Politics is show business for ugly people, the old joke goes, but the 2008 campaign was just plain show business, with a cast of fascinating if not always camera-ready players. Where once campaigns were the stuff of C-SPAN, this cycle had an Amazing Race sensibility, with plenty of American Idol tossed in. The Clintons and the Obamas played lead roles but benefited from strong supporting performances by the McCains, the Romneys, the Edwardses and the Giulianis and a late, dramatic cameo from the magnetic, provocative Palins.
Each episode — the family dog on the roof, the $400 haircut, the $150,000 shopping spree — was chronicled not just by serious news outlets but also by entertainment shows (Extra, Saturday Night Live), supermarket tabloids and every website under the sun. Beyond the ridiculous and the hilarious — Tina Fey as Sarah Palin became instantly iconic — the plot offered deeply emotional pockets as well: the return of Elizabeth Edwards' cancer in March 2007, the coolly pragmatic (or sincerely motivated) manner in which some longtime Clinton associates transferred their loyalties to Obama, and the death of Obama's grandmother the day before the election. With all this sizzle, scandal and pathos, Campaign '08 was the hit of the season.