Winner announced in predict-our-10,000th contest

To celebrate our 5,000th Truth-O-Meter item, we invited you to look into the future and predict our 10,000th.

We encouraged you to be creative and predict what we will fact-check in 2016. We received more than 100 entries ranging from silly to snarky.

We got several about Newt Gingrich and space travel and a couple of snide ones about him leaving his wife.

We got several about President Barack Obama, including one that took a shot at Vice President Joe Biden. (It predicted Obama would say, “I was extremely proud of Vice President Biden, who made it through 2015 without a single embarrassing public gaffe..”), and we got one on Dennis Kucinich saying he had been abducted by aliens.

Here are some of our favorites:

Mitt Romney  >  “The Keystone oil spill was fundamentally Obama’s fault when he approved its construction in late 2012.” [We liked that one because of the double-twist of Obama approving the pipeline Republicans want — and then getting blamed for a spill!]

Chris Christie >  “You know, I’ve said this 10,000 times, and I’ll say it again: ‘I am not running for president.”

Newt Gingrich >  “My first act as the newly instated moon governor is to replace all janitors with children.”

We chose two winners — and then discovered both were submitted by the same reader!

Donald Trump >  “During my time on the Apprentice, I was a job creator,”

President Ron Paul >  “The government employs the lowest number of people since 1788.”

Our double winner is Tech. Sgt. Alan Leiby, a mechanic with the U.S. Air Force. He is originally from Bettendorf, Iowa, and describes himself as an avid PolitiFact fan.

“I read PolitiFact anytime I see a new story — no joke,” he says. “I love your website. It’s great for people like me who want to cut straight to the truth.”

Since he’s a double winner, Alan will receive a special PolitiFact prize pack with an Obameter T-shirt, a Flip-O-Meter slinky, a Pants on Fire mug and a Pants on Fire button. The other finalists will also be receiving PolitiFact goodies.

Thanks for all the entries! We’ll see if your predictions come true in 2016!