The Battle for America 2008

by Haynes Johnson

  Then there was the picture of the new, youthful, energetic Obama family: the girls, Sasha and Malia, Malia poised beyond her years in a blue coat, snapping pictures of the crowd; Sasha in pink and orange, standing on a crate so she could see her father sworn in, then giving him a thumbs-up; Michelle, elegant in her beaded lemongrass ensemble. In history’s eyes, perhaps most remarkable of all was how so much of America was taking for granted this appealing picture of a black family as they were about to enter the White House to become the nation’s first family.

  Of the images, the most memorable was of Barack Obama as he stood, tall, slim, alone, in the Capitol doorway before walking down the steps to the podium to take his oath and deliver his address. He paused there, head thrown back, eyes closed, permitting all who watched to guess at what he was thinking at the very moment he was about to enter history. Cool as ever, he surmounted a moment of potential embarrassment as he was being sworn in. In administering the oath, Chief Justice John Roberts inadvertently mangled the words. Obama stood there calmly smiling, his hand on Lincoln’s Bible, starting, stopping and starting again in a futile effort to get it right.28

  For weeks, anticipation about Obama’s inaugural address had been the subject of endless speculation: How would the great orator rise to the occasion, and with what message about the conditions facing the country?

  Obama relied on neither soaring eloquence nor poetry, whether ringing FDR words about “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” or JFK sounding the trumpet again and summoning his fellow citizens to “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Instead of rhetoric, his speech was steeped in realism—sobering words that framed the challenges ahead. He spelled out the errors that had plunged the nation into a time of what he described as “gathering clouds and raging storms” and called for a “new era of responsibility” on the part of every American, in order “to brave once more the icy currents and endure what storms may come.”

  He unsparingly described the magnitude of problems the nation faced, saying, “That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

  After saying these challenges “are serious and they are many” and will not be met “easily or in a short span of time,” he drew sustained applause when he said confidently, his voice ringing loudly, that “they will be met.”

  His message on this inaugural day was of an American renewal, and of the themes that won him such support throughout his long, history-shattering campaign: the necessity for change, for new policies, for appealing to the best, not the worst, in the American character. “On this day,” he said, “we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

  Again, a roar of approval from the ecstatic throng stretching out before him.

  He reaffirmed America’s greatness, then quickly warned that “greatness is never a given. It must be earned.” America’s journey, he continued in the same vein, “has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It was not the path for the fainthearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor—who have carried us up the long rugged road towards prosperity and freedom.”

  He signaled a notable break in the nation’s foreign policy, speaking of a “false choice between our safety and our ideals”—an obvious reference to the Bush policies of torture, detention, and rendition. Of America, he said, “We are ready to lead again.”

  His speech was widely praised, though naturally there were dissenters. The public was solidly with him. The question that lingered was whether he could translate his words into action and in so doing give hope and confidence to a nation struggling with historic challenges. But that was a story for another day. For now, as the forty-fourth president left the Capitol, Americans paused in celebration. They were proud over this chance for a fresh start under the leadership of a man who had been viewed not so many months earlier as the most unlikely presidential prospect in all of American history.

  Acknowledgments

  We owe a debt to many more than we can acknowledge here for assistance during this long book project, but especially want to express our gratitude to Jim Silberman, of James H. Silberman Books, our editor, and Philippa Brophy, our agent, best of counselors and friends. Wendy Wolf of Viking was most encouraging and supportive throughout. We were flattered that she referred to her pair of grizzled co-authors as “the boyz.” At Viking, too, we want to thank Barbara Campo, who oversaw the book’s production and saved us from an embarrassing error, to Margaret Riggs, who was always helpful, and to Roland Ottewell, our sharp-eyed copy editor. We owe a special debt to Peter Hart, who invited us to attend all of his indispensable focus group sessions during 2007 and 2008 sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Hart also made available for use in the book the transcripts of those sessions, which, if read now, memorably tell the story of evolving voter attitudes throughout the seemingly endless campaign. We are grateful to President Obama and Senator John McCain for taking time out from their campaigns to give us interviews for this book. For both personal and professional reasons, we want to express again our admiration for the example our friend and colleague David S. Broder has set for all who seek to report on presidential campaigns. He is without peer.

  We owe deep thanks to the many people in the Obama, Clinton, and McCain campaigns, as well as to officials in the campaigns of the candidates who did not make it quite so far. They are too numerous to mention by name but they gave generously of their time and their recollections from the beginning of the campaign to long after the votes had been counted. Many show up by name in this book and their contributions have enriched the story we have tried to tell. Others remain anonymous, but their stories were as helpful in providing as complete a record as we could compile. They will not agree with all we have written in these pages, but we cannot thank them enough for helping us understand events through their own eyes.

  This book would not have been possible without the support of a marvelous group of editors and reporters at the Washington Post. Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., Managing Editor Phil Bennett, and National Assistant Managing Editor Susan Glasser were at the helm as we began this project and were exceedingly generous in their encouragement. Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, Managing Editor Liz Spayd, and National Assistant Managing Editor Kevin Merida were leading the paper as this project turned from reporting to writing in the months after the election and were equally supportive in seeing it through. Other editors to whom we owe thanks are Bill Hamilton, Tim Curran, Rajiv Chandresa karan, Steven Ginsburg, and Marilyn Thompson.

