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A campaign odyssey that felt like forever
 | Video: Decision '08 |
Turning Point: 2008 Nov. 5: NBC's Tom Brokaw recaps the historic election of America's first black president. Produced by msnbc.com's Kevin Flynn. |
Decision '08 Election Night video |
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Not meteoric
Unlike Obama, there was nothing meteoric about McCain's rise.
After losing to George W. Bush in 2000, he was the front-runner eight long years later.
Then came a shocking organizational collapse in mid-2007. His support faded, a casualty of his position on the war and immigration, his funds dried up and his aides set on one another.
Somehow, he limped on.
And when Huckabee gained his improbable victory in Iowa, McCain suddenly had a new path to the nomination. As it always had, it ran through New Hampshire.
Within weeks, Mitt Romney spent $40 million of his own fortune to no avail. Giuliani's bus spun out. The other pretenders faded away.
Given a lengthy head start on Obama, McCain seemed to sputter. He spent weeks trying to raise money and gain the support of conservatives who had never thought much of him. Even his own aides said he either had no sustained campaign message or wouldn't stick to it.
One day, after a prepared speech at the Naval Academy, he told reporters on the Straight Talk Express that he was in the early stages of vetting candidates to serve as his running mate. Aides looked on in dismay, bordering shock, as they watched the candidate trump his own carefully scripted event.
Soon, McCain shook up his operation. The long seances with reporters at the back of the bus were history.
Behind as he headed into the convention, McCain uncorked a vice presidential surprise.
He chose Palin, a self-styled maverick with conservative views, to appeal to conservatives. Then he pivoted smartly, presenting himself as a man of the middle as he accepted the nomination.
"Change is coming," he promised, an attempt to move away from Bush.
"I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it."
He left his convention with the lead.
Economic crisis
The came the economic crisis, the retirement savings of millions shriveling by the day. An unpopular Bush on television daily, the personification of government's inability to stop the financial carnage.
Obama said the mess was a final judgment on eight years of Bush economic policies that McCain had supported. He outlined the changes he wanted to see and stuck with them.
McCain, of different temperament, did not.
He said the economy was fundamentally strong. He called for a blue ribbon commission to find out what had happened and why. He announced he would suspend his campaign to return to Washington until there was a solution. He changed his mind and resumed campaigning in time for the first debate.
He invoked Joe the Plumber.
"I am not President Bush," he said as the polls slid south on him.
A few days later, the White House announced the president had cast an absentee ballot for McCain.
Delighted, Obama's campaign couldn't wait to spread the word.
One night after the last combative debate, the two men met again at an annual charity dinner in New York, cracked jokes, paid tribute to one another.
Obama said few Americans had served their country with "the same honor and distinction" as McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war for more than five years in Vietnam.
McCain found Obama a man of "great skill, energy, and determination. It's not for nothing that he's inspired so many folks in his own party and beyond.
"I can't wish my opponent luck but I do wish him well."
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