The Year That Was 2007

Yes, it's time for the 2007 Awards. Last year's post is available here, and the one from 2005 is available here.

Best Move of 2007: Peter Angelos hires Andy MacPhail
2006 Winner: Ravens trade for Steve McNair
2005 Winner: John Roberts Appointed as Chief Justice
I almost feel like putting a disclaimer on this particular topic, since realistically the jury is still out on this move. Not necessarily because the hire of MacPhail will magically become a poor choice; far from it. The success of this move is contingent on how much latitude Angelos will allow MacPhail to operate and run the team as he sees fit. So far, it looks like MacPhail does in fact have the latitude, at least if the trade of Miguel Tejada is any indication. But if Angelos decides to interfere, this choice is going to look silly in about six months.

Honorable Mention: Orioles trade Miguel Tejada; Hall of Fame voters shut out Mark McGwire; John McCain skips Iowa, focuses on New Hampshire

Worst Move of 2007: General Assembly, Leopold impose School Board "reforms"
2006 "Winner": Mel Martinez becomes General Chairman of the RNC
2005 "Winners": Harriet Miers appointed to Supreme Court, Rafael Palmeiro's testimony to Congress

I think I have done plenty to chronicle the absurdity of the "improvements" to the Anne Arundel County School Board selection process that will continue to diminish public input on who makes decisions regarding the education of our children. So click here to catch up on the all the gory and pathetic details.

Dishonorable Mention: Mike Collins ousted as AA GOP Chairman; Baltimore voters re-elect Sheila Dixon; The Mitchell Report; Bobby Petrino quits on Atlanta Falcons

Strangest Move of 2007: John Flynn keeps job as MD GOP Executive Director
2006 Winner: Don Dwyer's May and June
2005 Winner: Martin O'Malley thanks MD4BUSH

2007 was not a good year for the Maryland Republican Party. We are going broke. We are fighting with each other. We had a leadership coup in Anne Arundel County. And we have few credible candidates running for Congress. One of the places where we do have credible candidates we have party leaders openly cheerleading for a challenger to an incumbent. Coming off of 2006, this was about the worst thing that could possibly happen to help rebuild the party. And somehow, John Flynn has manged to keep his job despite several high-profile snafus and generally few people having very much confidence in his job performance. It is just mind-boggling to try and figure out why Flynn has not been replaced with somebody who might be able to get the job done and help right this ship.

Honorable Mention: Jim Gilmore and Tommy Thompson run for President; Ron Paul refuses to disassociate Presidential Campaign from Radical Elements; Atlanta Falcons keep Michael Vick under contract; Religious Right flocks around liberal Mike Huckabee; Steve Bisciotti gives Brian Billick vote of confidence before season ends.

Guy I Feel Bad For for 2007: Arthur Blank, Owner, Atlanta Falcons
2006 "Winner": Rick Neuheisel
2005 "Winner": Rick Neuheisel

Poor Arthur Blank. The fella made a lot of money as a co-founder of Home Depot, but his business success has not yet translated to the football field. But when you consider that in 2007 alone, Michael Vick got stupid about dougs, Head Coach Bobby Petrino chickened out and headed to Arkansas, and Bill Parcells played Blank like a fool before taking a job with the Dolphins, a lot of it was out of Blank's control. You would have to suspect that for Blank and the Falcons, things couldn't get a heck of a lot worse in 2008.

Honorable Mention: Leo Mazzone; Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA); Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Best Run Campaign(Local Division): Fred Paone for Alderman (R-Annapolis)
2006 Winner: Nic Kipke for Delegate (R-31)
2005 Winner: Jeff Holtzinger for Mayor (R-Frederick)

Alderman-elect Paone was really the only viable option to win this award, but he did manage to maintain a Republican seat in a bad year for Republicans against tough challenges from the left and the far left.

