Special Re-Air: John McCain's Surprise 2000 Primary Win in New Hampshire
Whistlestop: Presidential History and Trivia
Slate Podcasts
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2018
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With John McCain's passing, we are republishing this episode about John McCain's surprise win in the 2000 New Hampshire Republican primary.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:06.6 | Hello and welcome to WhistleStop, a podcast of campaign curiosities. |
| 0:11.3 | I'm John Dickerson of Face the Nation. |
| 0:25.4 | When Ted Cruz talks about his insurgency against the establishment of the Republican Party, |
| 0:27.8 | he's aiming at senators like John McCain. |
| 0:33.3 | But there was a time when John McCain, the Arizona Senator, was the anti-establishment crusader. In the election of 2000, the Republican Party had chosen George W. Bush, the governor of Texas, long before the voters ever got out the rubber-headed mallet to pound the first yard sign. |
| 0:44.9 | In perhaps one of the most masterful victories in the invisible primary, Bush became the consensus favorite with every lobbyist, longtime GOP fundraiser, and inside Republican. He was a lock. |
| 0:56.3 | He was in the books before they were open. The only problem is that he forgot to tell the voters of |
| 1:01.0 | New Hampshire. More on this story in a moment after a word from our sponsor. Squarespace takes the |
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| 1:30.0 | Our whistle stop today is someday, just like every other day, in January of 2000, |
| 1:36.1 | and we're riding a custom-designed bus through the cold gray streets of New Hampshire. |
| 1:41.6 | A semicircle of reporters are sitting in the bank at in the back of the bus. Some of them, who are particularly kind to their colleagues, |
| 1:48.5 | are perched on top of the banquet, balancing their narrow posterior on a triangle of |
| 1:53.9 | upholstered material to allow other reporters to squeeze in on the cushions and squeeze in |
| 1:59.8 | on one of the most amazing things that had |
| 2:02.4 | happened in their careers. One of those reporters who decided sideburns was a good idea that |
| 2:08.5 | year and is about two months too late for a haircut, perches on top of the banquette. Like a lot of |
| 2:14.2 | other reporters, he can't stay away from the rolling, rollicking insurgent campaign launched by the Arizona Senator John McCain. |
... |
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