Who Did John Mccain Run Agains President Obama the Secind Time

Editor's annotation: This is the 16th of an 18-chapter profile of Sen. John McCain, portions of which originally were published in Oct 1999 and March 2007. It has been updated and expanded. Read more about this project: John McCain'southward American Story.

The city: Denver.

The date: Aug. 28, 2008, 45 years to the day since civil-rights leader Martin Luther Male monarch, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

The scene: A packed Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium, home of the NFL's Denver Broncos.

The hope-and-change candidate of 2008, Barack Obama, standing in front of a row of styrofoam Greek columns, accepted the Democratic Political party'south nomination for president with a stirring speech that brought cheers and, at times, tears from many in the audience of 75,000 people.

"Iv years ago, I stood before you and told y'all my story of the brief marriage between a fellow from Kenya and a immature adult female from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known but shared a belief that, in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his heed to," Obama said in his acceptance speech. "It is that promise that has always set this country apart — that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come up together every bit one American family, to ensure that the next generation tin pursue their dreams besides. ...

"This moment, this election, is our chance to continue, in the 21st century, the American promise alive."

Information technology was a historic milestone equally Obama became the first African-American to superlative a major U.S. party's national ticket.

"I've been crying all dark long. It was wonderful," Gladis Ross of Omaha, Nebraska, told The Arizona Republic after attention the convention that day.

"We're only thankful that nosotros've been able to live to see such a day as this," said Clifford Robbins, her son.

The convention got rave reviews. The Democrats were united, energized and mobilized.

By comparison, John McCain, the GOP nominee-in-waiting, was struggling to energize many of his young man Republicans. But McCain was about to shake up the race in his ain way.

An unknown running mate

As Democratic conventioneers and the media were leaving Denver the next morning time, buzz started that McCain had selected his running mate, and it was a shocker.

McCain had been expected to choose from his brusque list — names such every bit Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a rise GOP governor of a blue country, or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain'south primary rival who turned into a faithful surrogate and friend in one case McCain secured the party's nomination.

Instead it was Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska and former mayor of Wasilla, a small city in her domicile state.

McCain had wanted to brand an even bolder pick: his old friend Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who had been Vice President Al Gore's running mate in 2000 and who had crossed party lines the year before to campaign for McCain in New Hampshire.

Lieberman had won his virtually recent Senate term every bit an contained. And he would have added an unprecedented bipartisan flavor to McCain'south campaign, which had adopted the motto "Land Kickoff" to downplay partisanship.

According to the 2010 book "Game Change," a backside-the-scenes business relationship of the 2008 race by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, a McCain-Lieberman ticket was viewed internally as a mode to pause with President George Due west. Bush-league's unpopular presidency, which was seen every bit the biggest hurdle toRepublicans keeping the White House.

Information technology wasn't to be. While McCain and Lieberman were simpatico on foreign policy, that was most it. Lieberman was an unabashed liberal on virtually other problems. Well-nigh problematic for McCain was Lieberman's support of ballgame rights. As speculation swirled that McCain might choose a pro-choice running mate, conservatives were outraged. Per "Game Change," McCain's pollster Bill McInturff tried to guess the potential impact and found that a McCain-Lieberman ticket would price more GOP votes than it would swing in independents. And that was assuming there wouldn't be an outright revolt at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

McCain bowed to that reality and selected Palin, who made her presidential campaign trail debut Aug. 29 in Dayton, Ohio.

Charlie Black, a senior McCain adviser, told The Arizona Republic that McCain was impressed by Palin after coming together her in February at a National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C.

"What this brings is a spirit of reform and change that is vital now in our nation's upper-case letter," McCain said in an Aug. 31 appearance on "Fox News Sunday."

"By the manner, in the final solar day and a one-half or whatever it's been, we have raised $4 million on the internet. I wish I had taken her a month ago," McCain added.

The Palin choice was a surprise for many reasons, non the least of which was that nobody outside Alaska, besides die-hard political junkies, had ever heard of her. The choice also seemed to undercut McCain's biggest forcefulness confronting Obama: his long experience on the national scene and in the military relative to Obama. Obama had tried to counter that perception by tapping Joe Biden, a veteran senator from Delaware who had spent years every bit either chairman or a senior fellow member of the influential Senate Strange Relations Committee. Now McCain's campaign had opened itself to attacks about Palin's lack of experience in national politics or on foreign policy. Her short tape in public office also would reveal a taste for the pork-barrel projects that McCain for years had crusaded against as a waste material of taxpayer money.

