Having participated in every Presidential election since 1960 as a
reporter, commentator, Congressional assistant, delegate or activist, I
am in a position to state without contradiction that there has been no
election like this one in the past half century.
Think about it. This election is the first since 1952 without either a
President or Vice President as a candidate. That was the year that
General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated former Governor Adlai E.
Stevenson, which brought back the Republicans for the first time in 20
years. That fact alone caused the late NBC political guru Tim Russert to
declare that he was so fortunate to be alive for this 2008 election
which is in and of itself precedent-setting. Unfortunately Russert
didn't live to see the outcome.
Secondly, it is difficult to remember that as the electoral season began
before the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary all the pundits
knew that the Democratic nominee would be Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
and if she had a serious opponent it would be perhaps New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson. The Republican nominee would be former New
York Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani. Who would be Giuliani's real
challenger? Why, it would be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
A funny thing happened on the way to the cutting-room floor, as we used
to say.
Of course, the Democrats would have a woman on their ticket. The
so-called women's groups were front and center in Hillary's campaign.
Republicans never would have a woman on their ticket, we were led to
believe. After all, to be a real woman you had to be liberal. The
Democrats put forth an interesting cast of potential nominees. Former
Senator Mike Gravel, of Alaska, emerged from obscurity to embarrass his
fellow candidates. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, of Ohio, took the prize
for taking the most far-out positions. Other candidates such as Senators
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and Christopher J. Dodd were rather typical
Democrats. They thought they could do well against Hillary because poll
data showed she had high negatives. And then there was a freshman
Senator with the unusual name of Barack Hussein Obama. He was a Black.
Blacks had run for President before in Democratic primaries. They didn't
do well. So how would a freshman Senator who only had been in federal
office for a couple of years before he declared for the Presidency
possibly survive against the heavyweights?