Elijah Cone

I think this one goes to Anne. Yeah, Anne's poll was wrong. Lock her up. We have one more in this category. Sometimes the worst polling takes are to bail on the polls altogether and come up with your own pseudoscience method of predicting elections. Professor Alan Lichtman is a man who claimed to have a system like that called the 13 keys.

He became quite a character in this cycle with many takes and posts, but here's one example that we particularly enjoyed of him getting into a fight with Nate Silver.

Depending on how you think about it. Do you think Trump will sue Alan Lichtman?

Let's move on to a category that you guys did request this year, the worst Blue Anon slash Blue MAGA discourse of the year. If you don't know, Blue Anon and Blue MAGA are what they sound like, just pro-Biden right-wing influences that are dyed in the wool, willing to go to the mat for the president. Let's get into it.

First up is a post from pro-Biden influencer Chris Buzzi responding to the calls for Biden to step down.

Next is a post from a now-deleted account that shows the direction that the conversation took in the days post-Biden and Trump debate. Let's take a listen.

They deleted their account. We couldn't find who it was. They're screwed.

I think it was called St. Ashley's Staircar.

All right. Next is a post from a very popular Resist account, Seth Abramson. Let's take a listen.

And last, we have a super viral post from an influencer named Tristan Snell. It's a photo of you guys, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Rob Reiner, John Cusack, Chris Hayes, Stephen King, Michael Moore, Seth Meyers, and George Clooney. The caption simply reads, these are the folks calling for Biden to quit. Gosh, if only there was something they all had in common.

Playing on the discourse of that time that it was racist to call for Joe Biden to step down in favor of Kamala Harris.

The kicker is Tristan Snell is right.

So we're crowning Tristan Snell to move on to the best in show category. I think so. Oh, yeah. Okay, great.

Let's move on.

It's a great tweet. To worst discourse of the year. This is a little different. This is good. We're not just going to do a single take. We're going to sample a take and then talk about the whole discourse because 2024 was quite a year for discourse, much like the toilet is quite a place for shit. And if that comparison left a bad taste in your mouth, get ready to pucker up for these. First up.

What else do you want in the toilet, Elijah? Hallie wrote that. Shout out, Hallie. That was a good one. First up, we have the debate commission discourse. Joe Biden and Donald Trump organized their own debates this year instead of working through the nonpartisan debate commission. Many pearls were clutched.

But here's a particularly wonderful string of buzzwords from New Jersey Assemblyman and RFK Junior Advisor Jamel Hawley. He called the Commission on Presidential Debates, quote, an institution that has stood as a beacon of nonpartisanship before saying this.

Yeah. The norms and the protocols and rep the debate commission.

Okay. That's a little warm-up discourse. You guys want to get to the real shit?

All right. Next up, we have Chapel Roan not endorsing Kamala Harris forcefully enough. This was a moment that combined several issues, Israel and Gaza, LGTBQ rights, the youth vote, and the importance of celebrity endorsements. Let's take a listen. Here's Chapel Roan.

That kicked off a shit storm for a week.

Winners, Hulk Hogan, Joe Rogan. Losers, Taylor Swift, Beyonce. Fully opted out of this discourse at the time.

What a discourse. All right. Next up, we have the discourse. Should Democrats be doing more to reach men? Here's a tweet from our friend Travis Helwig, who texted me before this to say he disavows his phrasing but stands by his point. Let's listen.

This spawned many responses accusing Travis of needing to shut the fuck up and hating women.

Here's our last discourse in a stacked category. You knew this one was coming again. Should Biden drop out? You guys were subtweeted by the campaign after saying you should drop out, being referenced in a fundraising email as self-important podcasters. Anyone who called for Biden to drop out was called traitors by several parts of the internet.

We read a lot of those kinds of takes in our Blue Anon section. What do you guys think? I don't have a clue. This is such a setup.

Yeah, that's true. So should Joe Biden drop out?

Where's discourse of the year?

OK, so Chapel Roan or Travis or the debate commission?

thing okay debate we're really doing debate commission as the worst discourse of the year all right that's works for me does it sound like it works for you I didn't even know it was discourse really yeah I was on paternity leave and I was like I can't believe how many pods were talking about the debate commission Oh, did we?

They did. All right. The debate commission. Worst discourse of the year. Love it. All right.

Not Chapel Roan? Okay. The most bizarre right-wing take of the year. It was a banner year for right-wing takes, and I, for one, thank our glistening, waxy, gray overlord Elon Musk for all the accurate right-wing takes headed our way in 2025. However, the right had their swings and misses, too.

Hey, they can't all be Tom Hanks died the first week of COVID and was immediately replaced by evil Tom Hanks. I forgot about that. Let's take a look. First up, we have something from Favs' close personal friend, Jesse Waters, about commenting on birthdays.

from his bros yeah you know from his bros personal friend john favreau all right next we have a right-wing meltdown for taylor swift dating travis kelsey there were plenty of worthy clips here but this from oan host allison steinberg takes the cake let's take a listen

Next, we have what is quickly becoming a classic clip of RFK Jr. being confronted with his own words by CNN's Casey Hunt about vaccines. Let's take a listen.

