We finally arrive at the top ten Hot Air posts for 2011 based on unique page views, and it’s a surprising mix of the tragic, absurd, and eclectic.  If I had to guess what the most-viewed post of the year was going to be, the actual winner of that honor would never have occurred to me.  We have only one true open thread, but it’s about the topic that seemed to be the hottest of our year, based on the top 50 list, and this time we have a Green Room post (not a post promoted to the front page) and a headline in the top 5:

• 10: Video: The greatest music video ever? – “American Pie” might not be the most hopeful of songs, but the good people of Grand Rapids put it to great use in a splendid show of civic pride.
• 9: Breaking: Congresswoman, five others shot in Tucson, AZ – An awful, awful day, which almost immediately got exploited awfully as well.  But the real tragedy, we should recall, were the six people who lost their lives and the others — like Gabrielle Giffords, the elected Representative to Congress from the area — who were grievously wounded.
• 8: BREAKING: BIN LADEN DEAD – This was actually my guess for what the top post would have been.  This may have been the top single news story of the year in general, and certainly our greatest victory this year in the war on terror.
• 7: Video: The bully body slam  – Its tremendous popularity rests, I’m sure, in the vicarious thrill of revenge that we all wish we could have taken on our own childhood tormentors.  The reaction to this clip was rather instructive, as people griped about the attack on the bully — and one Democrat in Congress wanted to make bullying a federal issue.
• 6: New Obama metric: “Jobs supported” – I was a little surprised to see that this got so much traction, but it’s worth reading again — because you know Obama will roll this out during the campaign season next year.
• 5: Video: Marco Rubio vs. John Kerry on the debt crisis – I’ll just post what Allahpundit said about this, in its entirety: “A long clip but worth every minute. Trust me. Just watch it.”  Think Tea-Party-meets-Washington-elitism, and yes, it’s as awesome as it sounds.
• 4: BREAKING: Obama’s Abu Ghraib: The Stuff Hits the Fan – In one sense, yes, it was Abu Ghraib — abuses by a handful of American soldiers, this time resulting in murders rather than just torture or humiliations.  In another sense, no … since the American media seemed pretty uninterested in pursuing this story, unlike Abu Ghraib, which the Pentagon had already been probing for some time when the story broke.
• 3: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz: NY-9 is “a very difficult district for Democrats” – Our one Headline in the top 50, we also wrote about this on the front page, thanks to its value in absurdity.  Dems last lost NY-09 in 1922.  I’m a little surprised, however, that more of Debbie Downer’s pontifications didn’t make the top 50, as we all certainly benefited from her appointment as chair of the DNC.  I’m looking forward to 2012.
• 2: Open thread: Wisconsin supreme court election results – By the metric of unique page views, the battles in Wisconsin are the topic of the year at Hot Air.  They account for nine of our top 50 posts alone, although only one in the top 10, finishing with a silver medal.

And now, the Number One Post of 2011 is ….

• 1: Pelosi whines about Catholics having “this conscience thing” – Our top post was written by Tina Korbe?  Hey, what’s up with that?  First she gets engaged, then she wins the top spot.  I’m going to demand some redistribution of page views, or something.  Seriously, it’s a great post about an inexplicable gripe from a Catholic about having “a conscience thing.”  As a Catholic myself, I could write reams about what’s wrong with this statement, but suffice it to say that most religions don’t consider a conscience to be a bad thing.  Perhaps if Pelosi spent a little time learning about her faith rather than trumpeting it at the same time she opposes what it stands for, she wouldn’t make this kind of jaw-dropping gaffe.

Don’t forget to check out our earlier posts for 41-50, 31-40, 21-30, and 11-20!

There’s been a request or two for a list of the most commented posts of the year, which is a little harder to do.  Our crack team has sent me the list, from which I have deleted the open threads and two of Allahpundit’s excellent Quotes of the Day, but be sure to check them out.  With those gone, the top three are from breaking news stories, four about Sarah Palin, and another two about religion.  About what you’d think, no?

• 10: Coulter on Palin: Let’s face it, she’s probably not electable – Ann Coulter’s consistent on electability; she’s backing Romney. 1,299 comments.
• 9:  Surprise: Palin’s bus tour to roll into Iowa this week – This led to the predictable yes-she-will, no-she-won’t debate in the comments — all 1,318 of them.
• 8: Indiana Supreme Court rules Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful entry of their homes by police – From our Green Room, courtesy of Bruce McQuain, a truly mind-boggling decision in Indiana got 1,354 comments.
• 7: Video: “Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel” – Sarah Palin’s response to criticism for using the same kind of imagery as the DNC and language as the media in electioneering in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting — plus a defense from Alan Dershowitz — got 1,434 comments.
• 6: Palin readies national bus tour – Who was up for another Palin bus tour post?  Readers left 1,613 comments.
• 5: Evolution, Creation and Politics – Jazz Shaw told the media to get a grip on a belief in Genesis, and got 1,653 responses.
• 4: Is “Tebowing” an attack on Christianity? – Howard Portnoy’s complaint about Tebowing got 1,826 comments, most of them critical, but that’s the fun, right?
• 3: Breaking: Wisconsin Senate GOP to split off collective bargaining bill from budget, pass it separately? – Also on our Top 50 list, this got 1,858 comments.
• 2: Breaking: Palin not running for president – This ended the will-she-or-won’t-she debate, but it got 2,165 comments anyway.
• 1: Breaking: Congresswoman, five others shot in Tucson, AZ – 2,791 comments, and many times more than that in prayers for all the victims.

Say, where are the Tim Pawlenty posts on these two lists?  I know they have to be somewhere …