Words mattered more in the 2008 presidential election than in any other.
Americans chose Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a man of radical views and little experience, largely on the strength of his soaring speeches. His rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, was a war hero with a history of bipartisan cooperation, as well as his own, plain-speaking rhetorical style. In the twilight of the unpopular presidency of George W. Bush, the two candidates stood for starkly different values, as well as different solutions to war abroad and economic crisis at home. Both claimed the mantle of change, yet only one would prevail, bringing to the White House a new style of charismatic politics. As America had come to understand its own failings as the failures of one single individual, so now it began to see its salvation through the elevated and exaggerated virtues of another, who had offered little but his own words as proof of his intentions and abilities. Don’t Tell Me Words Don’t Matter tells the story of the 2008 campaign through the rhetoric of the men and women who fought it.
