Most outrageous comments of 2009

Outrageous comments are nothing new to the conservative media -- one might even call them a defining characteristic. The Most Outrageous Comment of the 2009 came when Fox News host Glenn Beck asserted that Obama is a “racist” who has “exposed himself as a guy” with “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture,” but right-wing media figures made plenty of other unhinged remarks throughout the year:

Racially charged remarks

The election of the first black U.S. president led to a slew of racially charged comments that were truly outrageous:

War on the poor

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, some right-wing media figures attacked the poor:

War on women

Right-wing media figures also engaged in sexism and downright misogyny:

Attacks on GLBT community

In addition to a sustained assault on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, right-wingers made outrageous attacks based on sexual orientation:

Revolutionary and paranoid rhetoric

Right-wingers frequently employed paranoid and revolutionary rhetoric and suggested that progressives, including Obama and Democrats in Congress, were betraying America.

Birthers

Conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate were conclusively debunked during the 2008 campaign, but that didn't stop several right-wing commentators from continuing to push the smear:

Nazis and fascists and communists, oh my!

There were far more attacks on Obama and other progressives as Nazis, fascists, communists, Marxists, socialists, and similar labels than we have space for, so here are some of the most ridiculous examples:

Other

Plenty of other remarks defied categorization but certainly merited mention among the Most Outrageous Comments of 2009: