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

McCain's Lobbyist Loss

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Mary Altaffer / AP

Senator John McCain

John McCain
May 18, 2008

"At no time have I discussed my clients with John McCain."

—McCain's national finance co-chair Tom Loeffler, a former Texas congressman, defending his lobbying firm and role as a foreign agent to reporters a month before he left the campaign. He later resigned amid lobbying entanglements with Saudi Arabia and after the McCain camp unveiled a stringent policy where no person working for the campaign could be a registered lobbyist or a foreign agent. The policy forced at least five members of the staff to resign.


— Katie Rooney


Next McCain's Social Security "Disgrace"