And our last take of the category, we have one of the most insane right-wing talking points of the election cycle. You know it, I know it. Let's take a listen.

Elijah, looking good. Thank you. Yes, I did put on my tux.

This is the biggest night of the year for me. Okay. We've never done a pundies after an election loss, let alone one like this. So I was so thrilled when this got put on my plate. So fun. Such a fun year to reminisce. Here's how it will work. We're going to go through a number of categories for Bad Punditry. I'll read you a take. You'll react and we'll go on to the next take.

All right, so who wins the category? We got Jesse Waters, Taylor Swift, Vaccines, and The Dogs and the Cats.

That's not right. So we're moving dogs and cats to the final group.

And now for the coveted worst take of the year from a Pod Save America host. Time to look at one.

Here we go. Let's kick things off with John Lovett. Play the clip.

Next up. Next up. We got Tommy Vitor talking about VP choices.

At the end, you'll decide who won the category. The category winners will compete at the end for worst take of the year. Have you guys seen a dog show? It's like a dog show format.

Tommy, it was a good year of takes for you. We had to dig. We had to dig out of your two pods and go to liberal tears. All right. Next up, we have Dan after Trump was convicted. Let's hear it.

And last, we have Jon Favreau reacting to Joe Biden going on Seth Meyers.

The State of the Union wasn't forward-looking enough. We did go through that tape. It was all, he did a good enough job. He cleared the bar. This one we felt was forward-looking, and it was, you'll be reassured by more appearances like this.

There were no more appearances. The debate is in appearance.

Who won the worst take of the year by a Pod Save America host?

Yeah, you guys pick.

Couch? Producer couch? Not for fair.

Someone makes best in show.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, then I won't give my opinion on it. It doesn't matter. No, no, tell us. What do you think? Let's hear it. Oh, it's for sure you should be reassured by more public Joe Biden appearances.

All right. Let's go. The winning group. Worst takes of the year from the primaries group. We have Trump's GOP is already dying. From the polling group, we have Alan Lichtman's 13 keys. From the blue MAGA group, we have wanting Joe Biden to drop out is racist. From the discourse group, we have the death of the debate commission.

From the bizarre MAGA group, we have they're eating the dogs and the cats. And from the worst take by a Pod Save America host, we have undecided it's not winning. So...

We'll start out for an easy topic. This is kind of to whet our take appetites from the beginning of the year. The presidential primaries. Remember those?

All right. Well, that'll wrap up the 2024 Pundies. Thank you guys. Alan Lickman wins.

We didn't have none on our side.

Yeah, Dean Phillips is part of this. Here's a couple of takes. Let's start off with this piece from The Hill after Trump wrapped up the nomination. A piece titled, quote, Trump's GOP is already dying. Here's an excerpt read by one of our wonderful Pod Save America producers.

We're doing the winning take. I figured you guys would react to each take as we go, but we could just do them all.

We're just asking questions on this podcast.

All right.

Next up, we have billionaire Bill Ackman talking about Dean Phillips' chances to win the Democratic primary ahead of Michigan's primary. Let's take a listen.

And to round out the category here, we have another piece from The Hill that was written after the election, but it's about the 2028 primaries. It's titled America Needs Another Reagan. Nikki Haley is already following his path to power. The piece, as you might imagine, is about how Nikki Haley is poised to win the 2028 Republican nomination. Here's an excerpt.

So who wins the category?

Oh, you guys didn't get the memo that we're doing all hill takes for the pundies this year? Justice for roll call. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. All right, let's get to the good stuff. Appetizers eaten. Here come the main course. The worst polling take of the year.

This was a terrible year for polling, or was it? Cross tabs are in the eye of the beholder. Let's take a look at the worst polling takes of the year. First up, we have Nate Silver. Nate's modeling was actually pretty accurate this cycle, but in October, he got in a Twitter fight where he made a big bet with a super rich investor named Keith Rabois.

Here's the exchange, which will be done in a dramatic reading by our producers, Saul and Farah.

Donald Trump won Florida by 13 points. Okay.

All right. Our next take is for a really nerdy topic for the polling sickos. Here's serial polling poster Adam Carlson talking about race depolarization, the theory that Trump wouldn't win a larger share of the black vote.

And I think admitted he was wrong in the end. Yes, to his credit, he did tweet out verbatim, I was wrong about race depolarization.

Yeah, we just suck. Yeah. Anywho, what else you got? You knew this was coming.

A couple of days before the election, Ann Seltzer dropped her famous Iowa poll. It had Kamala Harris leading Trump by three in Iowa. In reality, Harris lost in Iowa to Trump by over 13 points. Trump is now suing Ann Seltzer because of this. Here's a clip from friend of the pod, Sarah Longwell, reacting to the poll when it came out.