It's the end of the year.
Here are my picks for the ``Ten Most Overrated People and Things of
2003.''
10: The recovery. The Dow is on fire, GDP is up and either
Kudlow or Kramer is bound to burst a blood vessel from the
excitement. But Americans are still losing jobs, bankruptcies and
poverty are rising, the dollar is in the basement and companies are
boosting profits by shipping the help desk to India. States are
bleeding red ink, property taxes are skyrocketing and America's
national debt is making us look like Argentina. Somebody's getting
rich, but it's not the average Joe.
9: Conservative ''principles.'' Who knew that you could be
a moral arbiter and a money-laundering druggie at the same time?
Bill Clinton had it all wrong. He should have supported steel
tariffs, bet big in Vegas and taken money from Conrad Black. He
would have saved himself a lot of headaches.
8: ''Liberal'' media. Between the schoolmarm scolding of
the Dixie Chicks and the war cheerleading from the news outlets, the
only thing liberal about the media this year was their taste for
tabloid stories.
7: The war on terror. Most cargo isn't inspected at the
ports, a flotilla can still bob up to the Miami shoreline and we're
at orange alert even after catching Saddam Hussein (how was Howard
Dean wrong, again?). If there's another terror attack and the bin
Ladens are again flown out of the country, do you think they'll have
to remove their shoes at the airport?
6: President W. Bush. The president is not a war hero, and
there are real questions about his National Guard service during
Vietnam, yet he parades around in aviator gear. The Thanksgiving
turkey he posed with at Baghdad airport was a fake, just like his
administration's commitment to decent military pay and benefits. A
supposed conservative, he's presiding over the most bloated
government since the New Deal, and now he wants to spend billions to
go back to the moon! Maybe that's where he hid the humble foreign
policy he promised.
5: The California recall: I'll bet that Gray Davis is
kicking himself for not going after the title role in Elf. A
hit movie could have changed his political career.
4: Download fears. Mix tapes didn't kill the industry in
the 1980s, and downloading isn't killing it now. Bad music is. Truth
is, most albums aren't worth buying, so people just download the
decent singles. And with all the rehashed tracks, my kids might be
the first generation never to have heard a completely original
song.
3: Democratic whining. Dennis Kucinich blasted ABC
News for yanking his embeds, Joe Lieberman got a full week's
whine out of Al Gore endorsing Howard Dean and the Democrats are
engaged in mutually assured destruction. But if they really believe
four more years of Dubya would destroy the planet, the party doesn't
have the luxury of infighting and vanity candidacies. My advice to
Kucinich: Join Moveon.org. And Lieberman? How about a spot on Bush's
ticket?
2: Medicare ''reform.'' If you're under 40, maybe it's
time you started voting -- Congress is robbing you blind.
Republicans recently rammed through a Medicare bill so rotten that
one congressman couldn't even be bribed into voting for it.
Apparently, the votes of 40 million seniors, most of whom already
have prescription-drug coverage, are worth $2.6 trillion over 20
years, according to the Heritage Foundation. And wait till grandpa
gets a load of that ''doughnut,'' which cuts off his
government-funded Viagra between $2,250 and $5,100. Guess who'll
have to pony up when the senior lobby demands closure?
1: Saddam Hussein. The Butcher of Baghdad is caught in the
mother of all rat holes, with a pistol he doesn't fire and $750,000
he apparently was blowing on candy bars and Spam. Give Hussein the
award for most overrated tough guy -- ever.
Joy-Ann Reid is an online news editor and freelance
writer.
