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What do you think was the biggest story of 2008?

Asked at Massachusetts Street on December 31, 2008

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Photo of Lisa Donnelly

“I think that Obama being elected was the biggest story of 2008.”

— Lisa Donnelly, singer, Lawrence

Photo of Cody Gorden

“Getting home from Iraq.”

— Cody Gorden, Army cook, Baldwin City

Photo of Ashley Strand

“I got two puppies; a pug named Cherry Sue and a malamute named Mosely.”

— Ashley Strand, teacher, Lawrence

Photo of John Hudson

“I think it’s the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq.”

— John Hudson, doctoral student, Lawrence

Comments

H_Lecter 8 years, 7 months ago

The feet on the shores of British Columbia

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jonas_opines 8 years, 7 months ago

The absolute melt-down of the board's conservatives as the negative campaigns stopped working. I assume this happened on a national scale.

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

“15 July 2008 at 9:09 a.m.spiderman (Anonymous) says……i am withdrawing from the forum…”

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flux 8 years, 7 months ago

Ashley wins.....cherry sue....ha ha

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Jennifer Forth 8 years, 7 months ago

Joss Whedon creates Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog during the writers' strike and then announces a new show to begin early 2009. Woo hoo!

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

The misonynistic nature of the Democrat voters for denying Hillary the nomination.

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Topside 8 years, 7 months ago

The KU BBall Championship!!!

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sunflower_sue 8 years, 7 months ago

When everyone else who lives under my roof said, "It wasn't me!"

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

Actually the negative campaign that was conducted by Axelrod's puppets in the media worked extremely well. A product of the Chicago political machine with a resume thin enough to read a newspaper thru is going to become President in 3 weeks. Those millions of dollars of illegal campaign contributions helped also.

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Pinhead_Identifier 8 years, 7 months ago

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

And snap reinforces Jonas' point oh so well. In my view, Obama's election wins the biggest story of the year, hands down. A close runner up, though, is all of the closeted racists that crawled out of the shadows the past year, followed by their panic and utter hysteria as it finally sinks in that a black man will soon become their Commander in Chief. Priceless.

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conservativepunker 8 years, 7 months ago

The beginning of the end of the USA, aka Obama being elected.

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

How's about the O'dude wanting to deny a Senate seat to a Black man?

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

The only 'Dude' around in current politics is Palin's First Dude of Alaska, snap. And I'm sure you are well aware of this, but Obama stated clearly that he was opposed to Blagojevich appointing ANYONE to his Senate seat, given the gravity of the charges against him. There is no way Obama would have been elected if he had played the sort of race politics you're talking about. Only the willfully ignorant would presume he would start doing so now. But I suppose appeals to logic are futile with someone who seems quite content to speak of public affairs in the manner of an adolescent.And Reticent, if anyone bought the election, it was people like me, who donated $25 and $50 whenever we could afford it. If you have any evidence that the Obama campaign actually bought votes, I’m sure the FEC would love to hear from you. Good luck with all of that...

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dajudge 8 years, 7 months ago

By far, the biggest story of the year, imho, was the induction of the "stick" into the world toy hall of fame. The stick has such a huge impact on the world and has finally received some acclaim. I try to walk lightly.

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Chrissy Neibarger 8 years, 7 months ago

The death of George Carlin :( I will miss him for many more years to come.

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Pinhead_Identifier 8 years, 7 months ago

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.

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Pinhead_Identifier 8 years, 7 months ago

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

Toeing the Democratic line is more important to the O'dude than racial politicts. For the moment, anyhow.....

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Scott Drummond 8 years, 7 months ago

The sad, sorry, final, unfolding conclusion to the worst Presidency in the history of the Union, as george w. bush and his goons foisted another year's worth of bad policy and ruling class greed on a nation apparently too stupid, beat down or lazy to rise up and remove him from office for his multiple offenses.

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

Silly, R_I, FEC rules don't apply to The One.

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sgtwolverine 8 years, 7 months ago

The release of the second-generation iPod Touch.What, you mean other stuff happened in the world, too?

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beatrice 8 years, 7 months ago

snap has snapped. His logon should be changed to "snap_pop_nothing_but_crocodile_tears_ever_since_loser_crybaby." Obama won by a landslide (biggest story of the year) -- deal with it already. Or at least see somebody so they can up your meds. Geez!

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tangential_reasoners_anonymous 8 years, 7 months ago

bea, this is Kansas. 'nuff said.And, BTW, the biggest story of 2008 went untold.

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

Reticent,The following appeared on both the paper and digital donor forms for Obama:Check this box to confirm that the following statements are true and accurate: I am a United States citizen or a permanent resident alien. This contribution is not made from the general treasury funds of a corporation, labor organization or national bank. This contribution is not made from the treasury of an entity or person who is a federal contractor. This contribution is not made from the funds of a political action committee. This contribution is not made from the funds of an individual registered as a federal lobbyist or a foreign agent, or an entity that is a federally registered lobbying firm or foreign agent. The funds I am donating are not being provided to me by another person or entity for the purpose of making this contribution.If your story is true, your relatives behaved fraudulently and the Obama did everything they were legally required to do to verify their citizenship. Keep in mind, we have quite a number of US citizens living abroad, so it wouldn't be all that unusual for someone to provide a foriegn address.I'd be willing to bet that the McCain campaign had something similar on their donor form regarding citizenship. If someone fraudulently claimed to be a US citizen, I wouldn't have held his campaign reponsible for that, either. In other words, the Obama campaign did nothing illegal- your relatives did. Now, I double-dog-dare ya to call the FEC :-)

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

Didn't the O'dude's campaign website disable some elementary security features to enable untraceable cash donations?We may yet see federal charges.....

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

Surely the only reason to not support Burris's nomination to the Senate is racism. Isn't it?

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

reticent,Even if they donated at the campaign office, they would have been required to complete a card verifying donor information. This would have been the case even if they did nothing more than purchase a bumper sticker. I volunteered for the campaign and I know they were very fastidious about this- it was frustrating for a lot of people who just wanted a three dollar sticker or button without filling out a form, but most folks were pretty ok with it when they realized it was a legal requirement. Perhaps your relatives had someone that was already purchasing stuff tack on a sticker for them. Again, though, this would not have been the fault of the campaign. Whatever the circumstances, I can personally attest to the fact that the campaign definitely did everything in it’s power to comply with FEC regulations, even when it was very inconvenient and sometimes cost them donations to do so.

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Deja Coffin 8 years, 7 months ago

I'm going to go with winning the Orange Bowl and the National Championship. My favorite personal story would be that I left a job that demanded too much and gave little to being a stay-at-home mom which may demand a lot but rewards me more then I think I deserve.

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

Untraceable donations from gift cards, millions of them. The Democrats have re-introduced massive campaign fraud on a scale unseen since the Nixon days.

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

reticent,That was fastidious, not facetious. I campaigned in Iowa and in Lawrence, so obviously I can't speak for every campaign office there was, any more than you can legitimately claim that Obama 'bought' the election, based on one anecdotal experience involving a bumper sticker that wound up in Switzerland. I do know that the campaign was very well-managed and the organization was such that there was little guess work among volunteers. Certain things were stressed quite clearly- things like making sure donor cards were completed in full, not arguing or being disagreeable with people that happened to support other candidates, asking people if they would like to volunteer for the campaign, asking if they would like additional info about specific issues, so that the campaign could send them more detailed literature, etc.I will grant you that it isn't impossible to imagine that there could have been a rogue volunteer in CA that screwed up, either knowingly or otherwise- obviously that sort of thing can occur no matter how well-run the campaign. It's also equally possible (especially to me, since I don't know them) that your family members fraudulently checked 'I agree' on the donor card.

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meggers 8 years, 7 months ago

reticent,Or maybe another Obama supporter made a 25 dollar donation, picked up a few stickers, and gave one to your relatives out of sheer kindness.But enough of this silly speculation. I wasn't there and it doesn't sound like you were, either. Somehow, I don't think the fact that your Swiss relatives managed to get their hands on a bumper sticker is evidence of systemic corruption in the Obama campaign. Happy New Year to you and yours, whatever their political persuasion happens to be. :-)

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

"Somehow, I don't think the fact that your Swiss relatives managed to get their hands on a bumper sticker is evidence of systemic corruption in the Obama campaign."Does the fact that standard security features on the O'dude's campaign site were disabled to allow the use of untraceable gift cards for donations count?

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KansasPerson 8 years, 7 months ago

R_I, get your story straight -- were these your relatives or your friends? (Not that they couldn't be both.... I happen to like my relatives too. Most of them.)

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VTSaxy 8 years, 7 months ago

Okay, so I first said Obama winning the election was the biggest news story but the LJW guy said that was boring. So I went with the next best thing: my dogs. BABBOY can relax about sending his kids to private school. My students ACED the state assessments last year!

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Puff_Dragon 8 years, 7 months ago

Ash, I thought their finger paintings were awesome! You teach real good. Were you hangin' with Cody by chance?

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Puff_Dragon 8 years, 7 months ago

Wow...KU vs. Minn. 1st half really great huh! We're up by 7 ! Go KU !!

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Flap Doodle 8 years, 7 months ago

I'm staying in tonite to supervise the lemurs. I made a mistake by letting them watch a Bruce Lee movie yesterday & now all heck is breaking loose.

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BigPrune 8 years, 7 months ago

The empty, diesel guzzling, environmentally unfriendly T Bus tax being passed with 70% of the vote. Of course the transient naive KU students voted for it since they get to ride for free.That's a pretty scary and sad story. More money into education isn't working folks.

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yellowhouse 8 years, 7 months ago

THe Yellow House spending 2 weeks in Leavenworth Maximum security Federal Prison because someone else might have stole a laptop?

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