Just one problem. Obama is a captivating speaker able to attract throngs
of young people. He made the word "change" the main idea of the 2008
elections. It didn't take long for the candidates besides Clinton and
Obama to drop out. Obama looked as if he had the nomination sewed up. He
won a dozen primaries in a row. Suddenly it was a Clinton v. Obama
two-person race. She came on strong toward the end of the process and
barely lost the Democratic nomination to the freshman Senator from
Illinois.
Over in Republican land the man who was endorsed by almost anyone who
was anyone in the Republican primaries, the same man with a huge
financial advantage, bombed out quickly. Rudy Giuliani had a strategy of
ignoring the first smaller states and holding his whole campaign hostage
to Florida. He was defeated. The victor? The Senator from Arizona, who
two months earlier had been carrying his own bags, Senator John S.
McCain III, with the help of Independents in New Hampshire and Florida,
suddenly emerged from written-off to frontrunner. Romney was depleting
his children's inheritance, trying to catch McCain. He, too, dropped out
the day after saying he was staying in all the way to the GOP Convention
in St. Paul, Minnesota. That left former Governor Mike Huckabee, of
Arkansas, as McCain's only opponent. He was more of a regional candidate
whose deft humor could not overcome McCain's momentum. The man whose
campaign had been tagged as dead and buried found himself the winner of
the Republican nomination for President.
What a year! Still, the week before the party conventions, the Vice
Presidential nominees had not yet been selected. There was more
speculation about the selections in both parties than anyone can
remember. Would Obama put Hillary on the ticket? How about a woman?
Obama's wife wanted no part of Hillary on the ticket. How about another
woman? The campaign was afraid that the Clinton people would consider
such a move a poke in the eye. What was Obama's chief weakness? Defense
and foreign policy. So in the end the candidate who had received 9,000
votes in the early primaries took the place of the woman who received 18
million votes. Still, most everyone thought Biden was a solid choice.
On the Republican side, Senator McCain waited until the last moment to
select Alaska Governor Sarah Heath Palin as his running mate. That move
single-handedly revived a moribund GOP and most likely will make for a
very lively and close general election, an election which is still
Obama's to lose. The Republican Party had been split with Representative
Ron Paul, of Texas, securing big money and support. But it is difficult
to recall any Vice Presidential pick who has so reframed the general
election. So experience is with the Vice Presidential nominee among the
Democrats and with the Presidential nominee among the Republicans.
Excitement is generated for Democrats with the Presidential nominee and
for Republicans with the Vice Presidential nominee.
The political autumn now is with us. There is every indication that this
will be an extraordinarily interesting and exciting campaign between now
and November 4. What finish could possibly match what has happened in
this truly remarkable year? How about this: McCain wins the popular vote
but Obama is elected President by means of the Electoral College.