Top 12 stories of 2008 make mostly grim reading

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Oh what a year it was!

New faces exploded on the U.S. political scene. Hope soared over the election of Barack Obama as the first ever African-American president of the United States, but economic fear spread like kudzu too as the worst financial crisis in almost 80 years shattered the American financial system.

UPI's Top 12 news stories of 2008 are based on significance rather than popularity, so Britney, Angelina and Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo's pinkie finger don't make the cut -- sorry.

First, the global financial crisis edged even Obama's historic U.S. presidential election victory out of the top spot. The meltdown that started in September with the collapse of the venerable 150-year-old Lehman Brothers destroyed most of the biggest investment houses on Wall Street, provoked a panic-stricken $700 billion U.S. federal government bailout and triggered the worst economic recession -- it may soon be accurate to call it a depression -- in the past 75 years.

Second, counter-pointing the growing fear and even despair over the gathering economic storm was the rise in hope across America from the remarkable presidential election campaign of Sen. Obama, D-Ill.

Obama upended primary rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 27 and never looked back. It was another five months of fiercely fought primaries before he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, and then a tough battle with Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

But it was McCain's own self-proclaimed economic illiteracy that knocked him out of the running once the Wall Street storm hit in September. Obama pulled ahead to win the Nov. 4 election by a margin 350 percent greater than President George W. Bush's re-election victory margin in 2004. More Americans voted for Obama than for any previous presidential candidate in the 220 years of U.S. history.

Third, global oil prices soared into the summer to an unprecedented peak of almost $147 a barrel. Then, when the economic implosion swept the United States and the other major industrial economies around the world, they plummeted down to around $40 per barrel. Even the largest single agreed production cut in the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to stop the slide.

Fourth, the Wall Street financial tsunami threatened to capsize the not so Big Three U.S. automakers as well. General Motors' top executive warned of bankruptcy if the U.S. government didn't act to bail it out, and Chrysler appeared to be in even more dire straits. The year ended with that crisis still unresolved.

Fifth, in August the Russian army invaded the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the Caucasus and overran one-third of its mountainous, forested territory in only four days. European nations woke up to an international security situation more threatening than since the height of the Cold War.

Sixth, Pakistan-based Islamist guerrillas carried out a killing spree in Mumbai, the financial and cultural center of India. India's special forces proved exceptionally slow and incompetent in their response.

Seventh, a huge earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale swept southwest China in May, killing at least 69,000 people. The central government in Beijing responded quickly and with massive resources, impressing the world. But the quake hit during school hours, and scores of thousands of children were tragically among those killed.

Eighth, the security situation in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate.

Ninth, the Afghan conflict was small beer compared with the related gains that the Taliban made in the North-West Frontier province of neighboring Pakistan. New pro-American President Asif Ali Zardari ended the year still struggling to gain some effective control over his own maverick army, intelligence and security forces.

Tenth, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blazed onto the U.S. national scene like a bright meteor with her knockout speech at the Republican National Convention, but then she flamed out in the national election campaign. Palin became the poster girl for all the old Reagan and Bush 43 traditionalists in the Republican Party, but it remained to be seen if she could prove herself credible in the new era of U.S. national politics that was beginning.

Eleventh, it was the year of exposed sleaze in U.S. politics. Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was allegedly caught trying to sell a Senate seat, and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, went down in flames for sleaze, too.

The most serious scandal, however, was purely criminal and not political: Bernie Madoff's hedge fund crashed, wiping out $50 billion in investments. It was the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

Twelfth, at least one big thing went right: The Olympic Games in Beijing were the most spectacular and one of the most successful in history. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals and immortality on the cover of Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes.

That was the year that was. It's over, now let it go.