Here’s one of the numerous top ten lists that will be published in various news sites and political blogs. The link below is not a slideshow.
I don’t really agree with this list. There’s no way that black lives matter or the media frenzy over Joe Biden belongs.
Here’s my list.
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The whole Trump campaign. Lasted longer and he’s been a front runner for most of the year.
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Resignation of John Boehner. Sitting Speakers of the House just don’t randomly resign if not under scandal. He may have just had enough of the freedom caucus or it may have been seeing the pope that caused the sudden resignation.
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The sudden focus on terrorism after Paris and San Bernardino. The extreme positions of proposed Muslim bans and refusals of states to allow refugees would have seemed absurd in January 2015. Will this be another Ebola panic or will this story continue to dominate the presidential race ?
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The Supreme Court affirms the affordable care act again and also makes same sex marriage legal nationwide. The two conservative rallying points are basically gone, with only the candidates more interested in book sales and speaking fees continuing to beat the dead horse.
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However, the end of the same sex marriage debate allowed conservatives to rally around abolition again. The “Defund Planned Parenthood” rallying cries influenced the budget debate as well as with several state governors picking the fight on a state level.
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Hillary finally putting the email story behind her. The story about the Benghazi committee hurting her polls numbers as well as Bernie’s “Sick of your damn emails” comment helped Hillary get the story behind her and solidify her lead over Bernie.
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The rise of the cult of Bernie Sanders. His most fervent Bernie or Bust supporters are even more delusional than Ron Paul supporters. The comments section of any article will always have a few Bernie supporters writing multi paragraph rants where they ramble about Wall Street , big banks, and “Our Bernie Can’t be Bought.” They rival the ‘Unskew the polls’ republicans in 2012 with their rants about landlines and the supposed army of new and previously unengaged voters.
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Scott Walker’s campaign goes bust in just a few months. The great Koch blue state hope fizzled out much quicker than anyone thought.
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Jeb Bush raises millions with shock and awe and yet can’t gain any traction. He’s still a Bush and can’t be written off yet, but his campaign can’t even get in front of 2 first term senators.
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The unemployment rate drops to 5% and the Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time in years. Most people in the United States have never lived thorough a financial panic, which tend to cause longer and deeper recessions. Barring an unexpected shock, the 2016 race will not have recession and unemployment as an issue for the first time since the 2000 race.
Honorable mention goes to the surprising results in Canada and the U.K. General Elections. The Liberals weren’t expected to get such an overwhelming majority in Canada and neither were the Conservatives in the UK. While I don’t believe in treating all poll results with skepticism, it will be interesting to see how accurate they are in the primaries and general election next year .