McCain Concession Speech: "The Failure Is Mine" (VIDEO)

The election is over, and at 11:15 EST McCain delivered his concession speech in Arizona, with his wife Cindy and running mate Sarah Palin by his side.

He began by silencing boos, congratulating Barack Obama, and saying he'd called the Senator, now President Elect, earlier. He made a call to come together and bridge the separations and put aside differences.

Speaking from Arizona's Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, McCain told his supporters: "It's natural tonight to feel some disappointment. Though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours."

He blamed himself for the loss and thanked Sarah Palin, "one of the best campaigners I've ever seen."

He also said, "I don't know what more we could have done," and called the campaign, "the great honor of my life."

McCain said he will get behind his president, President Obama.

WATCH THE BEGINNING, WITH THE BOOS AND CALL TO OBAMA:

WATCH LAST 2 MINUTES:

WATCH FULL SPEECH:

Photos of McCain Election Day and Night

Comments

[floridagirl08]

03:19 PM on 11/11/2008

Apparently McCain didn't commission this concession speech to be written for him by Mark Salter until 6pm of Nov 4th. Apparently he still thought he had a strong chance that he didn't give his speech writer advanced notice to write the speech until 3 hours before he delivered it. In addition, now that I know that it was almost entirely written by somebody else, I can't help but question how much of it McCain actually meant. ( http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/11/john-mccain.html )

Now I'm sure Obama doesn't write all his speeches, but I've heard from people who work on his campaign that he does actually write a bigger portion of his own speeches especially the ones which aren't 100% policy related.

Something to think about at least.

[GeoffN]

03:43 PM on 11/07/2008

Did anyone else notice that the music playing as McCain left the stage was the theme to Crimson Tide? The choice is interesting given the movie is about an older Navy veteran ousted from a position of power by a younger, black man.

[clsmithj]

06:01 PM on 11/16/2008

you're right someone has made light of this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0uwu43i38c

[309blank]

12:09 PM on 11/07/2008

mccain is after all a decent man, if it weren't for steve schmidt and palin he wouldn't have been too bad.
i supported obama all the way, but this man would have been a worthy adversary, not the mudslinging rovean arch repub we had to endure during the campaign

[DicksBaitGirl]

02:49 AM on 11/06/2008

I can't wait to see her weeping as they drag her ass off to jail for her fiscal crimes.

[AngieMom57]

09:48 PM on 11/05/2008

I can't get the image of the young fighter pilot McCain out of my mind.; the French footage that was shown a few weeks back; nor can I get the smile of his beautiful wife as she stood behind him while he gave this speech, what a relief, huh? I wish both of them well, it has been a rough and ugly road to this point, one that I am glad ended the way it did; one that I know will produce some surprising and at times uncomfortable possibilities.
Please, Sen. McCain, please encourage peace and prosperity, do more than reach across the isle, please help us take back our country..the Republic for which it stands; please do more as a senator in exposing and holding accountable those that are corrupt; who better than you? You will sleep better for it.

[SonyaInTx]

08:43 PM on 11/05/2008

All his life, he's made an art of going down in flames.

[hortonhearsawho]

07:51 PM on 11/05/2008

Never quite made it out to the front lawn did they?

[hortonhearsawho]

07:50 PM on 11/05/2008

Your a Fundamental failure john...

[mk2000]

04:54 PM on 11/05/2008

8:14 in the MSNBC clip shows Senator McCain talking about his support of Obama and Biden, the crowd starts their booing again and McCain holds up his hands and says "please" in a serious tone to quiet the crowd. So why is Palin grinning at the crowd like an idiot? Is she that purely evil and just reveling in the anti-Obama (that's President-elect Obama) sentiments of the crowd or was something shouted out that caused her to smile? How inappropriate she is.

[IhaveaDREAMwhitegirl]

04:53 PM on 11/05/2008

All those Rove-PodPeople, are just that P E R I O D

PalinFamily, do what JesusWouldHave done... and return all of your NeimanMarcusSaks-ill-gotten-gains.

To all the people who BOOED, SHAME on YOU!

Palin, good luck finding thought.

[Melina45]

04:03 PM on 11/05/2008

After watching both McCain's concession speech and Obama's acceptance speech, I noticed one big difference. After McCain finished, he turned, gave Cindy a perfunctory peck on the cheek, and left. After Obama finished, he and Michelle shared a genuine hug - and then I lip-read Michelle saying "I love you" to her husband.

The difference between these two couples couldn't be any more extreme.

I've always felt a bit sorry for Cindy McCain, as she has always looked so miserable while her husband droned on with one empty speech after another. Now I feel ten times sorrier for her.

[IhaveaDREAMwhitegirl]

05:10 PM on 11/05/2008

I'm going to actually say it:

This campaign has literally been black and white.

To all Y'all Mccain rallier-voter-haters-and-Booers, I will always love and pray for you. (would you do the same for MOI?!)

Amen...(allMen, googleThatOne- Word sometime)

...and ALSO.... why don't you reread the GoodBook again, those tears y'all had ... were for your own self-acknowledgment of your own hatred-Bigotry-Hypocrisy... GodBlessUsAll.

[emmawdhous]

03:04 PM on 11/05/2008

1dogs2 wrote: Did anyone hear the "boos" that greeted McCain's remarks about Palin? Or did I imagine them? The completely nonplussed look on her face suggests that she heard them, too >>

I heard booing (loud) amid the applause for Palin, too. Few people posted anywhere about it, and no network picked up on it, so I went back and checked the clip (link below). He introduces her around 6 minutes in. She seemed shaken by that, to me; not by losing. I actually felt sorry for her; she seems so stupidly surprised.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27545964#27545964

[Lisa1961]

02:00 PM on 11/05/2008

I'm proud to be an American today. I'm wearing red white and blue and going home to hang out the flag, someone tell Bob to go for it. It's fun.

[The Lorax]

01:31 PM on 11/05/2008

Good speech, Senator McCain.

palin was crying. hahaha

[OJM]

01:26 PM on 11/05/2008

Negative comments about Senator McCain do this country and this proven servant a disservice. I for one believe that he said what he believed an individual of the highest standards would have said; and what more could any one of us have done under similar circumstances. "Good Sportsmanship" does not require not regretting the loss; just acting as if it didn't, like Courage is spite of Fear, and all that rubric. I have had the privilege on having met the Senator in the coach cabin of AA flights out of Sky Harbor many years ago (instances that I am sure he remembers dearly : )). I would have voted for that man. But I couldn't this time. In order to get the chance to run he had to compromise his chance to win by embracing dogma not his own. Regardless, than you, Senator, for past and future services.