  We have drawn from the work of many others at the Post—friends and colleagues—who trooped as many or more miles on the campaign trail, sharing reporting and observations and digging up facts and statistics. They include: Anne E. Kornblut, Shailagh Murray, Michael D. Shear, Perry Bacon Jr., Robert Barnes, Peter Slevin, Ruth Marcus, Chris Cillizza, Juliet Eilperin, Alec MacGillis, Dana Milbank, Lois Romano, Jon Cohen, Jennifer Agiesta, Matthew Mosk, Eli Saslow, Krissah Thompson, Jose Antonio Vargas, Al Kamen, Garance Franke-Ruta, Alice Crites, and Madonna Lebling.

  Special thanks to Roger Simon and Marcia Kramer, who provided sustenance on the road and at home, and Ron Brownstein, who offered insights as well as regular phone calls of support. We are indebted as well to colleagues from other news organizations for their reporting and fellowship: Adam Nagourney, Jeff Zeleny, Mark
Halperin, John Dickerson, David Chalian, Chuck Todd, Karen Tumulty, and former Post colleagues who got away, Michael Abramowitz, Peter Baker, Jonathan Weisman, and Maralee Schwartz.

  We are also indebted to Representative John Lewis of Georgia, Representative Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, Governors Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Janet Napolitano of Arizona, for their insights, and to the following: former White House press secretary Mike McCurry, former Republican congressman Robert S. Walker, and veteran political activists and analysts Richard Viguerie, Doug Bailey, Jerry Rafshoon, Ken Jacobs, and Bill Galston. Our interviews with former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner Doris Meissner, Dr. Janice Orlowski of the Washington Hospital Center, Major Ray Kimball at West Point, and Harry Meshell in Youngstown were invaluable. In Youngstown, too, we want to thank Mayor Jay Williams, Paul Sracic, Tom Finnerty, Reid Dulberger, David Skol nick, John Hall, and Randy McCartney for their time. Among voters who spoke to us often, we are grateful to Fay Citerone, Karen Kaplowitz, Alan Cohen, and Bob Macauley. Al Garza of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps that tracks illegal immigrants led us on a memorable trip through the Arizona desert where illegal immigrants continued to enter the United States.

  For two years, University of Maryland graduate students attending seminars taught by co-author Johnson compiled helpful studies on all aspects of the campaign. At Maryland, too, Johnson’s Ph.D. assistant, Merrilee Cox, was helpful in more ways than he can detail here. And once more, he wants to express his great appreciation for the critical efforts made by his personal assistant, Lisa Larragoite. For more than a decade, she has made possible the completion of three previous books, with this one being the most demanding of all. It couldn’t have been done without her.

  Balz owes special thanks to Lucy Shackelford for her tireless research; Olwen Price, who carefully transcribed scores and scores of interviews, many conducted in noisy settings; Zachary Goldfarb, who produced a helpful timeline of campaign events; and Karen Skelton, a veteran strategist who helped us understand in a more sophisticated way Obama’s pathbreaking field organization. John Balz read the manuscript with a keen eye for style and substance. He saved us from embarrassments and the book is immeasurably better for his contributions. Thanks also to Erica Simmons.

  Finally, as co-authors we wish to acknowledge the debt we owe to our best critics and counselors, our wives, Nancy Balz and Kathryn Oberly.

  Notes and Sources

  As stated in our note to the reader below, quotations in the narrative not otherwise identified are either from our recorded interviews or from our presence while reporting scenes described in the book. In reporting this story, we also had access to countless transcripts of television and other interviews, convention addresses, press conferences, and many speeches described herein. We have cited the timing and place of that material in the text, but for obvious space reasons do not list them all here in the source notes.

  ix The book’s epigraph is drawn from Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1960 (New York: Atheneum, 1961), 3-4.

  TAKEOFF

  4 “Privately, they guess”: Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (New York: Crown, 1995; reissued in 2004), xv.

  BOOK ONE: THEY’RE OFF

  21 The first was in October 2002: Wikisource, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama’s_ Iraq_Speech.

  21 “I began feeling”: Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown, 2006), 4.

  21 Whatever he said could affect his political future: David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power (New York: Amistad, 2007), 174.

  22 Then, as the primary neared, Hull’s collapse: Ibid., 215.

  23 Between sessions in the Illinois Senate: Eli Saslow, “The 17 Minutes That Launched a Political Star,” Washington Post, August 25, 2008.

  24 “I’m LeBron, baby”: David Mendell. Obama, 2.

  24 “Wait until tomorrow”: Ryan Lizza, “Making It: How Chicago Shaped Obama,” New Yorker, July 21, 2008.

  26 “Are you going to try to be president?”: Jeff Zeleny, “Testing the Water, Obama Tests His Own Limits,” New York Times, December 24, 2006.

  27 His seventeen-day itinerary: Jeff Zeleny, “Kenyans’ welcome is heavy with hope; Obama hailed as hero in visit to dad’s village,” Chicago Tribune, August 27, 2006.

