12 seconds ago 2009-12-04T07:55:02-08:00
John McCain ended a seven-state barnstorming tour before Tuesday's election with a final rally on the Yavapai County Court House steps, the same Prescott, Arizona, location where Barry Goldwater, the last son of this stateto win his party's nomination, launched his 1964 campaign.
It was a poignant moment at the finish of a grueling 24 hours, and the recognition that McCain's nearly-decade-long odyssey in pursuit of the White House had come to an end could be heard in Cindy McCain's introduction.
Speaking before her husband in front of a few thousand Arizonans who thronged the chilly court house square after Midnight, McCain's voice quavered
"I’m so proud to introduce to you tonight my husband, John McCain," she said, before kissing him on the cheek.
Taking the microphone, the Arizona senator reprised one of his favorite campaign trail jokes about the bad luck of the state's politicians who have sought the presidency, invoking Goldwater, Mo Udall and Bruce Babbitt.
But this time, he added a twist.
"Tomorrow we’re gonna reverse that unhappy tradition and I’m gonna be the President of the United States," McCain declared to loud cheers.
And instead of closing with talk of "Joe the Plumber" McCain instead retold another,more serious anecdote from perhaps the most memorable moment in his quest for the presidency -- his meeting the mother of Matthew Stanley, a native of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, who was killed in Iraq and whose name he wears on a bracelet.
Not a day goes by, McCain said, when he does not think of the soldier who gave his life in December of 2006, shortly before his 23rd birthday.
