Best and worst: Presidential campaign 2008

Hillary’s New Hampshire comeback

After a disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was being counted out by some pundits. While on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Clinton choked up on camera while discussing her run for the White House. “I just don’t want to see us fall backwards,” she said. Polls had Sen. Barack Obama leading the state, but Clinton managed a comeback that revitalized her campaign. In her acceptance speech that evening, Clinton told supporters, “Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice.”  (Elise Amendola / Associated Press)

Clinton-Obama debates

Forget the Obama-McCain debates or the Biden-Palin debate. The real debate fireworks this election season took place between Democratic Party rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Take, for example, the Democratic candidates’ debate in South Carolina, where Obama chided Clinton for being a lawyer on the board of Wal-Mart at the same time he had worked as a community organizer, while she accused him of consorting with Chicago donor and alleged “slumlord” Tony Rezko.  (Matt Campbell / EPA)

Bill Clinton’s Barack Obama-Jesse Jackson comparison

In what many saw as an effort to downplay Barack Obama‘s strengthening campaign and win in South Carolina, former President Bill Clinton compared the Illinois senator’s victory to that of Jesse Jackson‘s previous wins in the state (1984 and 1988).

With the inference of racial politics in the foreground, Obama responded on “ABC’s This Week” to Clinton’s remarks, and didn’t seem at all discouraged by the comparisons.  (Erik S. Lesser / EPA)

Rudy Giuliani’s Florida gamble

Many called his political strategy risky, but when former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani shunned campaigning all out in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan Nevada or South Carolina to focus on Florida, most knew it was a do-or-die act.

His standings in the polls slipped as Sen. John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee passed Giuliani by, and his campaign never regained momentum after the loss.  (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

“Bittergate”


Who could forget Barack Obama’s “bitter” comments, heard around the world?

During a private fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama was caught on tape suggesting that small-town Americans are bitter about economic conditions and that’s why they “cling to guns and religion.” Hillary Clinton seized the opportunity to paint Obama as “elitist” and “out of touch” with middle-class America. Obama apologized for the comments, saying his words were “ill chosen.” However, the Clinton campaign stoked the controversy, using it to its advantage while campaigning for the Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana primaries. (Pictured left: both candidates at the Compassion Forum, where each addressed the issue.)  (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Chuckabee!

Republican candidates are always at a bit of a loss when it comes to harnessing Hollywood’s star power for their campaigns. While John McCain had Jon Voight, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Obama had a whole roster of stars to attend his rallies and get out the vote. Which is why former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee must have thanked his lucky stars when Chuck Norris signed on to help promote his campaign during the primaries. The former pastor and the beloved martial arts movie star were so simpatico that some in the media melded them a la Brangelina. Unfortunately, even the power of Chuck wasn’t enough to propel Huckabee on to the GOP nomination. But there’s always 2012, and as those who read “Chuck Norris Facts” know by know, Chuck Norris doesn’t campaign, he decides for you.  (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press)

McCain gets BarackRoll’d

Another reason to give it up for Rick Astley: The vision of Barack Obama punking John McCain to the sounds of “Never Gonna Give You Up” at the Republican National Convention. Cindy McCain and the Palin children go wild.  (Shawn Thew / EPA)

Dennis Kucinich’s UFO sighting

Already an outside candidate, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio may have helped sink his campaign a bit when he acknowledged seeing a UFO. The sighting was mentioned in a book by Shirley MacLaine, and Kucinich later joked about it, saying that he might move his campaign to Roswell, N.M. Kucinich defended himself and stuck by his words.

“You have to keep in mind that more ... that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than I think approve of George Bush’s presidency,” Kucinich said.  (Ron Edmonds / Associated Press)

Veepstakes

Both candidates kept us waiting. First was Barack Obama and his newfangled text message to the masses. John Kerry e-mailed his choice of John Edwards in 2004 to supporters, so it wasn’t that new.

Joe Biden had been one to watch -- experienced and hard-nosed. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, was not one who was watched. A left-field choice that baffled even John McCain supporters, she both energized and polarized the Republican bid for the presidency.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe malfunction

When Sarah Palin was thrust into the national arena, she needed some smart outfits to prepare her for all that scrutiny. But $150,000 worth?

Republican National Committee reports stated that the Palin family got $150,000 worth of clothing, but Palin told the Chicago Tribune, “I don’t think it was anywhere near.... What did they say ... 150 grand? It wasn’t anywhere near that.”