  34 “War hero against snot-nosed rookie”: Rick Pearson, “Obama on Obama,” Chicago Tribune, December 15, 2006.

  35 The epigraph to chapter 2 is drawn from text of McCain’s speech to the Republican convention, Federal News Service transcript, August 30, 2004.

  37 “They let the dogs off the chain”: Robert Draper, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush (New York: Free Press, 2007), 63.

  38 “agents of intolerance”: David Barstow, “McCain Denounces Political Tactics of Christian Right,” New York Times, February 29, 2000.

  38 “I endorse Governor Bush”: Dan Balz, “McCain Endorses Bush—Softly; Rivals Meet at Last, Rule Out No. 2 Spot,” Washington Post, May 10, 2000.

  45 The epigraph to chapter 3 is drawn from a Mark Penn memo of December 2006. Its first publication was as part of a series of Clinton campaign memos accompanying “The Frontrun- ner’s Fall,” by Joshua Green, Atlantic Monthly, August 2008. The memo is available at http://www.theatlantic.com/a/green-penn-12-21-06.mhtml.

  45 “When this Hillary gets to the Senate”: David Espo, “Parties assess the new realities in Congress,” Associated Press, November 8, 2008.

  46 “I think of her as a pupil of mine”: Joshua Green, “Take Two: Hillary’s Choice,” Atlantic Monthly, November 2006.

  46 “She had an extraordinary grasp of our military culture”: Karen Tumulty, “Hillary: Love Her, Hate Her,” Time, August 20, 2006.

  48 “triangulation, calculation and equivocation”: Molly Ivins, “It’s time for Democrats to put up or shut up,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 22, 2006.

  BOOK TWO: THE PEOPLE

  57 The epigraph to chapter 4 is drawn from transcripts that were made of all those interviewed during the Peter Hart focus groups throughout 2007 and 2008, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Hart made those transcripts available to us for quotation purposes throughout the long election process, which concluded with a final focus group three weeks after the election.

  64 “Looking Inward”: UCLA survey, titled The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2006, published December 2006 by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, and the other vital UCLA survey The American Freshman: Forty Year Trends, published April 2007.

  BOOK THREE: THE DEMOCRATS

  72 “Well, the question really is”: Anne E. Kornblut and Dan Balz, “In Iowa, Clinton Calls Bush Reckless; Senator Focuses on War in Iraq and Health Care,” Washington Post, January 29, 2007.

  74 “I’ve got to vote at noon”: David S. Broder, “Presidential Spring Training,” Washington Post, April 1, 2007.

  77 “This is a very difficult vote”: Text of Clinton floor speech to the Senate, Congressional Record, October 10, 2002, p. S10288.

  77 “I [do not] think it is a smart strategy”: Dan Balz, “Liberal Activists Boo Clinton; Rejection of Iraq Timetable Gets Cool Reception at Conference.” Washington Post, June 14, 2006.

  82 “so that we can take potentially some action”: Transcript of South Carolina debate, Federal News Service, April 26, 2007.

  83 “Well, I will not promise”: Transcript of South Carolina debate, Federal News Service, July 23, 2007.

  84 “I thought he was irresponsible”: Ed Tibbetts, “Clinton, Obama Trade Barbs in Quad-City Times Interviews,” Quad City Times, July 24, 2008, http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/article_92348095-c31c-5b38-9f1b-2bc7a0f7abaa.html.

  85 “Change is just a word”: Text of speech released by Hillary Clinton campaign, September 2, 2007.

  87 “The Hillary Clinton who appeared”: Dan Balz, “Can Clinton Be Stopped?” washingtonpost.com, September
24, 2007, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2007/09/24/the_hillary_blitz.html.

  89 “high-value terrorist targets”: Dan Balz, “Obama Says He Would Take Fight to Pakistan,” Washington Post, August 2, 2007.

  95 “It is absolutely true”: Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Promises Forceful Stand Against Clinton,” New York Times, October 27, 2007.

  97 “Well, what Governor Spitzer is trying to do”: Transcript of Philadelphia debate, Federal News Service, October 30, 2007.

  98 “This is classic Clinton”: This comment was among the mildest of an outpouring of often vicious blog reactions posted on NewsBusters.org, the official site of the Media Research Center, November 14, 2007.

  98 “In so many ways, this all-women’s college”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “Clinton Returns to her Alma Mater,” New York Times, November 1, 2007.

  98 “Hillary Clinton seriously blew only one answer”: James Fallows, “Rhetorical Questions,” Atlantic Monthly, September 2008.

  102 “When you’re attacked”: Jackie Calmes, “Pool Report 1—Sen. Clinton at Iowa Democratic Party Central Committee Meeting,” Pool Reporter: Distributed by Clinton campaign to press. Published in Politico, January 27, 2007, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0107/2491.html.

  103 “I thought I was funny”: Anne E. Kornblut and Dan Balz, “In Iowa, Clinton Calls Bush Reckless; Senator Focuses on War in Iraq and Health Care,” Washington Post, January 29, 2007.

  108 “Worst case scenario”: Quoted from Mike Henry memo, made available to authors.