Dave Barry Year in Review: Bailing out of 2008

Miami Herald ^ | 12/26/08 | DAVE BARRY

[Libloather]

Dave Barry Year in Review: Bailing out of 2008
BY DAVE BARRY

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

How weird a year was it?

Here's how weird:

• O.J. actually got convicted of something.

• Gasoline hit $4 a gallon -- and those were the good times.

• On several occasions, Saturday Night Live was funny.

• There were a few days there in October when you could not completely rule out the possibility that the next Treasury Secretary would be Joe the Plumber.

• Finally, and most weirdly, for the first time in history, the voters elected a president who -- despite the skeptics who said such a thing would never happen in the United States -- was neither a Bush NOR a Clinton.

Of course not all the events of 2008 were weird. Some were depressing. The only U.S. industries that had a good year were campaign consultants and foreclosure lawyers. Everybody else got financially whacked. Millions of people started out the year with enough money in their 401(k)'s to think about retiring on, and ended up with maybe enough for a medium Slurpee.

So we can be grateful that 2008 is almost over. But before we leave it behind, let's take a few minutes to look back and see if we can find some small nuggets of amusement. Why not? We paid for it, starting with . . .

JANUARY

. . . which begins, as it does every four years, with presidential contenders swarming into Iowa and expressing sincerely feigned interest in corn. The Iowa caucuses produce two surprises:

[screaminsunshine]

Obama will appoint the Banker on Deal or No deal as Tres. Sec. Perfect. Our Government has become akin to a TV game show with Wolf Blitzer and Cris Matthews as hosts.

[ktvaughn]

Thanks—that was really funny. I don’t read him enough...

[Peter Horry]

“Thanks—that was really funny. I don’t read him enough”

Here is something you may like Http://www.lewisgrizzard.com/columns/archive/HappyNewYearToMe.html

[RightOnline]

Love it. Bump.

[Christian4Bush]

bump

[Crolis]

LOL. No matter how bad a year can be, Dave Barry can always find a way to see the funny side. :)

[Beelzebubba]

Speaking of winning, in . . .

NOVEMBER

. . . Barack Obama, in a historic triumph, becomes the nation’s first black president since the second season of 24, setting off an ecstatically joyful and boisterous all-night celebration that at times threatens to spill out of The New York Times newsroom. Obama, following through on his promise to bring change to Washington, quickly begins assembling an administration consisting of a diverse group of renegade outsiders, ranging all the way from lawyers who attended Ivy League schools and then worked in the Clinton administration to lawyers who attended entirely different Ivy league schools and then worked in the Clinton administration.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

A humorous ping.