Big Bird, Etch A Sketch and Clint Eastwood addressing an empty chair.

All were memorable moments of the contentious 2012 presidential election, the top story of 2012 as decided by the Northwest Herald editorial staff. For 10 months, few things dominated daily discussions like the race of who would be in the White House for the next four years.

And it wasn’t just because of the flashpoint moments such as those mentioned above: The race revealed the ugly political divide pushing the political parties further to the left or right.