Christine O'Donnell may or may not have ever been a witch, but her Tea Partybacked bid to represent Delaware in the Senate always seemed to be the stuff of fairy tales. The Republican establishment's worst fears proved true when the Democrats' vulnerability in the seat, once held by Vice President Joe Biden, was offset by a media feeding frenzy on O'Donnell's flirtation with spiritual esoterica and creative takes on masturbation, evolution and the separation of church and state. O'Donnell was Mama Grizzly No. 1 in a group that included New York gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino, who criticized the gay lifestyle even as he profited from it, and Sharron Angle, the Nevada challenger for Harry Reid's Senate seat who saw Asians among Hispanics and a specter of Islamic Shari'a law haunting the Midwest. Still, O'Donnell garnered more headlines, and more attention on late-night talk shows, than all of her Tea Party colleagues. And that's why, when the 112th Congress is seated in January 2011, it will be the once unfancied Chris Coons who will take Biden's old seat.
The Top 10 Everything of 2010
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- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Biz Deals
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Campaign Ads
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Facebook Trends
- Top 10 Fashion Statements
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Stories
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 Pictures
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Reality-TV Moments
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Talented Web Videos
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 Travel Moments
- Top 10 TV Commercials
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Tweets
- Top 10 Twitter Moments
- Top 10 World News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 U.S. News Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
In 50 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months