The Screwups of Campaign '08

Presidential campaigns are so carefully stage-managed that few things are as entertaining as the mistakes politicians make on the trail. Throughout the 2008 race, check out TIME.com's ongoing chronicle of each candidate's gaffes, and then vote on just how big a screwup each one is

Mistakes Were Made

Clinton's Color Barrier

dek
Joe Raedle / Getty

Senator Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton
May 8, 2008

"Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

—Clinton, citing an Associated Press article during an interview with USA Today.Critics charged that her comment exploited the racism of certain white communities, implying that caucasians are the only "hard-working" race


— M.J. Stephey


Next Obama's Presumptuous Presidential Seal