April 25, 2007 - Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Senator John McCain (D-Az) announced today that he was once again seeking the Democratic nomination for President. "I'm not running for President to be somebody, but to do something; to do the hard but necessary things not the easy and needless things," he said.
His position in the polls fluctuated throughout the year, but in the end, he emerged victorious as the nominee of the Democratic Party.
Almost immediately, Fox News jumped on McCain when they found out that the finance chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, a man who raised $500,000 for McCain, was being investigated for overcharging the military by millions of dollars, and had previously come under fire for raising $50,000 in shady donations from a Jordanian business partner.
Sean Hannity screeched day after day on his radio and TV show because John McCain was associated with a man who went to prison for breaking into the Republican Party's headquarters to conduct surveillance of their operations... and never expressed remorse. This man's other bizarre ideas involved kidnapping Republican activists, fire-bombing a Republican think tank, and killing a pro-Republican journalist. This guy informed his supporters about the best way to kill federal agents, and said that when he went shooting, he labeled his targets "George" and "Laura." This guy referred to John McCain as an "old friend," and McCain told him "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family... congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great." Furthermore, he donated $5,000 to McCain's political campaigns and held a fundraiser for McCain in his house.
Mark Levin blew a gasket when John McCain received an endorsement from a guy who created a plan to sell weapons to Iran and give the money to left-wing guerillas in Central America... and reacted to this endorsement was to put out a press release trumpeting it. When this same guy ran for Senate as a Democrat and was shunned by Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, he was supported (albeit in a lukewarm manner) by McCain.
Nasty Republican ads started flying off the presses when they found out that a guy who raised $250,000 for McCain approached him about buying a prime piece of unused land owned by the army... and McCain's response was to pen a letter of recommendation for this guy and send an aide to help cut through the red tape that would have complicated his plans in purchasing the real estate. They gleefully pointed out that McCain had sponsored legislation in the past that ended up helping this guy. McCain pointed out that he had never been accused of any illegal activity, but that didn't stop the Republican attack machine.
Barack Obama (R-Il), John McCain's opponent in the general election, got a lot of mileage out of the fact that a friend of McCain's, who helped funnel over $100,000 to McCain's campaigns, ran afoul of federal regulators and asked McCain to get the regulators off his back. Endless ads poured out of Obama's campaign, pointing out that McCain had said yes, and was investigated by the Senate for his actions. Even though McCain got off with a slap on the wrist about exercising "poor judgment," the attack ads were the centerpiece of Obama's campaign.
Rush Limbaugh ranted endlessly about John McCain's wife, Cindy. It turned out that some years ago, she became so addicted to prescription painkillers that she ended up stealing them from a charity she ran. Limbaugh repeatedly harped on her getting off without a prison sentence, likely because she was the wife of a U.S. Senator.
Michelle Malkin was horrified when she discovered that one of his big campaign supporters in the past was a guy who wrote an article opposing Memorial Day, saying "its purpose is vitriolic and profane." She freaked out because this guy had written an article bashing Lech Walesa, calling him a terrorist. She went berserk because this guy wrote an article supporting Louis Farrakhan for Congress and sold T-shirts saying something along the lines of "If only John Hinckley had better aim." She ranted endlessly because he was the editor-in-chief of a magazine that wrote articles saying that white Americans held in Japanese prison camps during WWII actually had it pretty good. She never shut up about the fact that McCain had given over $180,000 to this guy's firm during 2007 for research and consulting.
Michael Reagan droned on and on when McCain openly sought the endorsement of a pastor who said that part of America's mission was to "destroy" the "false religion" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Reagan's anger was palpable when McCain referred to this guy as a "spiritual guide." He went berserk when McCain also sought out and received the endorsement of a pastor who said that the Holocaust was God's will so that the Jewish people would return to Israel, and that the Catholic Church was "the great whore," a "false cult system" and "the apostate church." He was furious when this pastor said that Hurricane Ike was God's judgment on Texas for its sins. When all this came out, McCain still didn't reject these pastors' endorsements -- he only did so when the chorus became too loud.
The Republicans endlessly mocked John McCain -- as they mocked John Kerry -- over his wife, a multimillionaire heiress who once remarked that the only way to get around Arizona is by a small private plane.
On August 29, 2008, McCain stunned the political world with his running mate: Sarah Palin, the Democratic governor of Alaska.
Ann Coulter almost immediately penned several articles about the fact that Palin had given a cheerful videotaped address to Alaska's chapter of the American Communist Party, wrapping it up with "Keep up the good work and God bless you." The assault was relentless over the fact that Todd Palin had been a member of this party for a number of years.
Sarah Palin's ethical problems were the hot topic on Fox News for months. She had been investigated by the Democrat-dominated Arizona state legislature for abuse of power. They brought on endless right-wing pundits who criticized her when they found out that the Democrats in the legislature went along with the investigation at first, but once Palin was picked for VP, the McCain campaign and the Democrats in the legislature suddenly decided to discredit and halt the investigation. They heaped endless praise on the Alaska Supreme Court when it let the investigation go through, and aired endless calls for her resignation when the investigation ultimately reported that Palin had, indeed, abused her power.
Rush Limbaugh mocked Sarah Palin relentlessly when a videotape came out, showing her receiving a blessing from an African witch hunter who asked God to protect her from the evils of witchcraft. He had quite a few laughs, because she was on record saying that she thought she was Governor partly because of this witch hunter's prayers.
The Republican Jewish Coalition sent out quite a few fliers once they found out that Sarah Palin sat through a sermon where a guest pastor said that the reason the Jewish people suffered so much was because they had rejected Jesus. Also included in these fliers was the aforementioned African witch hunter, who had made comments suggesting that Christians needed to take the reins of the economy back from the Jews.
Glenn Beck targeted Sarah Palin day after day when a tape came out of her telling her church to pray for an oil pipeline for Alaska, saying that it was God's will.
Bill O'Reilly was really creeped out by the fact that Sarah Palin's church repeatedly talked about the coming End of Days and how Alaska would be a refuge from the Tribulation.
In the end, once the American public was informed of all these things, John McCain's candidacy went down in flames. Barack Obama, despite the unpopularity of George W. Bush, was elected in a landslide.