The start fourth dimension he heard who McCain had picked, Biden asked, "Who's Sarah Palin?" co-ordinate to the account in "Game Change."

But Palin was a folksy, intriguing newcomer to national politics and provided some welcome contrasts to McCain.

McCain was the epitome of the moderate GOP institution; she was an anti-establishment conservative. She was 44 years former; he had turned 72 on the day his Palin pick was revealed. And the initial impression of Palin was that she seemed more than down to globe than McCain, who recently had been unable to retrieve how many homes he and his wife, Cindy, owned around the country. (The answer at the time was eight, though, technically, beer-distributionship heiress Cindy controlled the family unit fortune and their finances were separate.)

There was even speculation inside the McCain campaign that, equally a woman with five young children, Palin might appeal to some female person voters who were disappointed by Obama'south defeat of Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York in the Democratic primaries.

"John was a bohemian, and he said he had picked me considering in many means I'm wired the aforementioned," Palin would write later on in her 2009 memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life."

Palin, an evangelical Christian, was mother to a 4-month-old male child with Down syndrome named Trig, which some bourgeois opponents of ballgame rights took every bit proof of her "pro-life" bona fides. McCain had long opposed ballgame rights, but, for whatever reason, some on the right never considered him sufficiently committed to the issue.

It was another child of Palin's, her single, pregnant, 17-yr-old daughter Bristol, who fabricated news on the first twenty-four hour period of the GOP convention, which had been scaled back because of Hurricane Gustav. The memories of Hurricane Katrina'south devastation were still raw, and Republicans didn't desire to be seen holding a partisan celebration while a potentially destructive tempest was thrashing the Gulf Declension.

"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents," Palin and her husband, Todd, said in a written argument released Sept. 1. "As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

The revelations of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, which Palin had disclosed to McCain ahead of him finalizing his choice, was forage for gossip among the bored delegates in St. Paul but otherwise didn't seem to thing much to anyone.

"I heard that from somebody. So what?" Alberto Gutier, an Arizona delegate and die-hard McCainiac, told The Commonwealth in a response that was typical. "It doesn't carp me at all. And that's truthful of most people. The daughter's not running for annihilation, OK?"

Considering of Gustav, five Republican governors had to stay home instead of attending the convention: Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Charlie Crist of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, and Bob Riley of Alabama.

Gustav also acquired Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to abolish. They'd been scheduled to speak on Twenty-four hours Ane. For the McCain campaign and other Republicans in St. Paul, information technology was probably a relief given the liability Bush and Cheney presented. Even Bush fans who believed history would vindicate the president on the Iraq War recognized he was political poison at the time.

Equally it turned out, Palin was the big hit of the convention. She used her speech at St. Paul'south Xcel Energy Middle to introduce herself to a national audience, to stand for her pocket-sized-town roots, and take shots at Obama'south past career equally a community organizer in Chicago.

"Before I became governor of the keen state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look downwards on that feel, allow me explicate to them what the job involves," Palin said. "I judge a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'customs organizer,' except that you take actual responsibilities."

She as well introduced "hockey mom" into the national lexicon in her acceptance of the vice-presidential nomination. "You know the departure between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick," she said in one of her speech'south most memorable lines.

By comparison, McCain's nomination acceptance spoken language the following nighttime was almost anti-climactic.

Condign the first Arizonan to superlative a national ticket since Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1964, McCain promised that he and Palin had "the strength, experience, judgment and backbone" to sock information technology to Washington's "large-spending, practice-cypher, me-first, country-second oversupply."

"You know, I've been called a maverick, someone who marches to the vanquish of his own drum," McCain said of his reputation for bucking the GOP at times. "Sometimes, it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. What information technology really means is I understand who I work for. I don't piece of work for a political party. I don't piece of work for a special interest. I don't piece of work for myself. I work for you."

McCain and his squad left St. Paul with a feeling the deck had been reshuffled. and they were belongings a better paw.

That feeling wouldn't last.

Economical meltdown dooms McCain

The U.S. economic system had been ailing and about set to swoon.

