Country First

Country First

The John McCain presidential campaign of 2008 began when John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, launched his second candidacy for the presidency of the United States in an unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 presidential election. His candidacy, in the works for a number of years, was informally announced on February 28, 2007 during a live taping of the Late Show with David Letterman, and formally announced on April 25, 2007. His running mate for vice president was Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, announced on August 29, 2008.

If McCain had won the election in 2008, he would have been the oldest person to assume the Presidency in history upon initial ascension to office at age 72, and the second-oldest president to be inaugurated. He addressed concerns about his age and past health concerns (melanoma in 2000), stating in 2005 that his health was "excellent." Had he been victorious in 2008, he would also have become the first President of the United States not to be born in the current 50 states (he was born in Panama within the Panama Canal Zone which was under American control), and the first sitting U.S. Senator since John F. Kennedy to win the presidency. He would also have been the first president from Arizona. His running mate, Palin, was the first Alaskan on a nominated major-party presidential ticket, and the first woman to represent the Republican Party on a nominated presidential ticket.

McCain began the campaign as the apparent frontrunner among Republicans, with a strategy of appearing as the establishment, inevitable candidate; his campaign website featured an Associated Press article describing him as " political celebrity". He made substantial overtures towards elements of the Republican base that had resisted his 2000 insurgency campaign. However, he soon fell behind in polls and fundraising; by July 2007 his campaign was forced to restructure its size and operations. The tide of Republican sentiment against immigration reform legislation he sponsored also led to the erosion of his lead.

Towards the end of 2007, McCain began a resurgence, which was capped by his January 2008 wins in the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida primaries. This made him the front-runner for the Republican nomination. On Super Tuesday, McCain won both the majority of states and delegates in the Republican primaries, giving him a commanding lead toward the Republican nomination. McCain clinched a majority of the delegates and became the presumptive Republican nominee with wins in several more primaries on March 4. The following day, President George W. Bush endorsed McCain at the White House.

In the general election against Democratic nominee Barack Obama, McCain trailed most of the time, only gaining a lead in national polls for a period after the Palin announcement and the 2008 Republican National Convention. The dominant issue of the campaign became the financial crisis of 2008. Unable to gain traction against Obama in presidential debates, the final stages of the campaign saw McCain criticizing Obama for being a "redistributionist" and adopting symbols such as Joe the Plumber. On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated McCain in the presidential election, winning with a 365–173 electoral college vote margin and a 53%–46% percent popular vote edge.