The Top 5 People Who Made 2008 Unforgettable

Everybody has their own idea of the most influential people of 2008. But let's take a look at the people who have helped to make the year 2008 unforgettable. And yes, there is a difference between influencing the year and making it unforgettable. To influence the year, people great and small made the news in remarkable ways, making headlines and capturing the public eye for a period of time, be it a month, a week, a day, or an hour. But making the year unforgettable is something more. As the great Nat King Cole song states, these folks made 2008 "unforgettable in every way, and forever more that's how [it will] stay." Here's a look at the top five people who made 2008 unforgettable in every way; yes, they may be the same as the popular figures who were great influencers of the year, but they have also served to make a mark in history that will not soon be forgotten . . . if ever.

#5: Wall Street Stock Brokers

2008 was a year in which the economy suffered more agony and pain than that guy you know who got beat down in a dark alley in the bad part of town. Wall Street, and the global economy, basically took a beating unlike any other and was left for dead for what seemed an impossibly long and arduous period of time. Despite numerous government bail-out attempts, the economy has yet to fully recover; for many, it has yet to come anywhere close to recovery. And who made the dire straits of the economic crisis come to life? All those head-in-hand, screaming, miserable, sometimes even tearful stock brokers. The media wasted no opportunity to show images of stock brokers more mournful than a crowd of sports fans when their team blew their final shot at the playoffs. Thanks to these downcast faces, history books for years to come will have absolutely no trouble reminding History students of the financial crises the year 2008 presented.

#4: Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton made more history this year than I have fingers to count on. She won more primaries in the 2008 Presidential Election than any other female candidate in American history. She is the first First Lady to be named to any Presidential Cabinet after her First Ladyship. She came closer than any woman in American history to earning a major party's nomination for the US presidency. She will be just the third female Secretary of State. If the nation could shout "You da man!" at anyone in 2008 . . . well, it wouldn't be Hillary Clinton, because she's a woman. But if the nation would also choose to shout, "You da wo-man!" at anyone in 2008, it would most certainly be Hillary Clinton. Before Clinton, every little girl in America's dream of someday being President might have been met with an, "Eh, well, it's a long-shot there, princess . . . but, you know, dream big." In the future, thanks to Hillary, we might not be so doubtful.

#3: Tim Russert

Tim Russert was a giant among men in the field of American journalism. His passing sent shockwaves through the nation; one doesn't simply brush aside the death of one of news media's icons. His death also reminded many news viewers of the beauty of well-crafted, well-delivered news coverage, particularly while considering Russert's no-fluff, head-on style of interviewing political figures and revealing the facts between most of the top stories of the year. No one could dodge Russert's frighteningly to-the-point questioning; at the same time, everybody seemed to understand that it was, as The Godfather might say, strictly business, and not personal. He managed to make the news, particularly political news, engaging, accessible, and exciting. He was tough, but fair. He could have you breaking into a smile in one moment and breaking out in a cold sweat in the next. When, in the future, people talk about the news media of the 2000's, thoughts and conversations will undoubtedly turn toward Tim Russert, whose death NBC News President Steve Capus referred to as "a loss for the entire nation."

#2: Sarah Fey/Tina Palin

This is a little unfair on my part, but I can't have one without the other: Sarah Palin, who became the first female Vice Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, and Tina Fey, who reshaped the face of political satire during what proved to be an election for the history books with her humorous representation of her apparent doppelganger. Not long after Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate, people across the United States turned to each other and said, "Hey, doesn't she kind of look like . . .?" And not more than a few days later, the producers of SNL replied, "Yes, in fact, she does," and brought Fey back to serve as an alarmingly identical counterpart on the show's election coverage sketches. Both these women made history of different kinds in 2008, and forever changed the face of both politics and political send-ups. The history books will probably love fooling future generations by replacing pictures of Palin with Fey in their pages . . . or maybe that's just me.

#1: Barack Obama (Or Didn't You Guess?)

Did anyone not see this coming? I mean, where should I even start with President-elect Barack Obama? Should I start by saying he's the first African-American elected to the presidency of the United States? Should I mention the anticipating faces of crowds of people from all walks of life listening with hope and wonder to the simple campaign slogan, "Yes we can?" Should I note the iconic images of weeping audiences filled with those same people seeing years, if not lifetimes, of hopes and expectations coming to fruition in the shadows of that slogan's simple response: "Yes we did?" Should I say how Obama came, saw, and conquered state after state, making himself the first candidate to split a state's (Nebraska) electoral vote, among many other firsts during the trials of the campaign trail? Maybe I should, but I won't. I'll just sum it up in a popular catchphrase that lingers even after the election process has ended: "Rosa sat so Martin could walk, so Barack could run, so our children can fly." If anyone represented the essence of both the American Dream and that Impossible Dream of Man of La Mancha fame for the year 2008, it is Barack Obama.

2008 was a year dominated by economic scares and crises, an election campaign for the history books, laughter and tears, bringers of new hope and the loss of old friends, and much more. Many others could have made this list. Michael Phelps, for instance, was a runner up for his amazing triumphs during the 2008 Summer Olympics that kept so many on the edges of their seats world-wide. The Auto Dealers were a close call, with their jetted trips to Washington to beg monies to bail out their dying companies (probably not the best of ideas) and offers to work for a dollar if that money was granted (probably one of the most creative ideas of the year). Whether or not you agree with these five choices, all of us can agree that this ending year was a year of great history, one for the records, one of many memories, and a year of great trials, triumphs, and everything in between. All reasons, I think, that make it possible for us all to sing together, "Unforgettable, that's what you are" to 2008!