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

Palin's Protected Speech?


(Statement begins at 0:30)

Sarah Palin
Oct. 31, 2008

"If [the media] convince enough voters that this is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations, then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

—Palin, during a radio interview with Washington D.C.'s WMAL-AM station. As journalist Ben Smith of Politico.com points out: "The First Amendment is about defending the right of the press, and everyone else, to say what they want about politicians — and emphatically not about defending government officials from having their words criticized, fairly or not."


— M.J. Stephey


Next McCain's "Role Model" Goes Rogue