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campaign ’08 Moments to Remember Yes, it was an unforgettable political campaign. But what people recall most depends on whom you ask. A gallery of voices on the legacies of Campaign 2008

A Study in Contrasts An Election of Firsts By Jay Winik By the Rev. Jim Wallis

keep thinking about his could be the that heart-stopping week most transformational I when the economic crisis Telection in years. The broke, a week when Americans younger generation, which were scared, fretful and angry: has cynically dismissed like a Civil War general itching politics as useless, has been to lead one last glorious charge, energized and engaged as never the 72-year-old John McCain before. Even poor inner-city broke off his campaign, rushed youth, usually disengaged to Washington, cradled a cell from “public life,” are ex- phone to his ear and sought cited about an election. Many to help pass the financial res- ­Evangelicals and Catholics cue bill. Meanwhile, there was have redefined “moral” issues an unruffled Obama, looking to include more than abortion composed and elegant and and gay marriage, especially steady—might one say presi- poverty and the environment. dential?—reassuringly con- The economic crisis could open vening his economic advisers, up a deeper national discussion many of whom comprise the about the relationship of modern-day Wise Men of the fi- democracy and the market, nancial establishment. Here, at the need for new social regula- this Rubicon for the nation, was tion and self-regulation, and a profound study in contrasts the reconnection of personal for the voters to consider, a mo- and social responsibility. And ment when two images tran- the election of Barack Obama scended all the talking points would immediately change the and canned speeches. Here, too, image of America in the world. in this one moment, was when A Moment in Philadelphia Americans would decide who Wallis is a Christian author, By Garry Wills their next President would be. preacher and activist. He is ­president of Sojourners, a he most memorable aspect of the race, in my mind, Winik is the author of April 1865 ­national network connecting came when Barack Obama stepped back, in Philadel- and The Great Upheaval faith and justice Tphia, from the standard charge-and-countercharge exchanges of a campaign to take a long look at the problems of race in our history. It was as pivotal as John Kennedy’s speech ‘I will never forget the look on our 2-year-old on religion to Protestant ministers in his race for President. ­daughter’s face as she watched Hillary Clinton But we do not read Kennedy’s speech for its content now. I be- and Barack Obama debate. My wife and I real- lieve Obama’s speech will have lasting historical significance, ized that our little girl would only know an from the moment he could say, as part of a bid for the presi- America in which every child can aspire to be dency, that “I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles President. Reflected in her gaze, we saw the and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three faith of generations—men and women of all continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.” hues who have never stopped believing that as great as America is, we must be greater still.’ Wills is professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University —Benjamin Jealous, president of the naacp 46

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An Encounter in interview, and finally it came likely not get a second chance measure of respect for that Pennsylvania together very quickly. The to talk to Obama, we hopped person. Obama answered my By Bill O’Reilly day before John McCain was on a chartered plane and flew questions, and we both let the to give his acceptance speech to the Keystone State. chips fall. His campaign was y interview with in St. Paul, Minn., the Obama Senator Obama him- using me, and my program Barack Obama dur- people called. I was to meet self was commanding but was using him for high rat- M ing the Republican the Senator in Pennsylvania ­cautious as he entered the ings. But our conversation is Convention brought me some the next morning. Be there interview room. He knew still being talked about. So insight into the presidential or be square. The timing was the talk would be a chal- we both won. campaign that I certainly did obvious: disrupt the Republi- lenge. He did well, and mil- not have before the chat. can flow.G ive Senator Obama lions of people saw a spirited O’Reilly is host of The O’Reilly For months my produc- a high-profileT V slot just back-and-forth. Factor and The Radio Factor; ers had been trying to nail before McCain’s big speech. Whenever a politician his latest book is the best seller A down a time and place for the Because I knew I would most is straight with me, I gain a Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity

Wisdom from the Right A Democratic Awakening By Laura Ingraham By Thomas Frank

ur country is on the verge of electing the most hat we’ll remem- inexperienced, left-wing politician ever to make a seri- ber about 2008 is that O ous run for the presidency. Yet were it not for talk radio W it was the year the and the conservative blogosphere, the American people would backlash finally broke. For have learned little to nothing about certain aspects of Barack decades, American conserva- Obama’s life and political outlook. Old media—network news, tism has presented itself as a most major newspapers and magazines—didn’t even bother class-based rebellion against trying to maintain a pretense of objectivity. They seemed to a condescending “liberal exist solely to deflect and dismiss criticism of Obama and de- élite.” The argument has laid monize those who dared to question (enter: Joe the Plumber). low liberals from George Who needs the dnc when you have nbc? Among the Obama ­McGovern to John Kerry; it stories either not adequately covered or not covered at all: his has sent the mainstream me- relationship with Bill Ayers, an unapologetic domestic ter- dia scurrying in terror; it has rorist; his 20-year friendship with preacher Jeremiah Wright; fueled fights over such un- his view that the Constitution reflects a “fundamental flaw” likely subjects as the theory of America; and his stance as a state senator against a bill that of evolution; and it furnished would have provided medical care to infants born alive after an attempted abortion. (He referred the political cover for the to such babies as “pre-viable” fetuses that were “temporarily alive.”) More than ever, talk radio and most élitist economic poli- its friends in the blogosphere are essential to the preservation of an informed democracy. No won- cies since the 1920s. For years der some powerful figures on the left want to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine! Democrats had been inca- pable of responding in kind. Ingraham is host of the nationally syndicated talk show The Laura Ingraham Show. Her most recent But the enormous economic book is Power to the People unpleasantness of 2008 forced them back onto their own, al- IS most forgotten working-class RB O A Memorable Mood and Deep Disappointment instincts. In response, conser- —C T F

A By David J. Garrow vatives escalated the assault K R

S on the “liberal élite.” John K

OO ne ought to feel great joy as we stand on the cusp of electing a young liberal McCain chose as his running Democrat as the firstA frican-American President. But instead, my mood is one of deep mate a woman whose main disappointment, both with two nominees who’ve failed to live up to their own prior reputa- selling point was her acute is page: BR

h O tions and with increasingly politicized national news media that have wallowed in what’s trite sense of cultural victimhood. ; t S W

E and vacuous rather than featuring policy substance or biographical insight. For two decades, His campaign marched a X N

O John ­cCain represented the promise of a Republican Party standing for honest pragmatism platoon of propaganda fig- ; F

S rather than destructive ideological rigidity. But this year McCain has run an embarrassingly bad ures across the stage, like the R TE

U ­general-election campaign that’s insisted America’s most pressing issue is Barack Obama’s pass- cartoonishly named Joe the E ing acquaintance with Bill Ayers, an aging Chicago radical. Prior to 2008, the brightest gemstone Plumber, to affirm the work- R—R E

FF in Obama’s political résumé was his championing of campaign reforms that would reduce the ing man’s love for the policies A H S insidious role of private money in American politics. But this year Obama threw that commitment that were killing him. It was M TI

: under the bus with an alacrity that should have alarmed everyone who thinks they know what grotesque, and soon it will be T F E policies he’ll pursue as President. The news media have highlighted McCain’s shortcomings far over. Hopefully, for good. M L O more aggressively than they’ve examined what’s evanescent rather than enduring about Obama, but disappointment all around is the unexpected mood I’ll remember from this campaign. Frank, journalist and author of The Wrecking Crew, writes Garrow, a senior research fellow at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, is the author of Bearing about American culture and

opposite page, FR the Cross, a Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr. politics

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