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Dec. 28, 2008

Barack Obama: The Road To The White House

60 Minutes Looks Back At Barack Obama's Historic Journey To The White House

  • Play CBS Video Video 60 Minutes, 12.28.08

    For nearly two years, Steve Kroft and 60 Minutes followed Barack Obama on the long and winding road to the White House complete with interviews, never-before-seen footage, and candid moments with Obama, his family, and his closest advisors.

  •  (AP Photo/Morry Gash)


(CBS)  60 Minutes and correspondent Steve Kroft began chronicling President-elect Barack Obama's road to the White House nearly two years ago, as the candidate declared his candidacy.

Over the course of the campaign, Kroft interviewed the long-shot candidate, his family and his closest advisors, for what turn out to be perhaps the biggest story in American political history.

See the candidate making sandwiches for his young daughters, the rising political superstar on the campaign trail, the confident candidate poised for victory, and the president-elect with his future first lady reflecting publicly for the first time on the fact that they will be the first African-American couple to occupy the White House.

  • First Steps
    When 60 Minutes went to Illinois in February 2007 to do a story on the young, charismatic senator, it wasn't because we thought he was going to be elected the 44th President of the United States.

    Nobody thought that, but he was becoming a political phenomenon and there had never been a presidential candidate quite like him - his last name rhymed with Osama, his middle name was Hussein; racially he was half white and half black, and politically he was green.

    It would have been easy to dismiss him if it were not for the fact that he was running second in the polls behind Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Watch/Read


  • The Primaries
    After an enthusiastic beginning, the Obama campaign seemed to hit a wall. Eight months after he announced his candidacy in Springfield and on the eve of the primaries, Obama still trailed Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 points in the national polls, and people were still predicting that she could wrap up the nomination by the middle of February.

    Obama's performance in the early Democratic debates, in the fall of 2007, lacked inspiration. He seemed flat, professorial, and wonkish. Watch/Read


  • Victory
    When Barack Obama went to the Democratic convention assured of the nomination, he was about to make history as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party.

    The question was, would the American people elect him? Hillary Clinton had helped heal Democratic divisions after a bitter primary fight. But Obama entered the convention locked in a dead heat with Republican opponent John McCain. Watch/Read


  • Looking Ahead
    After the victory celebration in Chicago's Grant Park, President-elect Obama disappeared for a few days to rest, spend some time with his family and begin organizing the transition.

    But he emerged the following week with his wife Michelle and joined 60 Minutes in a Chicago hotel suite for their first post-election interview.
    Watch/Read



    Produced by L. Franklin Devine, Michael Radutzky, Tom Anderson and Jennifer MacDonald
    © MMVIII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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    Add a Comment See all 16 Comments
    by luckydj2 January 2, 2009 3:44 AM EST
    God bless Barack Obama. God bless America.
    Reply to this comment
    by fbmaxwell December 31, 2008 8:56 PM EST
    @ddrbc:

    Help us restore America to greatness: leave. Your cynical, hate-filled view of the U.S. and our elected leaders is just sad.

    Lacking genuine criticisms of Obama, you resorted to childish name-calling ("Obambi") and accusations based fabrications, prejudice, and stereotypes.

    You accused Axelrod of "astroturfing" but gave no evidence to support that.

    You wrote that Axelrod managed the campaign of Canadian Premier Dalton McGuinty. Untrue. Don Guy was the Campaign Manager for McGuinty. Axelrod was a paid advisor from 2000 to the end of 2002.

    You say that there''s not more "dirt" on Obama because he''s only 47 years old. You''ve already written him off because you say he would have been corrupt if given the time.

    The only reason why we have not found more evidence of your pedophilia is that you are still relatively young. If you were older, we would have discovered that you were fondling, molesting, and raping little kids in your basement -- because right-wing types like you always do that.

    It''s easy to attack someone by citing things that they would have done had they been born earlier. Lumping them in with a group to which I''ve assigned unfair stereotypes also helps.

    Next time you choose to spew your baseless attacks, lies, and venom against our nation''s President-elect, know that people like Hugo Chavez, Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and our other enemies throughout the world appreciate your efforts.
    Reply to this comment
    by ddrbc December 31, 2008 6:31 PM EST
    CBS, you''ll still trying to sell us on Obambi?!? Stop the propaganda and begin by telling the truth. He''s another slimy politician from Chicago. He''s managed to squeak by with less dirt due to his relatively young age, and because he had Axelrod''s astroturfing campaign duping the rest of the country into thinking all this began with "grassroot" support for change.

    Interestingly, Axelrod was also the campaign manager for one of Canada''s Premier (McGuinty of Ontario), whose campaign was based on hope and change (McGuinty''s own ideas, which Axelrod appropriated.) At that time, Axelrod had already hinted to McGuinty that he was not about to retire because he had his eyes on a "promising" young candidate: Obama.

    All politicians are crooks and they end up running the country on behalf of the people who pulled the strings to get them elected. Wake up people, and think about why your hard-earning tax dollars always go back to the people who drained it from you in the first place. It''s play to pay, and scr*w the rest of us.
    Reply to this comment
    by cynic3 December 31, 2008 6:31 PM EST
    More appropriate for the year end and end of an era, would have been for the short memoried Americans, a history of Bush"s road to the White House. Starting with his military desertions, his business failures, his ill got stolen election to president,his lies as President and his leaving this country in total devastation. What a legacy. The worst President in US history.
    Reply to this comment
    by fbmaxwell December 31, 2008 4:53 AM EST
    @cdcovello:

    I will try to ignore the sexual overtones of your choice of the word "pander."

    There''s clearly a disconnect here. Network television relies on advertising. Advertising revenue is related to the size of the audience that the programming attracts.

    Obama''s appearance in November gave 60 Minutes the highest ratings it has had in almost a decade. The December 28th show we are discussing here was one of only two prime-time shows to reach more than 12 million viewers that week, according to Nielsen Media Research. (The other was NBC''s telecast of Sunday''s Denver-San Diego football game.)

    Clearly, the American public wants to learn more about our President-elect. An informed electorate is a good and healthy thing and the interest with which they have followed this election, and our nation''s choice for a new President, is encouraging.

    I''m glad that they chose to air an intelligent interview with Barack Obama over yet another year-end summary of stock market misery, pain at the gas pump, mortgage foreclosures, failures in the banking sector, failures of our auto manufacturers, murdered toddlers (Caylee Anthony, for example), OJ''s umpteenth trial, Britney''s meltdowns, Sarah Palin''s painful-to-watch interviews, and other such depressing year-in-review stories.
    Reply to this comment
    by cdcovello December 30, 2008 8:10 PM EST
    It is so disappointing to me to see 60 minutes pander even more to their president-elect. I have always been a loyal viewer. I have always watched every story in its entirety, but I could not sit through another hour of the same Steve Kroft interview. I don''t understand. Didn''t 60 minutes air a 2-part story after Barrack won the election? Wasn''t that only a few weeks ago? And now, a 3-part story? I guess it would be one thing if it was a completely new interview, but it is the same footage from the past interview. Steve, why can''t you do some real journalism? I can understand why you would air the story after Barrack won, but why now? Is it because he is about to be inaugurated? Is 60 minutes going to air a 4-part story after Barrack makes his first executive decision? Ok, enough rhetorical questions. I am very upset. It is the last 60 minutes episode of the year. It could have highlighted the events of the year, or any real story for that matter.

    Go ahead Steve, pander some more. After all, that is what journalism should be.
    Reply to this comment
    by fbmaxwell December 30, 2008 2:36 AM EST
    Sadly, the lies continue from amoral GOP shills like George Reistad, who wrote: "...a poor boy named Barry with almost no potential was bought, paid for, and choreographed to be the president of the United States with Muslim money."

    Please tell us all, George, how someone with "no potential" graduated Magna *** Laude from Harvard Law School, was elected President of the Harvard Law Review, served for 12 years as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and was elected to the U.S. Senate.

    "No potential" is just your coded way of saying that Obama is black. I bet you had no problem with John McCain''s "potential" -- even though he graduated 894 out of a class of 899 at the Naval Academy.

    Barack Obama''s support came from people of all religious faiths as well as those without religious beliefs. It will be great to have someone as our President who is not beholden to the evangelical Christian right -- someone who represents all of us.

    We, the real Americans, find your attempts to stir up religious bigotry to be detestable. While Barack Obama is not Muslim (something that everyone with an IQ over 50 has already figured out), so what if he were? Do you have "special" copy of the US Constitution that says "...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States -- unless the person is a Muslim"?

    You are disgusting.
    Reply to this comment
    by georgerstd December 29, 2008 8:11 PM EST
    Your repose to viewers was to put on a second 60 minutes interview on Obama that was even much worse than the first. You violate every rule of proper journalism to make him look good If you don%u2019t want to do any research anymore for the truth you could have at least watch the same story on Frontline public TV before you did the first and second bit on Obama? If you watched their report or if you did just a little research you would have learned that a poor boy named Barry with almost no potential was bought, paid for, and choreographed to be the president of the United States with Muslim money. Every time Obama did not want to be caught in a lie he told Steve Croft to tell the lie for him. Just one of the many examples: Steve Croft said to Obama many people said to him that they believed that Obama was a Muslim. Obama did not want to answer this question where he could later be caught in a lie. So he just asked ask Steve Croft to answer the question for him. Obama said to Steve Croft %u201CWhat did you tell them Steve%u201D? Steve Crofts answer I told them that this is not true. This is the worst bit of journalism I have ever heard and this continued many time during the whole 60 minute show devoted to Obama.Does Steve Croft think that there are no viewers on 60 minutes with enough intelligence to see what he is doing?

    George Reistad
    Fallbrook PA
    Reply to this comment
    by dave_p5 December 29, 2008 3:47 PM EST
    "MORE embarassing than Obama''s lack of qualification to be a natural born citizen to be president is CBS''s complete loss of credibility, to not even cover the issue, even if only a surface address to he issue! In six months we will not rcognize this country, nor will it be a republic. More than SAD" - uscitizen4

    Obama is more qualified to be a good president than McCain was and Biden is INFINITELY more qualified to be VP than Sarah Palin.
    Obama is a citizen, get over it.
    Where the country is now under Bush is sad. Obama/Biden is our only hope at this point.
    Reply to this comment
    by irmcvet971 December 29, 2008 10:05 AM EST
    MORE embarassing than Obama''''s lack of qualification to be a natural born citizen to be president is CBS''''s complete loss of credibility, to not even cover the issue, even if only a surface address to he issue! In six months we will not rcognize this country, nor will it be a republic. More than SAD

    Posted by uscitizen4 at 08:51 PM : Dec 28, 2008

    I don''t understand you Fascist! It would seem that UNLESS our leader refuses to change anything and goes in the same failed direction we are on, he''s not acceptable. Have you losers even thought for a minute where this nation would be IF our leaders of the past had followed that line of thinking? Not only do I think Obama will be a Good Leader, he has within him the ability to bring this nation together again and become a GREAT President!
    Reply to this comment
    by blitzder December 29, 2008 7:06 AM EST
    Memo to racist losers. You lost the election, get used to it. Stop whining.
    Reply to this comment
    by fbmaxwell December 29, 2008 3:21 AM EST
    uscitizen4 wrote:

    "MORE embarassing than Obama''''s lack of qualification to be a natural born citizen to be president is CBS''''s complete loss of credibility, to not even cover the issue, even if only a surface address to he issue! In six months we will not rcognize this country, nor will it be a republic. More than SAD"

    What is really sad is that people still try to slander Obama with long-discredited smears. Not surprisingly, uscitizen4 seems incapable of even constructing a grammatically correct sentence. It really goes a long way towards explaining why GW Bush carried the 10 states with the lowest education levels.

    I already don''t recognize this country. When I grew up in the U.S., we did not torture prisoners or detain people for years with no charges, trials, or attorneys. We did not wiretap U.S. citizens without warrants. We were in a country that was a world-leader in reducing pollution rather than the only industrialized nation to back out of an anti-pollution treaty. We did not invade countries on trumped up charges, killing thousands of troops and civilians, all because the leader of that country was mean to our President''s daddy.

    I look forward to restoring the liberal values upon which this country was formed. People like uscitizen4 fought against freeing slaves, giving women the right to vote, granting civil rights to blacks, allowing interracial couples to marry... The list goes on and on, but that kind of bigoted ignorance always loses out in the end.

    Reply to this comment
    by tbta364 December 29, 2008 1:18 AM EST
    MORE embarrassing is the ignorance of a few people who can''t see through their own hatred, but choose to question Barak%u2019s citizenship, say things such as %u201Che''s not creditable or he doesn''t cover the issues%u201D to mask what is obvious. The country is hardly recognizable now after the Bush era. Let''s see where we will be in six months!
    Reply to this comment
    by photokitty December 29, 2008 12:24 AM EST
    uscitizen4 wrote:
    "Obama''''s lack of qualification to be a natural born citizen to be president"

    Obama''s mother was a US citizen. He was born on August 4, 1961 in Hawaii, which became a state on August 21, 1959. He is the child of a citizen, he was born in the US, and you are a ridiculous fool.
    Reply to this comment
    by photokitty December 29, 2008 12:23 AM EST
    uscitizen4 wrote:
    "Obama''''s lack of qualification to be a natural born citizen to be president"

    Obama''s mother was a US citizen. He was born on August 4, 1961 in Hawaii, which became a state on August 21, 1959. He is the child of a citizen, he was born in the US, and you are a ridiculous fool.
    Reply to this comment
    by uscitizen4 December 28, 2008 11:51 PM EST
    MORE embarassing than Obama''s lack of qualification to be a natural born citizen to be president is CBS''s complete loss of credibility, to not even cover the issue, even if only a surface address to he issue! In six months we will not rcognize this country, nor will it be a republic. More than SAD
    Reply to this comment
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    • 60 Minutes
    The Road To The White House
    Barack Obama's historic journey to the White House - a journey 60 Minutes cameras and Steve Kroft have chronicled for nearly two years, including footage never before seen.
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