Today we enter the Top Twenty most-trafficked posts at Hot Air in 2010, in our week-long retrospective of the year.  We have quite a mix in today’s list, including a couple of ObamaCare posts, one each on Sarah Palin and Chris Christie, but two posts on historical ignorance, and the moment that Los Angeles beclowned itself in the hystrionics over the Arizona immigration law, which itself makes a couple of appearances as well.  Two of the posts surprised me for their traffic ranking — and hopefully they will entertain you.

• #20: Obligatory: Chris Christie gets in heckler’s face at Meg Whitman rally – Christie was one of our most popular topics this year, and this post shows the reason why.  Unlike many who work in the political realm, Christie doesn’t mince words or back down from a challenge.  If you’re looking for a consensus sort of guy, Christie’s not your man — but if you like the take-charge type, there may not be a better example.  And judging from our traffic, a lot of people like the take-charge type.
• #19: Bombshell evidence may make Waters an ethics nightmare for Dems – I was a little surprised — and gratified — to see this make the top 50, let alone #19.  The key takeaway in this post is that Maxine Waters may not be alone in facing ethics charges over her intervention on behalf of One United Bank, in which her husband owned a significant stake.  The House Financial Services Committee may have a lot of explaining to do, too.
• #18: AZ utility board member responds to LA boycott over SB1070 – When the Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott Arizona over its immigration-enforcement law, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce dared LA Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa to put his money where LA’s mouth was and stop buying its electricity from Arizona.  LA got 25% of its power from AZ before the boycott … and continues to get 25% of its power from AZ after LA proved it was all talk.
• #17: Open thread: House votes coming; Update: Ryan, Pence videos added; Update: 219-212; Update: GOP’s hail mary fails; Update: Roll added -The only other open thread on the top 50 came from the final House vote on ObamaCare.  Democrats won the battle and lost the war in November.
• #16: Brutal: Arizona governor’s ad hammers Obama on immigration – Jan Brewer took on Barack Obama in this campaign ad in May, wondering why Obama was more interested in suing Arizona than in enforcing border security.  The ad hung on the jokes Obama told at the White House Correspondents Dinner about Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, and reminded Obama that no one in Arizona found his lack of effort and skewed priorities amusing.
• #15: Video: The nice young man Eric Holder let off the hook – When the DoJ reversed itself and withdrew its case against New Black Panther Party activist King Shamir Shabazz, Naked Emperor News and Breitbart gave us a look at Shabazz’ other activism, including the exhortation to “kill some crackers” and “kill some of their babies.”  I’m sure that voter intimidation in 2008 was just a misunderstanding.
• #14: Leftist dullards mock Palin for correctly referencing Boston Tea Party – When Sarah Palin told the Tea Party not to “party like its 1773” in a speech two months ago, Gwen Ifill and others on the Left jumped all over Palin for not knowing when the American Revolution took place.  Allahpundit, Cuffy Meigs, Bryan Preston, and pretty much everyone who understood the reference to the Boston Tea Party had a great laugh over this facepalm moment.
• #13: 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? – The final hourly update from the midterm elections was our most-trafficked post of the night … and not necessarily the cheeriest, especially regarding Nevada.  Allahpundit had to run his Chocolate Bunny Kill video midway through the post.
• #12: Video: Leno demonstrates effectiveness of American education on history – Another surprising entry in the top 50 and top 20 posts.  The “Jaywalking” segments are always a little controversial, since obviously we don’t know how many correct responses get edited out of the final product.  The cluelessness on American Revolution history is nevertheless a little disturbing, sort of like not understanding that a Tea Party reference to 1773 doesn’t involve the Declaration of Independence.  And as TPM reports today, we’re having trouble teaching other aspects of our history in public schools to this day.   Say, wouldn’t school vouchers be a keen idea?
• #11: AP: Say, guess what we just found in ObamaCare! – Legislate in haste, repent at leisure.  The ObamaCare bill wound up creating a lot of perverse incentives, and perhaps none more glaring than the incentives for larger corporations to dump retiree prescription coverage.  That not only knocks a big hole in expected revenues from ObamaCare taxes, but will send millions onto Medicare Part D, vastly increasing costs for that program.

Want to review the other published lists?  Here are the links for 41-50, 31-40, and 21-30.