At that place had been warnings about mass mortgage failures and a potential housing bubble. Business organisation grew to the cyberbanking system and its "toxic assets." Past September 2008, the United States was in the midst of a financial meltdown.

The federal government on Sept. 7, 2008, seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage lenders. After Lehman Brothers Holdings filed for bankruptcy Sept. 15, existent fright gripped Wall Street. The Federal Reserve on Sept. xvi bailed out the behemothic insurance company American International Group, or AIG, as "too large to fail" became a catchphrase of the rescue effort. Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke eventually would ask Congress for an emergency $700 billion financial bailout.

The economic system was non McCain's forte. Fifty-fifty as the crisis deepened, McCain continued to repeat a stock stump line of his well-nigh the strength of the "fundamentals" of the economy. And even if the economy had been his expertise, voters saw Bush and the Republicans every bit responsible for the crisis.

According to an archive of 2008 polls maintained by the RealClearPolitics website, McCain had small leads over Obama in iv sequent public polls after the Republican National Convention. He would maintain narrow leads in ii more polls afterward that. But no poll subsequently the week of Sept. 21— every bit the economy spiraled down — showed McCain with a lead.

Understanding the stakes, McCain made the remarkable decision to append his entrada for two days and so he could return to Capitol Hill to accost the financial crisis. It was some other "maverick" motion that would bear witness his commitment to putting the health of the country over his personal political interests. The only problem: McCain had no clear idea what to do about the economic system and already was a latecomer to negotiations over the proposed $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

"I asked, 'Are you certain that you want to do that?' Because nobody knows how this is going to work out," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a McCain ally who'd spoken by telephone with McCain, told The Democracy at the time. "But y'all know John. He's willing to take big risks if he thinks information technology's for a big cause."

The timing was especially perilous because he risked forfeiting his outset debate with Obama, which was set for Sept. 26, 2008, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. After McCain appear he was returning to Washington, D.C., Obama went back, likewise.

In a Sept. 24 joint statement, McCain and Obama agreed the crisis meant Republicans and Democrats had to work together for the American people.

"The programme that has been submitted to Congress by the Bush Administration is flawed, merely the attempt to protect the American economy must not fail," the White House rivals said. "This is a time to rise to a higher place politics for the adept of the country. Nosotros cannot risk an economic catastrophe. Now is our hazard to come up together to testify that Washington is one time again capable of leading this country."

A subsequent, combative Sept. 25 White Business firm meeting that included Bush, McCain, Obama and other congressional leaders yielded no bargain. Footage of McCain silently sitting at the tabular array didn't help his prototype as having a poor grasp on economic issues. McCain also was under force per unit area from his fellow congressional Republicans not to make the situation worse for them. House Republicans were also on the ballot in Nov, and they worried their party's presidential nominee might throw them under the motorcoach past savaging whatever bailout package emerged from the discussions.

Quoting sources, CNN reported that McCain said footling during the White House summit and didn't say anything for the starting time 43 minutes.

"Ane of the concerns I've had over the concluding several days is that when yous start injecting presidential politics into delicate negotiations, then you can actually create more problems rather than less," Obama said on CNN.

Paulsen, Bush'due south Treasury secretary, afterward ripped McCain's function in the proceedings, proverb the GOP candidate's decision to elbow his style into the bailout discussions without a plan was "impulsive and risky" and "dangerous."

"When information technology came right downwardly to it, (McCain) had picayune to say in the forum he himself had called," Paulsen wrote in "On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System," a 2009 book.

McCain later would tell The Republic that it was Bush who had called him in from the campaign trail. Co-ordinate to McCain'south later business relationship, made to the newspaper's editorial board in February 2010, Bush asked for his help to avert a looming worldwide economical disaster.

"I don't know of any American, when the president of the United States calls y'all and tells you something like that, who wouldn't respond," McCain said. "And I came back and tried to sit down down and work with Republicans and say, 'What can we do?' "

McCain eventually went along with the TARP bailout, a vote that would haunt him for years.

Debates carry high stakes

The offset presidential debate in Mississippi went off as planned. And information technology was there that McCain truly may have lost the election.

It wasn't considering of McCain's performance, which was solid if a little potent and abrasiveat times. Except for some word of the economical crisis, the debate focused on national security and foreign policy, two problems in McCain'south comfort zone. Some observers said McCain may have won the argue on points, some said Obama won outright, while withal others said information technology was probably no worse for McCain than a depict.

