BIGGEST RECENT CONTROVERSIES

12 biggest controversies of 2009

January

OBAMA INAUGURATION STIRS RACIAL TENSIONS

With the economy teetering on the edge of collapse, the nation's first African-American

president is sworn into office under what many commentators consider the most

difficult domestic circumstances since the Great Depression. His skin color continues

to provoke debate: While Rush Limbaugh worries that Republicans won't properly

oppose the president's "radical" agenda because "they're afraid of being called

racists," Robert Schlesinger in U.S. News & World Report counters: "Obama ran as a presidential candidate who was African- American rather than an African-American presidential candidate."

February

IS THE STIMULUS BILL JUST A PORKFEST?

Just two weeks into his presidency, Obama makes the case that without a

massive stimulus bill, the country will face economic "catastrophe." Working

together, congressional Democrats and the White House cobble together a $787

billion package that includes tax cuts, more government aid, infrastructure

investment, and several programs that Republicans condemn as pork. "As a

nation," says Senator Tom Coburn (R–Okla.), "we got into this mess by spending

and investing money that didn't exist. We won't get out of it by doing more of the

same." Obama responds, "We can and we must turn this moment of challenge

into one of opportunity."

March

AIG HAS ODD WAY OF SHOWING GRATITUDE

After the government rescues AIG from bankruptcy with a $180 billion bailout,

the insurance giant outrages Americans by lavishing $165 million in bonuses on

executives in its financial-products group—the risk-happy division that had taken

down the company. The Obama administration, worried that public anger could

weaken support for the additional bailouts required to stabilize the economy,

denounces AIG and appeals for calm.

April

IOWA LEGALIZES GAY MARRIAGE

In a surprise decision, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously rules that banning

gay marriage violates the state's Constitution, making Iowa the third state—and

the first in the Midwest—to recognize same-sex marriage. That loud noise you

just heard, says Joe Sudbay in America Blog, was "heads exploding at Mormon

headquarters and the American Family Association." While conservatives blast the

ruling's "gobbledygook" as a "lawless judicial attack on traditional marriage,"

supporters of gay marriage say the "haters" are just fighting the inevitable.

May

OBAMA NOMINATES 'WISE LATINA' SONIA SOTOMAYOR

While liberals praise President Obama's decision to nominate New York federal

judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, conservatives

lambast the nominee for remarking (in 2001) that she, "as a wise Latina woman,"

can often "reach a better conclusion than a white man." In the ensuing debate,

conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and former Speaker of the House Newt

Gingrich call Sotomayor a "racist," while The New York Times' Bob Herbert says

that apparently there is no level of achievement sufficient to escape the

stultifying bonds of bigotry." On Aug. 6, the Senate

confirms Sotomayor by a vote of 68 to 31.

June

IRAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS DESCEND INTO

CHAOS

Though incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

seemingly defeats challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi by a

large margin, hundreds of thousands of Iranians—provoked

by reports of widespread voting irregularities—take to the streets of Tehran to

protest a "stolen" election. Iran authorities fail to block the news from reaching

the West when protesters adopt social-networking site Twitter as a news outlet

and cell phone video footage of protester Neda Agha-Soltan's murder at the

hands of the government floods the Internet.

July

SARAH PALIN MYSTERIOUSLY RESIGNS

Standing in the backyard of her Wasilla home, Sarah Palin abruptly resigns as

Alaska's governor before completing her first term, delivering a speech that

liberals call "rambling" and incoherent, and even conservatives find hard to

defend. Her sudden departure stuns both the political establishment and the

media, and spawns at least 11 competing "theories" about her motives. Some

columnists suggest that Palin wants to ramp up for a 2012 presidential bid, while

others speculate that an imminent scandal led her to resign.

August

TEA PARTY WREAKS HAVOC ON TOWN HALLS

Public debates over health-care reform run into snafus when members of the Tea

Party and other right-wing organizations carry out plans to disrupt town-hall

meetings with noisy demonstrations, taunts, and Second Amendment–protected

wielding of AR-15 assault rifles and other weapons. Sarah Palin's charges that

"ObamaCare" will lead to "death panels" further fuels the anger. At one point,

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank compares a protester whose communication skills

he finds lacking to a "dining room table."

September

'YOU LIE!'

Many commentators seem genuinely shocked when South Carolina Republican

Joe Wilson heckles Obama shouting, "You lie!" as the president tries to explain to

Congress that his proposed health-care reforms would not provide illegal

immigrants with taxpayer-funded coverage. Wilson's boorish behavior "struck a

new low" in America's standard for political conduct.

October

OBAMA's 'PREMATURE' PEACE PRIZE

The news that Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just

months into his first presidential term confounds nearly everyone, including the

president, who remarks: "Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this

morning." Iain Martin in The Wall Street Journal describes the honor as "bizarre,"

noting that, "traditionally, it has been standard procedure that winners of the

prize do their peacemaking first."

November

FORT HOOD AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Soon after the shocking news that an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan, has

killed 13, and wounded 30, at the America's largest military installation, critics

begin wondering aloud why the Army and the FBI had missed so many warning

signs including Hasan's jihadist rants to colleagues.

December

LIEBERMAN 'HIJACKS' HEALTH-CARE REFORM

With Obama promising the US that a health-care reform bill would be passed by

both houses of Congress before Christmas, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an

independent whose vote was critical to Democrats, seizes the opportunity to

exert his considerable influence and force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to

reshape the bill at the 11th hour. The power play sparks outrage among many

Democrats: "Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals