The Screwups of Campaign '08

Presidential campaigns are so carefully stage-managed that few things are as entertaining as the mistakes politicians make on the trail. Throughout the 2008 race, check out TIME.com's ongoing chronicle of each candidate's gaffes, and then vote on just how big a screwup each one is

McCain's Social Security "Disgrace"

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John McCain
July 7, 2008

"Americans have got to understand that. Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace and it's got to be fixed."

—John McCain, answering a question about the long-term fiscal viability of social security at a town hall meeting in Denver, Colorado. McCain was later criticized for attacking the very way that the popular, decades-old program has always been designed to work. His campaign, and defenders, countered that the candidate was simply referring to the future underfunding of the system and not the system itself.

— Katie Rooney

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