The problem for McCain was that a draw was all Obama needed, so that finer fabricated him the winner. Given the economic anxiety and Obama'due south lack of seasoning, the McCain campaign's final hope was that Americans might not want to risk the presidency on someone so untested. McCain needed Obama to fumble.

Instead, Obama held his own against McCain and delivered a calm and collected performance that put to rest worries most his light experience.

"I call up they pretty much did equally well in what they said," Paul Levinson, a Fordham Academy communications professor and expert on presidential debates, told The Republic afterward the consequence. "On the non-verbal level, Barack Obama was much better. He looked relaxed. He smiled at times. He seemed confident."

Meanwhile, Palin'due south limitations as a national candidate had become credible. Though she had managed to go through the convention and had won acclaim for her speech, she was non ready to address policy.

Palin was responsible for resuscitating the McCain campaign in the polls — their ticket had surged past Obama and Biden — just later on the convention, McCain aides didn't know what to do with her. She was largely sequestered from the media, keeping her away from hard-hitting questions nearly foreign policy she couldn't respond. NBC's "Saturday Night Alive" mocked her mercilessly. "SNL" star Tina Fey's spot-on impersonation defined her in the public consciousness. To this 24-hour interval, many Americans believe it was Palin that said "I tin see Russia from my house" when in fact it came from 1 of Fey's send-ups of her.

The real test came when Palin started giving interviews to high-contour journalists such equally Katie Couric of CBS News.

She failed that exam and bombed, famously bungling fifty-fifty a softball question about what newspapers and magazines she would read to keep upwardly with world events.

"I've read nearly of them, over again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media," Palin said. "Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years."

In her book, "Going Rogue," Palin wrote that Couric's goal was to capture what Palin characterized equally "gotcha" moments and conceded that Couric'southward strategy worked.

"Instead of my scoring points for John McCain, I knew that I had let the team down," Palin wrote.

In another headache for the McCain-Palin ticket that would foreshadow liabilities for future political campaigns, Palin'southward email business relationship was hacked and her messages and family photos were made public.

By the time Palin was fix to confront off against Biden in the Oct. two vice-presidential fence at Washington Academy in St. Louis, many McCain insiders were bracing for a disaster.

While she was outmatched from the outset on policy past the veteran senator from Delaware, and let Biden land far too many blows confronting McCain, Palin managed to survive the political high-wire act. It could accept been much worse, and McCain entrada officials largely breathed a collective sigh of relief.

She even contributed some memorable, if odd, moments, such every bit when she repeatedly winked at the camera and when she asked Biden, "Hey, can I phone call you Joe?"

Sprinting to Ballot Day

McCain and Obama would share the stage two more times, in Nashville and Long Isle, N.Y., though neither debate would motility the needle.

Obama was seen as the winner of the second fence. In the third, McCain seemed most comfortable and was at his all-time. Nonetheless, he wasn't able to exercise much damage to Obama, despite bringing up Obama's ties to William Ayers, a former leader of the fierce Conditions Underground Organization, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which was nether fire at the time in a voter-registration controversy.

The tertiary debate, held Oct. 15 at New York'south Hofstra University, is peradventure best remembered for McCain making "Joe the Plumber" a short-lived household name.

The plumber in question, Joe Wurzelbacher, had questioned Obama on the campaign trail near Toledo, Ohio. He told Obama he wanted to buy a plumbing concern that could make as much every bit $280,000, which would put him over Obama's $250,000 limit for taxation protection and relief for pocket-size businesses. "When yous spread the wealth effectually, information technology's good for everybody," Obama told Wurzelbacher.

"Joe, I want to tell you, I'll not only help yous purchase that business that you worked your whole life for and I'll keep your taxes low and I'll provide available and affordable health intendance for you and your employees," McCain promised from the contend stage. To Obama, he said: "And what you want to do to Joe the Plumber and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business."

Past the 2nd half of Oct, though, it seemed as if McCain's fate was sealed. He still struggled to connect with voters on the economy, the most important issue of the solar day. Undecided voters seemed to pause for Obama.

"I feel similar we got a righteous wind at our backs here," Obama said while candidature in Virginia.

