Summary
In its third year, the Noble and Knaves Contest has become something of a tradition here on the editorial page. If not quite as highly regarded as Time Magazine's Person of the Year, our contest is absolutely more democratic, since you the readers decide. And you didn't make it easy for us: This year's vote tally was the closest in the contest's history. With the frontrunners changing every day, we recalled John Kerry's concession-speech promise to make every vote count. Fortified by his words, we labored on. And just as the ball was about to drop in Times Square, the winners finally emerged.
For Knave of the Year, the contest proved tightest. Perhaps this was because in an election year any number of silly things can be said, and many are. Knave of the week twice in 2004, former President Jimmy Carter earned numerous nominations for using a child's funeral to bash the Iraq war, as well as calling the war that won us our independence "unnecessary." Also earning top marks was another two-time Knave of the week, Mr. Kerry. Not only did Mr. Kerry slap every National Guardsmen in the face by comparing them to draft dodgers last February, but he also suggested during the campaign that President Bush might reinstate the draft if re- elected. Mr. Kerry's campaign team revealed a similar shamelessness when it tried to silence the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth by filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan was a crowd favorite, as was also-ran Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. A lot of readers were quite upset at Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, for leaving out "under God" while he led the House in the Pledge of Allegiance. But more readers were steamed at Sen. Harry Reid for some uncouth comments about a sitting federal judge on the Senate floor - a Knave- of-the-week moment he recently surpassed by calling Justice Clarence Thomas an "embarrassment." For consciously ignoring the swift boat veterans' ads, the mainstream media was at varying times a frontrunner. Closing out the top, however, was Sen. Ted Kennedy, who lost by just two votes. Readers remembered with apparent opprobrium how Mr. Kennedy equated the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal to Saddam Hussein's torture chambers; and were equally upset when he asked for his own commemorative library at the University of Virginia.See the full content of this document
Extract
Noble and Knave of the Year
Here are your top knaves, followed by the votes they received:
* Howard Dean: 26* The Kerry campaign: 33* Rep. Jim McDermott: 36* Sen. Harry Reid: 40* U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan: 47* Former Preside...See the full content of this document
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