The Ass Clown of the Year for 2015!

Yes, Dear Readers, the balloting is over and your voices have been heard! After a month of voting via blog comments, Facebook comments, e-mails, SMS's, phone calls, and notes received in Christmas cards (!), we are ready to announce

The 2015 Ass Clown of the Year

2015 was a year with no shortage of amazingly well-qualified ass clowns, from Second Amendment zealots to political gasbags (from all political persuasions, from the state to the national to the world stage) to rigidly intolerant religious figures. We also had Right- and Left-Cheek winners from the worlds of entertainment, business, and economics, as well as just plain everyday morons.

The voting was consistent and heavy, and the final votes were received shortly before the 11:59 PM deadline last night. A heavy influx of votes from partisans of the eventual winner and runner-up completely upended the standings at the eleventh hour and resulted in a wild back-and-forth contest that ended with a result that - while not a surprise - still made for an interesting contest with an exciting finish.

And now the results:

Our second runner-up, earning 200 votes for (in the words of one voter) "letting their party get to this level":

The GOP

Our first runner-up, making a very strong last-minute showing that earned him a total of 670 votes,

Ted Cruz

And the runaway winner of our designation as Ass Clown of the Year for 2015:

Donald Trump

Mr Trump's outlandish behavior has earned him three previous Ass Clown awards, but his boorish and outrageous performance in pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination has been so lacking in truth, competence, and simple decency that he was a runaway winner for our annual award, earning 5628 votes in an eleventh-hour slugfest with supporters of the candidacy of Ted Cruz ... including 999 votes from one respondent that were offset by minus 998 votes cast by a Cruz supporter.

Here at the dawn of the year 2016, we face the prospect of naming another 26 Right- and Left-Cheek Ass Clowns, and our winner has set the bar very high. Ladies and gentlemen, Dear Readers, raise your glasses of Pepto Bismol to the 2015 Ass Clown of the Year, Donald Trump.

And hope that people wise up before casting real votes for him.

For those of you who are interested, here are the rest of the top-ten vote getters:

4: Daesh/"The Islamic State" - 143 votes.

5: Hillary Clinton - 87 votes.

6: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - 66 votes.

7: Chris Christie - 11 votes.

8: The Democratic National Committee - 10 votes.

9: (Tie, with two votes each) Donald Trump's Percentage of the Electorate; and Ben Carson.

10: (Tie, with one vote each) - Congressional Representatives (Including Senators) Who Oppose Sensible Gun Restrictions; Jeb Bush; Mike Huckabee; John Kasich; Marco Rubio; Carly Fiorina; Rand Paul; Rick Santorum; George Pataki; Lindsey Graham; Rick Perry; and Trey Gowdy.

Have a safe, happy, peaceful, and productive New Year, and be sure to come back tomorrow for the first edition of Cartoon Saturday for 2016.

More thoughts coming throughout the new year.

Bilbo