McCain seemed aware of the cultural significance of his race against the first African-American presidential nominee. He had establish himself, at times, defending Obama from members of his own boondocks-hall audiences, suggesting an awareness of how history might await back on his entrada. At an Oct. 10 event, McCain reassured a man that he had goose egg to fear should Obama, "a decent person," become president. He too corrected a woman who said she couldn't trust Obama because he was "an Arab."

"No, ma'am. He's a decent, family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on central problems and that's what this campaign is all virtually," McCain said.

No matter how bleak the outlook, McCain did not give up, candidature hard to the very last minute. The day before the ballot, McCain stumped in no fewer than seven states before concluding with a midnight rally at the steps of the Yavapai Canton Courthouse in Prescott. He bandage his vote in Phoenix before campaigning some more in Colorado and New Mexico.

If he had won, information technology would have been one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories of all time.

'Never meant to exist'

When the votes were counted on Nov. iv, 2008, Obama was the president-elect and McCain was the likewise-ran.

Information technology wasn't shut: Obama won the popular vote 52.9 percent to 45.6 pct and carried the Electoral Higher 365 to 173.

In his gracious concession spoken language, McCain spoke of "the special significance" that Obama'due south win held for African-Americans and "for the special pride that must be theirs this night." He was joined on stage by his married woman, Cindy, and Palin and her husband, Todd.

"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White Firm was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time," McCain said at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. "At that place is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth."

McCain's long quest for the White House was over. This time, for adept.

In retrospect, McCain certainly made mistakes — some big, some not so big — that damaged his competitiveness. His response to the economic crisis clearly backfired. Many voters saw his render to the Senate as a stunt. There's nevertheless an argument about whether his gamble on Palin as a running mate helped him enough with his base to offset how much she hurt him with independents. Perhaps he should accept been more aggressive in distancing himself from the politically radioactive Bush.

And for all of McCain's effort to courtroom the Latino vote, Obama clobbered him among that demographic, too, 67 percent to 31 percent. A Latino running mate from a swing state, rather than Palin from Alaska, might have helped, though McCain could never reflect the country'southward irresolute demographics the way Obama did.

The hopes of McCain'due south entrada hinged largely on Obama making rookie mistakes. Non simply did Obama not make such mistakes, he ran a much-emulated, highly disciplined campaign that was able to raise unprecedented amounts of money.

The lesser line, though, is that after eight years of the Bush administration, war-drawn voters were set up to requite the Democrats a shot. It was an impulse that would exist all just impossible for McCain, or any GOP candidate, to reverse.

A USA TODAY/Gallup poll gauged Bush-league's approval rating on Election Day 2008 at just 25 percent.

"Expect, he didn't run the best entrada that we've e'er seen, only no Republican could have won this twelvemonth," Larry Sabato, managing director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said in the immediate backwash of the 2008 election. "You can't win with conditions this bad for the incumbent political party. And that's McCain'south alleviation: He did reasonably well under extremely difficult conditions. Information technology was never meant to be."

Next Chapter: 'Complete the danged argue,' John McCain proclaims

John McCain's American Story

Affiliate i: John McCain a study in contradiction
Chapter 2: John McCain was destined for the Naval Academy
Affiliate 3: John McCain was 'a very determined guy' equally a Pow
Chapter 4: John McCain'southward political appetite emerged afterwards POW return
Chapter 5: John McCain's political career began after Arizona move
Chapter six: Always-ambitious, John McCain rises to the Senate
Chapter seven: John McCain 'in a hell of a mess' with Keating Five
Affiliate viii: Afterward Keating Five, John McCain faced new scandal
Chapter 9: John McCain becomes the 'bohemian'
Chapter 10: 'Ugly' politics in John McCain's 2000 presidential run
Affiliate 11: John McCain was frequent foe of Bush in early on years
Affiliate 12: John McCain goes establishment for 2nd White Business firm run
Chapter 13: John McCain had rough start to 2008 presidential race
Chapter 14: John McCain clinches 2008 GOP presidential nomination
Chapter 15: John McCain takes on Obama for president in 2008
Chapter xvi: John McCain fails in second bid for president
Chapter 17: 'Complete the danged argue,' John McCain proclaims
Chapter 18: John McCain wins sixth term, reclaims 'bohemian' label

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Source: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/04/02/john-mccain-loses-2008-presidential-election-barack-obama-wins-2008-election/825774001/

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