“The Younger Man Appeared to Have the Calmer Head in a Crisis”
A brief summary of the historic presidential election that culminated in the election of Barack Obama to become the 44th president of the United States can be found here. An excerpt from this article, entitle “America’s historic election year,” is shown below:
…As the Republican ticket drew level, then briefly overtook him in the opinion polls, he held his nerve and waited for his opponents to make a mistake.
He did not have to wait long.
On 29 September, John McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign, to try and broker a financial bailout deal in Congress.
It was a fateful decision.
There can have been few presidential election campaigns whose closing stages have seen a real-time political drama in which both candidates were called on to participate.
But the unfolding economic crisis set these two sitting senators just such a test.
John McCain’s grand gesture was meant to be consistent with his “country first” slogan, but his inability to broker a deal with House Republicans made him look impetuous and ineffective.
His assertion that “the fundamentals of the US economy were strong” and his economic advisor Phil Gramm’s comment that America was only experiencing a “mental recession” made him and his team seem out of touch.
The younger man appeared to have the calmer head in a crisis…”
…The President-elect’s subdued, determined speech on election night, coupled with John McCain’s gracious words of concession, were the perfect coda to a truly historic campaign, in which the United States had both surprised and uplifted itself, by electing a young, bi-racial Senator as its 44th commander-in-chief…”
