Now we come to the top 10 most viewed posts at Hot Air in 2010, the posts that attracted the most eyeballs over the course of the year, according to our legion of technical wizards and web masters.  Which topics created the most traction, and which personalities seized the most attention?  Be prepared for some surprises, and then a few in the overview of the Top 50 at the end:

• #10: Obama: “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money” – Good enough to not just get into the top 10 of Hot Air’s posts for the year, but also good enough to be a finalist in the 2010 OOTY poll.  The arrogance of that assumption underscored the revulsion Americans began to feel for the Obama agenda in 2010.  In the end, a free people work for themselves, not their government, and unfortunately Obama doesn’t appear to realize that.
• #9: Video: Pelosi’s a horrible woman, says … Jack Cafferty – This took place in January.  Has anyone heard from Cafferty recently?  The last we have of CNN’s commentator is from September, when he took aim at safer prey … Sarah Palin.
• #8: Megyn Kelly in GQ? – One of only two guest-blogger posts in the entire top 50, and both are in the top 10.  Not exactly a surprising result; when Matt Lewis combined Kelly with news of a pictorial spread, the natural result was traffic gold — and Matt didn’t even provide any pictures.
• #7: Awesome! Chris Christie tells of apology from President of Teachers Union – Our other guest post from The Right Scoop on our list, this video shows Christie explaining why the union leader offered an apology after an e-mail from its members asked people to pray for Christie’s death.  But that’s just the beginning of the fun; Christie’s explanation cannot be missed.
• #6: Krauthammer to Nina Totenberg: Why did NPR fire Juan Williams but not you? – Totenberg couldn’t give the correct answer, which is that she didn’t make her suggestion that Jesse Helms’ grandchildren should get AIDS through a transfusion as “retributive justice” on Fox News Channel.  Instead, Totenberg tells Krauthammer that she has other views that she won’t share as a way to defend NPR’s firing of Williams, which prompts the question of just what Totenberg could possibly think that would be more repugnant than wishing a plague on a political opponent’s grandchildren.
• #5: New McCain ad: You cannot be serious – John McCain … border-enforcement stud?  Maybe this got so many page views because it was just so hard to buy.  You had to reload the page several times just to convince yourself you actually saw it.
• #4: Video: The greatest political ad ever? – From the ridiculous to the sublime — sublimely ridiculous, that is.  If you thought John McCain went overboard attempting to look tough, next to Dale Peterson, McCain comes across like … well, like Lindsey Graham.  Listen up!  Thugs and criminals! Illegals bust in by the thousands!  Stealing yard signs! Waving a shotgun, Peterson told voters that he meant business.  Alabama voters were less than impressed.
• #3: Video: Chris Christie destroys reporter for calling him confrontational –The video has disappeared from the original post, so let’s offer it up here in this one:

• #2: Dem congressman: If Guam gets too overpopulated, it might tip over – Perhaps the most ridiculous statement from anyone in Congress this year, and that’s really saying something.  Like Allahpundit says, I still prefer Hank Johnson to Cynthia McKinney, but I wouldn’t say barely.  McKinney would not only have suggested that Guam might capsize, but also that the Joooos would have been behind it.

And now, the #1 post with the most page views in 2010 was …

• #1: PPP: Obama, Palin tied 46/46 in 2012 polling – The only Palin post in the top 10 this year, this post reviewed the data from a Democratic-leaning pollster, Public Policy Polling, from July.  Not only did this poll find Palin locked up with Obama, but also found that Obama trailed the other major would-be contenders from the GOP.  The sample even had a +5 Democratic advantage, and still Obama couldn’t do any better in head-to-heat matchups than 46%.  This post got over 202,000 pageviews, edging out the Chris Christie post at #2 by just 2,000, but beating the #3 post by almost 40,000 page views.

In the comment sections of this week’s retrospectives, most people assumed that the list would be filled with Palin entries.  Actually, we only had three posts in the top 50 about Palin; we had 4 about Chris Christie.  About the most consistent quality in the top 50 was the presence of video in the most popular posts.  For those who asked, Allahpundit’s the king of the top 50, with 27 posts to my 21 and two from our guest bloggers.

Thank you for making 2010 such a fun and successful year at Hot Air — we can’t wait for 2011!