Top Ten Things We Won’t Miss from 2008

This is the time of year for best and worst lists, so let’s go. Some of what we didn’t like and won’t miss about 2008.

#10: “White people won’t vote for black candidates.” Spoken in various forms by literally hundreds of pundits, candidates and surrogates. Good riddance to invidious “Bradley effect” references and intentional distortions of polling data.

#9: Democratic Strategist vs. Republican Strategist. Pick a topic. Throw a sentence out, no matter how inane. Allow two alleged adults to yell for two minutes. Call this news. As the election drew closer, we noticed the strategists got more anonymous and desperate. May the Sunday talk shows find better guests in 2009.

#8: ” . . . three AM phone call.” It didn’t work as a political ad, it’s already tired as a lead for a news story.

#7: The demise of newspapers. There are only five four three newspapers that will make it into the 2010’s. The others already get their news from those three.  The rest of us get our news from the web, and we won’t even realize how much we miss good field reporting until it’s completely gone.  Clue: If it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch, it’s not a real newspaper.

#6:  Claiming victory in Iraq.  It’s hard to miss something when no one will define it, but can we just avoid the hypocrisy altogether?

#5:  Public pleas from the Caylee Anthony family of Florida.  Play out your sick family tragedy privately, please.  Please?

#4:   Cindy McCain.  Prepare a fresh vat of formaldehyde, and call her for the Senate campaign in 2010.

#3:  Selective serial bailouts.  The entire economy is too big to fail, OK?  Let’s bail out everybody or nobody–not just Bush’s and Paulson’s friends.

#2:  Dick Cheney justifying anything.

#1:  George, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  On second thought . . .