'This Week' Transcript: 2011 Year in Review

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25, 2011— -- AMANPOUR: THIS WEEK, a year to remember, as gridlock consumes Washington.

REP. JOHN A. BOEHNER, R-OHIO, HOUSE SPEAKER: Put something on the table.

SEN. HARRY REID, D-NEV.: The Republicans should stop playing chicken.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This is not class warfare. It's math.

AMANPOUR: A roller-coaster Republican race heads into the final stretch.

FORMER REP. NEWT GINGRICH, R-GA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to be the nominee.

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ten thousand dollar bet?

HERMAN CAIN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 9-9-9.

GOV. RICK PERRY, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oops.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Obama is a one-term president.

AMANPOUR: While the country waited anxiously for economic recovery.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY.: The biggest the American people have is jobs.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.

AMANPOUR: Anger occupies American streets.

CROWD: We are sold out.

AMANPOUR: People-powered revolution roils across the Arab world.

MOAMMAR GADHAFI, FORMER LEADER, LIBYAN ARAB REPUBLIC: They love me, all my people with me. They love me all.

AMANPOUR: And public enemy number one finally meets his end.

OBAMA: The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

AMANPOUR: While American troops begin to head home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome back. I'm glad to see you.

AMANPOUR: We reflect on the remarkable year that was and the election year to come in a special edition of THIS WEEK.

ANNOUNCER: From the Newseum in Washington, THIS WEEK WITH CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR STARTS NOW.

AMANPOUR: Good morning. Merry Christmas and a very happy holidays to you all. It's hard to believe, but 2012 is nearly upon us. And in just over a week, Iowa becomes ground zero in the race for the White House. And rarely has a Republican presidential nomination been so up for grabs. But the campaign battle is just one of the dramatic political stories that shaped this unpredictable year. And our man, Jon Karl, counts down the top 11 of 2011.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a year of gridlock, protests, hopeful comebacks, agonizing defeats and racy tweets. So we begin the list with number 11 of 2011, the Tea Party invasion of Congress.

It was a freshman class of outsiders. Nearly half of them had never held elected office. There was pizza shop owner Bobby Schilling, dentist Paul Gosar, Army Colonel Allen West, nurse Renee Ellmers, Eagles lineman Jon Runyan. John Boehner couldn't have been speaker of the House without them.

(on camera): There's the Tea Party's got Speaker Boehner painted into a box, things -- he has -- he has no control over his caucus. The freshman class is running roughshod over him.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, that is not happening.

KARL: Trust me: Speaker Boehner couldn't do anything without them.

Number 10. Occupy. It started as a few tents on Wall Street but grew into a national, even global movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what democracy looks like.

KARL: Their agenda was murky. But by year's end, they seemed to eclipse the Tea Party movement, the 99 percent against the richest 1 percent. Republicans denounced it all as class warfare.

CAIN: Don't blame Wall Street. Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't think the...