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2012's legacy: The Monitor's Top 11 US stories

From storms to politics, the year was a wild ride. What are the most meaningful US stories of 2012? Here's the Monitor's list, in roughly chronological order.

GOP nomination and Romney

AP
Ann and Mitt Romney celebrated a Republican primary win in January.

  • By Staff The Christian Science Monitor

Mitt Romney started the year as front-runner for the Republican nomination, based on his professional experience, fundraising prowess, debating skill, and presidential bearing. He had built a fortune in private equity at Bain Capital, turned around the winter Olympics in 2002, and served as governor of Massachusetts.

But by mid-January, it was clear the nomination would not come easily. Former Sen. Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in a squeaker, Mr. Romney won the New Hampshire primary, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won South Carolina. Tea partyers and social conservatives, in particular, weren't sure they could trust the once-moderate Romney.

Romney's primary opponents, fueled by outside money, struck a populist note as they pounded on his business record. His own gaffes – e.g., "I like being able to fire people" – also hurt. It took him until May 29 to clinch the nomination. He formally accepted it Aug. 30 at the Republican National Convention, but by then, his image was damaged.

One takeaway: His Mormon faith didn't seem to hurt.

– Linda Feldmann, Staff writer

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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