Political Oscars 2009: And the Winners Are...

2008 featured the most dramatic election in memory, and some of the most compelling figures ever seen on the political stage -- characters not even the best screenwriters could top.

Despite or, perhaps, because of this, this year's politically themed movies -- Frost/Nixon, Milk, W., Swing Vote -- struggled at the box office. Hollywood just couldn't match the drama being played out on the campaign trail.

So, with the Oscars coming up on Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to salute -- and mashup -- some of the year's noteworthy achievements in the worlds of politics and entertainment... which, these days, aren't always easy to tell apart.

The envelopes please...

Sex Scene:
Best: Kate Winslet and David Kross in The Reader
Worst: Eliot Spitzer and Ashley Dupré in Client #9

Rip Off:
Best: the compromising photo stolen in The Bank Job
Worst: the $50 billion Bernie Madoff stole from his hapless clients

Return on Investment:
Best: Slumdog Millionaire, which cost $15 million to make and has grossed over $130 million worldwide.
Worst: the $350 billion we gave to Wall Street banks -- with nothing to show for it.

Sequel:
Best: The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's brooding follow up to Batman Begins
Worst: TARP II, Tim Geithner's vague follow up to Hank Paulson's Bailout Begins

Performance in a Drama:
Best: Mickey Rourke's soulful comeback in The Wrestler
Worst: the banking CEOs trying to act contrite in front of Congress

Performance by a Rodent:
Best: Matthew Broderick as the fearless mouse in The Tale of Despereaux
Worst: Rod Blagojevich as the Senate seat-selling rat in A Tale of Desperation

Short Subject:
Best: Auf Der Strecke (On the Line)
Worst: Fred Thompson's blink-and-you-missed-it presidential run

Mega-Buck Action Fantasy:
Best: Iron Man
Worst: Self-Regulation on Wall Street

Performance by a Grizzled Veteran:
Best: Clint Eastwood tosses aside his prejudices and finds redemption in Gran Torino
Worst: John McCain tosses aside his principles and loses an election in Maverick No More

Scary Performance:
Best: Heath Ledger as The Joker
Worst: Stew Parnell as The Jerk who shipped out peanut butter he knew contained deadly salmonella

Funny Performance:
Jim Carrey says "Yes" to everything in Yes Man
Unfunny: Republicans say "No" to everything in Congress

All right, HuffPosters -- now it's your turn. List your Political Oscar nominees in the comment section below and we'll publish the best ones this weekend.

Comments

[NOLA59]

11:59 AM on 02/26/2009

I'm sorry I missed all of this. It was Mardi Gras time in NOLA so I've been pretty busy. I hope people are still reading these post. I didn't get through all of them so not sure if there is this one:

Best Newcomer: President Obama
Worst Newcomer: A tie: Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin

[UKOH]

12:29 PM on 02/23/2009

Category: Actions to stop violence in the world:

BEST: Egypt's peace plan proposal to stop excesses like Gaza happening again.
WORST: Sarah Palin's denunciation of political violence she says was committed against her - in front of a turkey slaughtering machine in full use.

[NickCooper1976]

08:37 AM on 02/23/2009

I have my own nominations for the film 'The 2001-2009 presidency', a tragedy , for McCain-Palin 2008, a comedy, and Democratic Primaries 2008, a drama. 2001-2009 wins big:
http://thestupidtimes.blogspot.com/2009/02/george-w-bush-accepts-best-actor-oscar.html

[RickValer]

12:33 AM on 02/23/2009

Best Dramatic Performance: Philip Seymour Hoffman as troubled priest
Worst Dramatic Performance: Pope rehabilitates Holocaust-denying bishop

[Matthew Smith]

10:53 PM on 02/22/2009

This certainly rings true!

[StrayCatzX5]

08:12 AM on 02/22/2009

Lest we forget...

"The category is: Worst(Best?) Supporting Performance By A Rodent. The nominees are:

Rush Limbaugh in "The NoMan"
Sean Hannity in "Lies,Lies,Let's Go To The Videotape"
Bernard Madoff in "Slimeball Billionaire"
Anne Coulter in "Nightmaregirls"
Jeb Bush in "The Curious Case Of Election Fraud"

...And the winner is..."

"Sorry,but the Academy has deemed them all to be poor performances,and therefore,no award will be presented."

[KillBillV2]

03:23 AM on 02/22/2009

Most pathetically FUNNY Picture of 2008, or in all history:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/johnmccain/ig/John-McCain-Pictures/John-McCain-Tongue.htm


John Mccain's tongue!

[Marcus-Ian]

04:45 PM on 02/21/2009

Best Comedic Performance That Was Intended To Be Dramatic: Sarah Palin's CBS interview.
Worst Comedic Performance That Was Intended To Be Dramatic: Duhbya's carrier landing.

Best Special Effects: Dick Chaney for his ventriloquist act with Duhbya.
Worst Special Effects: Joe Leiberman morphing from independent to conservative to centrist'

Best Editing: Arrianna and Huffpo.
Worst Editing: Dept. of Justice for attempted rewrite of The Constitution.

Best Direction: The Obama Election Campaign.
Worst Direction: Sarah Palin's handlers.

Best Picture: The Electoral Vote Map, 4 November, 11:02 EST on MSNBC, Keitho announcing that Barack Obama is to be the forty fourth President of the United States.

[takingasecondglance]

03:14 PM on 02/21/2009

Best career move by a former presidential candidate-Hillary Clinton
Worst.....McCain picks Palin.....
with honorable mention for support in providing aid to a political disaster
Rush Limbaugh for "Operation Chaos"

Have a great weekend.
Vince

[gafcob]

11:05 AM on 02/21/2009

Best GOP Ticket : Palin McCaine
Best gop Ticket McCaine Palin

[foxymama]

10:52 AM on 02/21/2009

Arianna
This has to be one of most creative blogs in recent history. Thanks to all who made it worth reading.

[mivogo]

10:19 AM on 02/21/2009

Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger
Worst supporting actor: Scooter Libby

Best Design: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Worst Design: The Curious Case of John Thein's $1,700 toilet.

Best director: Danny Boyle
Worst decider: George Bush

[BigMac44]

08:26 AM on 02/21/2009

Best Denial: Rod Blogojavich - I did'nt do anything criminal
Worst Denial - Republicans - We couldn't have been trounced in the elections so we'll just keep trying to run the country anyway. At least we will screw up the process so Obama cant get anything done- at least not easily

[anastomosis]

02:02 AM on 02/21/2009

Saddest animal act: Palin's turkey.
Happiest animal act: the once and future Puppy-Elect.

[triplettam]

11:51 PM on 02/20/2009

The all-out best performance of the year was Sarah Palin's debate with Joe Biden. Don't get me wrong, I hate everything she stands for and believe she was not--nor ever will be--qualified to be president. However, I also do not not like seeing people humiliated in public, and she was on the verge of being more than just a joke. I just wanted her to lose. But she came out--not really grasping anything she was talking about and sticking to 4 or 5 talking points--and made a lot of people think that she really had some intelligence--no easy feat. This was the talent portion of the race, and she did a lot better than I expected. It was as good--and analogous--to Heath Ledger's "Joker." The only difference between the roles was the make-up.