Chris Weigant

Welcome once again to our year-end wrap-up and awards ceremony. Honesty dictates that I immediately genuflect to The McLaughlin Group, from whom I have stolen all these award categories.

Other interesting news from Republicanland is a new poll showing that, given three choices, voters state who they'd likely vote for in the 2010 election in the following order: (1) Democrats, (2) Tea Partiers, (3) Republicans.

November wasn't a particularly good month for President Obama in the polls. Not disastrous by any means, but not very cheerful either. For the first time, Obama's numbers flirted with going below 50 percent.

While Washington is all a-twitter over two society climbers crashing the gates at an Obama soirée, in the grand sweep of history, it was a fairly minor event. No one was in danger, and no real harm was done, nobody got dosed with LSD.

Let's look at the poker hand we've been dealt on health care reform. Democrats have now officially gone from "pot committed" to "all in." The stakes, to be blunt, have been raised until they are as high as they can go.

Harry Reid thinks he's got enough votes, but then this is the reason why the vote keeps getting pushed back -- because he's obviously still scrambling for the final few votes before he moves ahead.

No matter what healthcare bill passes, it is not going to remain static. It is going to be revisited again and again over the next few decades. That's how lawmaking works.

I present the transcript of President Obama's remarks at yesterday's memorial service for those killed in the tragedy at Fort Hood in Texas.

The fall of The Wall signified the fall of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War. And while this was of enormous historical import, I fear that future generations won't really pay much attention to it.

What puts this first year in perspective for me is that: Obama may not be smarter than all of us, but he sure is smarter by a long shot than McCain would have been. And that, for now, is enough for me.

Happy Samhain, everyone, if that isn't an inherent oxymoron. For those of you who expected (and were, of course, waiting for with bated breath... what...

The real head-scratcher for serious media-watchers right now is what the "war" between the White House and Fox News was meant to distract us from this week. The "war" itself is laughable, for a number of reasons.

Yesterday, over 300,000 people picked up the phone and called Congress demanding health care reform this year. The phones ringing off the hook certainly did not go unnoticed by Congress.

Obama's plan is good news for medical marijuana advocates, but although this is a historic shift in the War on Drugs, it does not go far enough because it does not resolve the illogic of the underlying legal issue.

A football locker room. Hundreds of Democrats are sitting on benches, to hear Coach's halftime pep talk in the Health Care Reform Superbowl. Some appear exhausted, some appear battered.

I have little sympathy for Baucus at this point, when he complains that his adversaries have had time to put out a report attacking his bill. Because there is one reason that they've had all that time.

The plan isn't going into effect until 2013. Think you're tired of TV ads and screaming folks at town hall meetings now? Picture a more local version of that for the next four years -- not a pretty sight.

A woman whose name we all know was a proud Red, a committed Socialist, and an unapologetic Wobbly. And now she's not only buried in the National Cathedral, she's got her own statue in the Capitol.

This month, the news for Obama fans is not bad. It's not get-up-and-cheer good, either, but it's a lot better than the news has been for the past two months.

First, let's get rid of the distractions this week. Chicago will not be getting the Olympics in 2016, even after President Obama went over to Copenha...

I encourage everyone, no matter what part of these United States you live in (or even if you live elsewhere), to take a "trip out West" at some point in your life. Get in a car, and go explore everything west of Denver.

The progressives and Blue Dogs are going to have a showdown. It is going to culminate not in statements to the press (or the lack thereof), not in some whispered whip count, but rather in a very public vote.