Chapters 21, 22 and 23 and Epilogue Summary and Analysis

Obama met with his campaign team. He was not a happy man. They were playing defense. They all had to do better—including himself. Obama wanted to focus on the economy and draw a contrast between himself and McCain and take the light off Palin. The economy was the most pressing issue. A recession had begun in 2007 caused by the housing bubble and questionable activities on Wall Street. Obama was nurturing relationships with economists and financial experts who warned him that a crash was looming. A huge financial crisis would change the landscape of the campaign.

When Lehman Brothers filed the largest bankruptcy in American history, it set off a worldwide financial panic. The stock market was spiraling down and lost 500 points that day. McCain totally mishandled the crisis, from his inexplicable statement that...