Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA – John McCain, presumptive Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, revealed that he had chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his running man.
McCain described him as a "one of the great governors of this United States of America, a great friend and a great leader", and cited his fiscal conservative policies as governor of Minnesota and his abilities of working across the aisle with the Democrats in Minnesota as some of the reasons of his pick.
September[]
September 3[]
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA – John McCain and Time Pawlenty became the Republican Party's Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees, respectively, at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In his speech, McCain culminated the Republican convention by accepting his party's nomination for President of the United States. He was introduced by a video tribute.
November[]
November 4[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – Election Day in 49 states and the District of Columbia; it was the last of 21 consecutive election days in Oregon, which abolished the voting booth in 1998. The majority of states allowed early voting with all states allowing some form of absentee voting. Voters cast votes for listed presidential candidates but were actually selecting their state's slate of Electoral College members.
Obama amassed wins in some of the Northeastern states, New Mexico, and Iowa by 9:20 PM. McCain carried the Southern states by comfortable margins. The election came down to a close race in the final states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, and it was in particular Florida (27 electoral votes), Pennsylvania (21 electoral votes) and Ohio (20 electoral votes), however, that the news media focused their attention on. Mathematically, either one of these state's electoral votes would be the key to an election win for either candidate.
After several hours of vote counting, McCain surprisingly won all of the six states, and all American networks called the election in favor of John McCain at 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time as the polls closed in a handful of western states, with the Electoral College totals being updated to 274 for McCain and 180 for Obama (270 are needed to win). Senator Obama gave a concession speech half an hour later. President-elect John McCain appeared at 11:30 Eastern time, November 4, in Phoenix, Arizona in front of a roaring crowd to deliver his acceptance speech, saying "We did it".
In his speech, he thanked Obama for his congratulations, and praised him for his achievement. "Earlier this evening I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator Obama. In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, I deeply respect his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving. Although unsuccessful, he has shown that we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship."
He also urged all Americans to come together to work together and find compromises. "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in offering our goodwill and earnest effort to Obama and his supporters to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."
November 5[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – McCain announced his complete transition team, which was organized as a nonprofit tax-exempt organization under U.S. federal tax code 501(c)(4). The advisory board consisted of Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, Tim Pawlenty, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham.
November 6[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – Longtime staffer and friend to President-Elect McCain, Mark Salter, is chosen as Chief of Staff.
November 11[]
Washington, D.C., USA – McCain traveled to the White House and met with President Bush to discuss transition issues while First Lady Laura Bush took his wife Cindy on a tour of the mansion. NBC News reported that McCain advanced his economic agenda with Bush, asking him to take steps to improve bipartisanship in Congress in the lame duck session. He also urged Bush to accelerate the disbursement of $25 billion in funds to bail out the automobile industry and expressed concern about additional Americans losing their homes as mortgage rates increase again.
November 15[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-Elect McCain nominated Sheila Bair, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), to the post of Secretary of the Treasury.
November 17[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-Elect McCain nominated Debra W. Yong as Attorney General. She became the first Asian American Attorney General.
November 19[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA –Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona chose Representative Ed Pastor, a Democrat, to succeed John McCain's seat on account of McCain's election to the presidency.
November 21[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-Elect McCain nominated Jon Huntsman, Jr. as Secretary of the Interior, and Chris Shays as Secretary of Energy.
November 24[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-Elect McCain nominated Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) for the post of Secretary of State, while Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had been nominated to the post of Secretary of Homeland Security.
November 26[]
Chicago, Illinois, USA – Senator Barack H. Obama of Illinois confirmed to the press that he would be running for reelection to the Senate come the 2010 Senatorial Elections.
November 28[]
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA – After a fairly long recount for the 2008 Minnesota Senatorial Election, Democratic challenger Al Franken was declared the winner over the incumbent Republican senator Norm Coleman. Al Franken's victory would give the Democrats a majority in the U.S. Senate, but fell short of reaching a super majority.
November 29[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-elect McCain announced that Robert Gates would remain in his position as Secretary of Defense during his administration, reportedly for at least the first year of McCain's presidency.
He also announced that he would nominate former Democratic Senator from Georgia Sam Nunn as his National Security Advisor. Nunn would thus be the second Democrat in his cabinet.
December[]
December 2[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-Elect McCain nominated former Democratic Senator from Georgia and disabled U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, Joseph Maxwell Cleland, for the post of Secretary of Veterans' Affairs.
December 7[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – On the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President-elect McCain picked Senator Chuck Hagel to be the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs.
December 10[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-elect McCain nominated three new cabinet members. To head the Department of the Interior, he nominated Jon Huntsman, Jr., while to head the Department of Commerce, he nominated Carly Fiorina. To head the Department of Labor, McCain nominated former Governor of Michigan John Engler.
December 12[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-elect McCain nominated Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska to the post of Secretary of Agriculture. Nelson would be the third Democrat in McCain's cabinet.
December 17[]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA – President-elect McCain nominated four new cabinet members. To head the Department of Health and Human Services, he nominated former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee. To head the Department of Education, he nominated Lisa Graham Keegan, the former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.
To head the Department of Transportation, he nominated former Governor of Kansas Bill Graves. Finally, McCain announced that Steven Preston would remain in his position as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during his administration.
December 27: Israeli forces began "Operation:Cast Lead" and sent the Israeli Air Force to bomb targets in the Gaza Strip. This would be majorly about the terrorist group Hamas.
December 30: President-Elect McCain said that there must be mediation between Gaza and Israel on the grounds that more innocent Palestinians are being killed in the attacks against Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA – John McCain, presumptive Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, revealed that he had chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his running man.
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA – John McCain and Time Pawlenty became the Republican Party's Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees, respectively, at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In his speech, McCain culminated the Republican convention by accepting his party's nomination for President of the United States. He was introduced by a video tribute.