Honorable Mention: None

Best Run Campaign(Statewide Division): Donna Edwards for Congress (D-4)
2006 Winner: Michael Steele for US Senate (R)

Obviously, I do not, have not, and will not ever agree with Donna Edwards on much politically. But her campaign has been masterfully run. She was able to catapult herself from an undermanned, overachieving campaign against Congressman Wynn in the 2006 Democratic Primary into running a serious, credible campaign this go around. The fact that she has been able to cultivate union and blogger support from around the state has been a testament to these efforts of coalition building and taking on the tough challengers. Obviously, I couldn't care less who wins this primary because neither one of the leading contenders will do good for Maryland or do good for America, but the Edwards campaign has really had it together.

Honorable Mention: Peter Franchot's seeming 2010 campaign for Governor(D)

Best Run Campaign(National Division): Bobby Jindal for Governor(R-LA)
2006 Winner: Barack Obama for President (D-IL)
2005 Winner: Paul Hackett for Congress (D-OH)

Speaking of campaigns that never stopped, Governor Jindal never stopped running for Governor after the 2003 Louisiana gubernatorial election, one that he probably lost only for reasons of his Indian ancestry. In 2007, there was really never a doubt that Jindal could lose. His constant campaigning, his performance as a member of Congress, and a reaction of Louisiana voters against the Democratic leadership that caused so much heartache and pain during the run up to and the aftermath of Katrina. Bobby Jindal gave the voters exactly what they needed; hope.
Honorable Mention: Mike Huckabee for President (R-AR); Paul Broun for Congress (R-GA); Barack Obama for President (D-IL)

Worst Run Campaign(Local Division): Kieffer Mitchell for Mayor (D-Baltimore)
2006 "Winner": Don Dwyer re-election campaign (R-31)
2005 "Winner": George Kelley for Mayor (R-Annapolis)

There were a lot of people, myself included, that never would have fathomed that Sheila Dixon could beat Kieffer Mitchell so handily. Mitchell had every opportunity to capitalize on Martin O'Malley's catastrophic failure as Mayor of Baltimore, and Dixon's complicity in his failures. And yet, Dixon won in a rout. Mitchell's campaign seemed to be one snafu after another. Problems with rent. Problems with fundraising. Problems with the candidate's family. If anything could have gone wrong with the Mitchell campaign, it did. What this does long term to Mitchell's political career remains in doubt. But how much have you heard from Lawrence Bell or Carl Stokes after their bumbling, failed campaigns for Mayor in 1999?

Dishonorable Mention: Michael Sarbanes for City Council President (D-Baltimore); Debbie Rose McKerrow for Alderwoman (D-Annapolis)

Worst Run Campaign(Statewide Division): Andy Harris for Congress (R-1)
2006 "Winner": Steven Abrams for Comptroller (R)

The Harris Campaign has been one of the most bizarre episodes I have seen in quite some time. From a technical perspective, they are doing almost everything right; getting key endorsements, rallying the base, raising money. It's just that from the strategic perspective, the campaign keeps fumbling over their own feet. It almost as if the gameplan has been: attack, attack, attack. And when somebody criticizes the Harris Campaign, criticize them for attacking. It's been odd because Harris has spent so little time trying to introduce himself to the voters, and so little time talking about what positive changes he would make as a Congressman because his campaign has spent too much time trying to throw Gilchrest and Pipkin under the bus. And it probably explains why Harris may be running third in this race. If this campaign had been run in a strategically sound manner, Pipkin would never have entered the race, and Harris would be on his way to a February 12th rout....

