Nothing can quite capture (or re-invent) a moment, like an Animated GIF. It stands for Graphic Interchange Format, in case you cared, and anything can be expressed through these tiny nuggets of web genius. From the vast selection of awesome GIFs that appeared this year, our favorites range from kitties (duh) to politics. Without much hesitation, we're giving top honors to the GIF that summed up why we're proud to be Americans. It features your favorite 2008 Democrats in a Jeep -- including the President-elect himself, along with his First Lady, Vice-Prez, newly announced Secretary of State.

Something seem familiar? The raw GIF image is taken from a scene in Zoolander, but this Democratized GIF is the work of genius... and well, we've done our research. We're proud to give big ups to LiveJournal user Schmiss for creating the gif that keeps on giving, and also the lovelies at ONTD Politics for pointing us in the right direction (and being a one-stop shop for GIF amazingness).


The nominees:

	Cat Licking the Screen
	Michael Phelps Goes Crazy
	Sassy Mona Lisa
	Zombie McCain