Hot Air’s top 10 most commented posts in 2010

Over the last week, I reviewed the 50 most viewed posts in 2010 for Hot Air — but which got the most comments?  Just before imbibing prodigious amounts of alcohol, pita chips, and those weird hors d’oeuvres that people carry on platters at New Year’s Eve parties, our technical wizards and web masters produced one last list for 2010 — the ten most commented posts at Hot Air.  The two lists don’t exactly match up, as you’ll see:

• #10: Er, great news: Bristol Palin and Ricky Hollywood getting married – Fortunately for young Ms. Palin, the comment string lasted longer than the engagement.  Comment count: a mere 1287.
• #9: Open thread: Federal judge’s ruling on Proposition 8 coming soon; Update: Prop 8 struck down – There’s nothing like a little judicial activism in overturning a popular vote to get comments rolling.  This fight is far from over, but your day may be if you decide to read through the 1330 comments on this post.
• #8: Video: CPAC boos speaker for condemning invite to gay conservative group – A surprise moment at last year’s CPAC ends up being choice comment fodder at Hot Air.  I was there when it happened, but Allahpundit had the great post.  No worries, though, because it appears we may get the same thing happening again this year.  Comment count: 1344
• #7: Open thread: Massachusetts; Update: “Cautiously optimistic”; Update: Cook Report analyst calls it; Update: Larry Sabato calls it – This post comes from The Night Hot Air Melted Down.  Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts generated so much traffic that the site kept crashing, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise; it opened our eyes to what the midterms would be like, and we bolstered our server end considerably.  Comment count: an even 1500.
• #6: 12 a.m.: Alaska and Hawaii; Winners: Mark Kirk, Kristi Noem; Update: Rossi trails by one;Breaking: Fox calls Nevada for Reid; Update: Write-in still leading in Alaska with more than 50% in; Update: Hand count coming in Alaska? – This one made our Top 50 list, too, and for good reason – it was our final Election Night post, so it attracted most of the traffic and the rest of the comments overnight.  Comment count: 1575.
• #5: Endgame: DADT cloture vote passes, 63-33;Update: Obama cheers; Update: Final bill passes, 65-31 – This comes from two weeks ago, and it generated heated debate among the commenters.  Comment count: 1657 … for the moment.
• #4: Open thread: RINOgeddon; Update: O’Donnell leads by eight with 78% in; Update: AP calls it for O’Donnell – This election post came from perhaps the most bitterly contested Republican primary in the Senate this year.  And that’s saying something after Alaska only just this week finally concluded that Republican Lisa Murkowski really did beat Republican Joe Miller in the general election.  Comment count: 1933.
• #3: Open thread: House votes coming; Update: Ryan, Pence videos added; Update: 219-212; Update: GOP’s hail mary fails; Update: Roll added – Another crossover from our Top 50 in traffic, this post covered the final moments of the ObamaCare debate as the House passed the earlier Senate version.  Comment count: 3140.
• #2: SOTU open thread: Fightin’ president totally ready to fight or something – This was the headline from our open thread on Obama’s State of the Union speech a year ago, when Obama had large majorities in both chambers of Congress.  Want to bet we’ll get the same pre-speech spin from the White House when Obama has to shake John Boehner’s hand instead of Nancy Pelosi’s on the dais?  Kind of like how he’ll fight for those tax hikes in 2012 rather than, you know, now.  Comment count: 3327.

And the #1 most commented post at Hot Air in 2010 is …

• #1: Open thread: Obama health-care summit;Update: Video link added – And it wasn’t even close.  This post got 5,355 comments, 60% more than its closest competitor.  It had everything: a poll, some video, and an hours-long event with so much obvious spin and hypocrisy that it’s a wonder the site stayed up during the event.  The poll results showed 47% of respondents had it pegged – the “summit” changed absolutely nothing about the bill.

• Chuck Todd: The Obama administration is trying to “criminalize journalism”
• Report: DOJ seized multiple White House, Fox News records in Rosen ‘investigation’
• Quotes of the day

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