Dishonorable Mention: None

Worst Run Campaign(National Division): The Al Gore Draft Campaign (D-TN)
2006 "Winner": Sen. George Allen's re-election campaign (R-VA)
2005 "Winner": Jerry Kilgore for Governor (R-VA)

His supporters kept trying all year to goad the Goracle into the Presidential race. They tried to astroturf a groundswell of support for the radical environmental movement (why else would NBC pull their Green Week stunt?), and parlay that astroturfed support into a campaign for Gore. They tried to take Gore's unconscionable Nobel Peace Prize win and turn that into a movement. But it was no dice. Not, necessarily, because Gore doesn't want to be President. I think he really does want to be President still. I just think that Gore isn't stupid when it comes to throwing his hat into the ring; he gets ONE more chance and it is strategically sound for him to wait until he has a good shot. But that's where the Draft Gore folks failed; they desperately, desperately wanted 2008 to be the year for Gore.

Dishonorable Mention: Joe Biden for President (D-DE), Sen. Ted Stevens re-election campaign (R-AK)

Best International Development: The Surge in Iraq works
2006 Winner: Saddam Hussein Convicted and Executed
2005 Winner: Free Elections in Iraq

Violence is down. American casualties are down. Iraqi casualties are down. More provinces are being turned over to Iraqi civil authority. To be blunt, anybody who says that the Surge didn't work is relying too much on the mainstream, anti-war media for their information. Let's hope that these developments in Iraq continue to so our troops can come home as soon as possible....

Honorable Mention: Sarkozy elected President of France; Belgium does not split into two countries

Worst International Developments(TIE): Vladimir Putin consolidates power to outlast term/The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
2006 "Winner": Russian President Vladimir Putin begins murdering critics
2005 "Winner": Vladimir Putin's Reforms in Russia

Yes, once again Time's Man of the Year for 2007 means bad news for the United States. I still cannot fathom how President Bush looked in this joker's eyes and saw anything but a Communist apparatchik with better PR skills. The fact that Putin ensures that the bad old days return ( arresting anti-government protesters like Garry Kasparov, shipping nuclear fuel to the Iranians) continues to be a problem for American foreign policy, and will likely continue to destabilize international affairs for many years to come. Of course, Putin can still teach his American counterparts something; the $40 billion fortune he has allegedly amassed as President makes the fortunes American pols make look like loose change...

Obviously, the recent assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is still fresh in our minds having happened just a few days ago. But it is hard to argue that her death was one of the worst developments of the past year. Unfortunately, it is hard for me to say that I am surprised that this happened given the history of political violence in Pakistan and other recent threats and attempts on Bhutto's life. The ultimate problem for all of our interests is the fact that you have an extremely volatile domestic situation in a country that has nuclear weapons and does not always play nice with their neighbors. Destabilization is South Asia is bad for world peace and bad for the world's economy. 2008 will say a lot more about how bad this development is than we can know now...

Dishonorable Mention: Communist thugs still in charge in Cuba, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe; The Bali Global Warming Conference; John Howard ousted in Australia

Best News of 2007: Maryland blogosphere expands at rapid rate
Let's face it, one of the best things about 2007 is the fact that Maryland's blogosphere has really taken off. We now have a lot of things that we have on the internet, both left and right, that we didn't have at this time last year. We have the major group blog of the right (Red Maryland) we have the group blog of the left (Free State Politics). We have the bane of the Governor's existence (O'Malley Watch). We have podcasts. We have vlogcasts. All of this stuff is brand new for 2007 and something that I as a longtime Maryland blogger (2008 will be my fourth year in the blogoshpere) am glad to have played a major part of. And now, as we enter 2008, we are going to continue to grow the influence of the blogosphere through the forthcoming Great Debate. Put it this way; we are having a serious conversation in the Maryland blogosphere about the costs and benefits of privatizing aspects of state government; that's not something that has happened before.

Honorable Mention: General Assembly to look into special elections for legislative vacancies; Congress finally passes Alternative Minimum Tax extension

Worst News of 2007: O'Malley, General Assembly Democrats Screw Taxpayers 2006 "Winner": Democrats take Congress, Government House Do I really need to explain this one? Dishonorable Mention: General Assembly prepares more tax hikes for 2008; Crime rate continues to spiral out of control in Baltimore