moments of election 08

Was there any single moment of this election that really shaped the outcome for you? Now that it's almost over, we can take a trip down memory lane.

For the world's longest election season, I was an undecided Democrat. To be honest, I would have been happy with any Democrat over any Republican. I didn't have much of a choce by the time my primary came along (it was on Super Tuesday) because all but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had dropped out already. And neither of them were my first choice. I went into the voting booth that day undecided, and wound up voting for Obama because I did not want to see the White House run by two families for most of my lifetime (ok so it's been in the control of two families since I was eight years old, and I wanted fresh blood in there). I do think that Hillary Clinton is a very capable candidate, and she was my Senator until I moved down here. I did vote for her for the Senate.

What single moment shaped the election for you? For me, it started out with a Democratic debate that was about a year ago. Of the upteen debates, this one had the most memorable moments. Hillary Clinton was grilled on drivers licenses for illegals, Kucinich is questioned about UFOs (a wtf moment in a debate that could have killed him right then and there, I really wanted him to go further). And the two Democrats still still standing used the debate to not bring down their Democratic opponents, but their Republican ones. Since the debate was right before Halloween, the moderator asked about the candidate's Halloween plans. Future president Barack Obama mentioned that he was going to dress up as Mitt Romney and have three positions on every issue. However future VP Joe Biden had *THE* best one-liner of the whole campaign season, and killed the candidacy of Rudy Guiliani at the same time with his "a noun, a verb, and 9/11" line.

The other moment that really shaped me was the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. The moment he announced it IMO was wrong, because he took Obama's thunder away from a great DNC. But it was very clear that he was trying to go after Hillary Clinton's voters by putting a woman on the ticket. It seems fine on the surface, but once we get to know Sarah Palin, she stands about as far apart on the issues (including women's issues) than Hillary Clinton.

I'd like your comments on this one. What moments shaped this election for you?