Top 8 Of '08: No. 1 - President Barack Obama

Today we're wrapping up our look at the top 8 local stories that captivated us in 2008.

Really, what more can be said about our President-Elect that hasn't already been covered a thousand times? His election as President of the United States over Arizona Senator John McCain - and the ensuing party - was easily Chicago's biggest story of 2008. His election was a rare bright spot for Illinois politics, but you may not know is that Obama is also the first African-American elected to the Presidency. We're three weeks away from his inauguration and in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal, Illinois politics has taken a beating. Here's hoping the Obama Administration will do something to reverse that image and to help turn this country around. And while we know the allusions to Lincoln are tiresome, considering Lincoln was his party's surprise nominee in 1860 over a politician from New York and packed his successful cabinet with his former political rivals, well, maybe it just gives us a bit of...hope.

Photo from Obama's Flickr stream


Previously
No. 8 - Chicago, Cultural Epicenter
No. 7 - Chicago On Trial
No. 6 - Chicago's 2016 Olympic Fever
No. 5 - Chicago's Violent Year
No. 4 - Budget Crunch
No. 3 - NIU Shooting
No. 2 - Blago Busted