
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
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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.
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(AP Photo/Morry Gash)

- STORIES
- Feb. 11, 2007: Candidate Obama's Sense Of Urgency
- Feb. 10, 2008: Barack Obama Makes His Case
- March 2, 2008: All Eyes On Ohio
- Aug. 31, 2008: Obama Explains His Choice, Reacts To Palin
- Sept. 21, 2008: Obama Says Economy, Iraq Are Top Issues
- Nov. 9, 2008: Obama's Inner Circle Shares Inside Story
- Nov. 16, 2008: Obama On Economic Crisis, Transition
- Feb. 11, 2007: The Obamas Discuss Their Future
- Feb. 10, 2008: Obama And The Primaries
- Aug. 31, 2008: Obama Explains His VP Choice
- Nov. 9, 2008: Obama's Inner Circle
- Nov. 16, 2008: Obama And The Presidency
- Overview: Obama's Cabinet
- Photos: Accepting The Mantle
- Interactive: The White House
- Check Out A Special All-Access DVD From CBS
VIDEOS
INTERACTIVES
DVD
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.
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
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
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
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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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.
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.
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.
Go ahead Steve, pander some more. After all, that is what journalism should be.
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.
George Reistad
Fallbrook PA
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.
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!
"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.
"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.
"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.
- 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
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