2008 was a weird year for Attytood (I'm referring to the blog, not to myself). Overall traffic was probably down -- not so much because of what I did or didn't write but because three years worth of archives vanished into cyber-nothingness when Philly.com switched the blogging platform. The new platform also meant a new commenting system which, overall, was probably an improvement -- requiring registration meant that some of the worst dreck was eliminated and there was spirited debate among a small group of "regulars," but it also limited posts from newcomers, especially folks outside of Philadelphia who came here from national blogs and (understandably) didn't want to go through the registration hassle to post just one comment. Plus my lengthy summer "book vacation" and a new Sunday-to-Thursday night schedule (occasionally swapped for Friday nights) made for erratic posting at weird times-- which was not really a plus when it comes to building readership.
The good news was that several individual posts from 2008 did manage to have an impact, despite all of that. Here's five posts that mattered, one way or the other:
5.
» READ MORE: Exclusive: Hillary acknowledges a "misstatement" on Bosnia
, March 25, 2008
It's true, I guess -- timing is everything. Questions about Hillary Clinton's account of her 1996 trip to Bosnia and her remark that she landed amid sniper fire were starting to rise on the very day that she came to the Daily News to address the editorial board and certain reporters, including Your Blogger. Her chilly, concessionary response to my question was picked up by the TV networks (it was also videotaped), the New York Times and elsewhere. The episode was a major hit to Clinton's credibility as she narrowly lost the Democratic nomination.
.)
4.
» READ MORE: An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos
, April 17, 2008
To say that people either loved or hated this angry, over-the-top rant, which I started writing before the credits faded out on ABC's televised Democratic primary debate here in Philadelphia, would be an understatement. It went online at 12:23 a.m. that morning and became the most popular post in the history of Attytood by a longshot, drawing well over 100,000 page views and hundreds of emailed responses from around the globe.
3.
» READ MORE: Palin's speech to nowhere
, Sept. 4, 2008.
This was the second most widely read post of 2008, and I was proud of this because at the time it was bucking the conventional wisdom about the Palin pick, which was mostly positive. A month later, most everyone else in the pundit class was aboard the same bandwagon.
2.
» READ MORE: Obama would ask his AG to "immediately review" potential of crimes in Bush White House
, April 14, 2008.
Obama's visit to the Daily News and Inquirer was also newsworthy, especially now that he's less than four weeks away from becoming the 44th president of the United States. Believe it or not, my question to Obama still remains the only time that he's been directly questioned about the prosecution question, even though it's been the subject of numerous articles since Nov. 4. In fact, this blog post was recently cited in the New York Times, and it's been cited in countless other blogs.
1.
» READ MORE: The myth of Ronald Reagan: Coming to your bookstore in 2009
, July 2, 2009
This wasn't the most monumental post for readers in 2008, but it was for the blogger. Hopefully
» READ MORE: it will affect you
sometime next year.