President Obama entered the White House with the promise of a transformational presidency where hope would be kept alive and "change was on the way." In 2010, those promises were famously scoffed back at him by Sarah Palin: "How's that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?" The question is rhetorical, but the answer would probably be "not so great." When trying to tackle the country's broken health care system, Obama pleased no one. Republicans and Tea Partyers saw in any potential government intervention a socialist poltergeist possessing the U.S. and banged the gong against "Obamacare," even though reform would in the long term trim costs and expand coverage. The bill that got pushed through will eventually get 32 million people without insurance the health coverage they need, but the lack of a public option infuriated many among Obama's liberal base. Rather than a departure from Washington's politics as usual, it seemed to them a return to the usual spineless equivocating of previous Democratic administrations.
The Top 10 Everything of 2010
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- 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