Palin’s alleged exorbitant fashion expenditures raised quite a few eyebrows, especially in light of her folksy, working-mother persona.  (Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

‘Joe the Plumber’ takes center stage

It all started during a campaign stop to Holland, Ohio, when Barack Obama discussed his tax policy with a plumber named Joe Wurzelbacher. Since then, “Joe the Plumber” has come to stand for the everyman, a hard-working American with lofty aspirations. Both candidates claimed that they would better serve Joe and his ilk, and they invoked his name more than two dozen times during their debate in Hempstead, N.Y.  (Jason Werling / Associated Press)

John McCain snubs David Letterman

Sen. John McCain was scheduled to appear on “Late Show With David Letterman” on Sept. 24 but backed out at the last minute, saying he had suspended his campaign to focus on the financial crisis. Then, instead of high-tailing it to Washington, McCain sat down for an interview with CBS’ Katie Couric.

Letterman was none too happy with the abandonment, and he poked fun at McCain for days on end. “I feel like an ugly date,” Letterman joked. “I feel used. I feel cheap. I feel sullied.” Three weeks later, McCain appeared on Letterman’s show.  (J.P. Filo / Associated Press)

Elisabeth Hasselbeck stumps for Palin

After several contentious mornings on “The View,” word spread that conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck would be leaving for her own show on Fox News. She later denied the reports on-air, but it came as no surprise when news broke that she would be campaigning for Palin in Florida. Talking to the crowd, she said: “Let me be honest, I was pretty much excited to be able to talk for a full five minutes without getting interrupted,” she said.

And, at the very least, Hasselbeck was able to address the charges that Palin’s wardrobe was costing the campaign a pretty penny. “Instead of the issues, [the media are] focused, fixated, on her wardrobe.... This is deliberately sexist.” Palin took the stage a moment later to say: “Those clothes? They’re not my property. I’m not taking them with me. I’m back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska.  (Joe Burbank / Associated Press)

‘Lipstick on a pig’: What did Barack Obama really mean?

During her convention speech, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin famously quipped, “You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”

Later, during a Virginia campaign stop, Barack Obama said of John McCain’s policies, “That’s not change. That’s just calling something the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. You know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it’s still going to stink after eight years. We’ve had enough of the same old thing.”

Republicans insisted that Obama’s remarks were directed at Palin, even though McCain himself had used the common phrase just a year earlier in reference to one of Hillary Clinton‘s policies.  (Chris Carlson / Associated Press)

Obama turns lemons into ‘A More Perfect Union’

Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., was thrust into the spotlight during the run-up to the election, after a video surfaced in which he declared, “God damn America.” This and other controversial statements from Wright could have thrown a wrench in Obama’s campaign.

But instead of buckling under the pressure of public scrutiny of his personal relationships, Obama used the Wright controversy as a chance to promote racial unity in his stirring “A More Perfect Union” speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Steven Spielberg’s video tribute to U.S. veterans

Spielberg created a short and poignant film that was a centerpiece of this summer’s Democratic National Convention. The famed director interviewed veterans of multiple wars and touched on an array of lifestyles and issues in a matter of minutes.

Unlike most of these sorts of tributes, Spielberg’s film wasn’t lacking in details (a pan of houses with service flags hanging out front, a shot of empty boots and uniforms from fallen soldiers) and an ever-so-slight hint at the deeper concern -- the quality of care and service being provided to our vets upon their return from the front lines.  (Reed Saxon / Associated Press)

John Rich’s “Raisin’ McCain” performance

Will the election come and go without a standout song? One of the more upbeat offerings came from John Rich, who performed this ditty without his other half, Big. It’s certainly more kickin’ than Dave Stewart’s Obama ode, “American Prayer,” even if Rich’s “Raisin’ McCain” goes for silly over inspiration.

Where any song with the word “Vietnam” probably has an uphill battle, one must note that the sleek, arrow-shaped “Yee Haw” guitar is kinda cool.  (Ron Edmonds / Associated Press)

Will.I.Am’s “Yes We Can” video

It’s not quite a song, and not quite a speech, but will.i.am made an early splash with his celeb-packed viral video, which featured the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Common, Herbie Hancock, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and John Legend, among many others, echoing the words of a speech from Barack Obama at the New Hampshire primary in January. The video won an Emmy Award for “best new approaches in daytime entertainment.”  (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)