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John McCain had been a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-seven, the North Vietnamese shot down his plane and took him prisoner. He was tortured and held for more than five years. He returned home a hero.

During the presidential campaign, he spoke often about his experience as a prisoner of war. His campaign message was, "Country First." Senator McCain quickly secured the Republican nomination to succeed George Bush.

The Democrats needed more time to choose a nominee. The race settled on two leading candidates. One of them was Hillary Clinton.

Her husband was former president Bill Clinton. They spent eight years living in the White House. As first lady she held an unusually public role in her husband's administration. Later she was twice elected as a senator from New York. Now she was trying to return to the White House -- this time as the first woman president of the United States.

AP
Senator Hillary Clinton campaigning in 2008

HILLARY CLINTON: "So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl!"

The other leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination would also make history if elected. He was a first-term United States senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. He was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. If he won, he would be America's first black president.

Blacks in the United States had been slaves until eighteen sixty-three. They were not permitted to vote until eighteen seventy. Women in the United States did not have a constitutional right to vote until nineteen twenty. And not until the nineteen sixties did federal civil rights laws bar discrimination against either group.

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During the nominating fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there was a lot of discussion and debate in America about gender and race. Some talked about the problems that women still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a woman as president. Others talked about the problems that blacks still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a black man as president.

PEOPLE: "I think we're ready. Oh, I hope we're ready." "I just hear people's comments that that will be the day when we have a black man running our country." "I'm not sure. I'm really not sure."

Candidate Obama gave a speech about race in America.

BARACK OBAMA: "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.

AP
Senator Barack Obama at a campaign event in 2008

"I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.

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