Newsweek: a year on the campaign trail
November 7th, 2008 | Published in general
Say what you will about Newsweek, but there’s a really interesting series of articles they’re publishing; Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. It’s a 7-part series where a handful of Newsweek reports were given full access to the candidates on the condition that their stories would not be published until after the election was over. It’s a great insight to the inner workings of each campaign and some good alternate perspective on many of the news events of the past couple of years.
One thing that strikes me while reading this is that of the 3 major candidates in play this time, only Hillary Clinton unreservedly and nakedly desired the presidency from the start. Obama struggled with finding his voice and reconciling the long campaign hours away from his family even though he had their full support (something i’d have struggled with too). McCain’s true maverickness came out not in his policy stances, as his campaign promoted, but in his inability to focus his energy on campaign strategy rather than his own free-floating conversations with reporters.
McCain seemed to be reigned in again and again to try to keep the campaign on track, though a lot of his charm and intelligence was quashed in the process. Meanwhile, Obama only continued to improve, both as a candidate and as presidential material. Truly with Obama the campaign process shaped him and will make him an even more effective leader.
The back stories of the campaign staff are telling too, with serious infighting in both the Clinton and McCain camps, staff rotating through and serious ambivalence about their message. Obama’s staff wasn’t immune from strife, but was markedly more cohesive throughout and the whole campaign was much more stable. The idea of building from the grassroots-up worked remarkably well, and that broad, solid base was the foundation for victory at crucial points along the way. As the campaigns went into the final stretch, Obama was like a freight train gather steam while McCain was a jalopy, lurching his way to the finish line, a trail of greasy parts in his wake.