever it was, it didn't deserve this sort of attention.

Biggest Unforced Error:  House member Kevin McCarthy notes in an interview that the Benghazi hearings brought down Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.  This allowed opponents to claim the hearings were purely political, which angered his own party so much that it destroyed McCarthy's chance to be Speaker Of The House.  Runner-up:  President Obama saying Isis was contained the day before the Paris attacks--no matter what he meant, the timing was a disaster.

Most Craven Political Moment:  So many it's hard to pick, but let's choose Martin O'Malley, who noted "all lives matter" then almost immediately afterward apologized for being so insensitive.

Worst Trend:  There seems to be a growing homicide rate, though it's hard to confirm at present.  If true, about as bad a trend as you can have.

Not Looking Forward To 2016 Award:  Paul Ryan.  He's only been Speaker Of The House a couple months and already conservative are enraged, calling him a sellout.  Even if he doesn't go the Eric Cantor route he's got some rough times ahead of him.

How Soon We Forget Award:  Pizza rat



Runner-up: Dentist/lion killer.

Whatever Happened To Award: Last year it was Wendy Davis.  This year it's Kim Davis. If neither name means anything to you, that would make sense.

Worst Year For A Company:  Tie--Volkswagen, with its emission scandal, and Chipotle's e coli outbreak.

Celebrity Meltdown Of The Year:  Steve Harvey mistakenly announcing the Miss Universe winner.  Still hard to watch.



Biggest Show Biz Scandal: Bill Cosby, who for years was America's most beloved entertainer.  It actually started in late 2014, when accusations of drugging and sexual assault started to get a lot of attention, but it continued all through 2015 as one woman after another spoke out.  And then in July an old deposition was unsealed and whatever doubt was left evaporated.

Fond Farewell Award (alternately, How Can We Miss You If You Won't Go Away?):  David Letterman and Jon Stewart.