with president bush ineligible for a third term and vice president dick cheney not pursuing the party's nomination, arizona senator john mccain quickly emerged as the republican party's presidential nominee, receiving president bush's endorsement on march 6, six months before official ratification at the 2008 republican national convention. on august 29, senator mccain announced governor sarah palin of alaska as his running-mate, making her the first woman on a republican presidential ticket. mccain surged ahead of obama in the national polls following the nomination but amid a financial crisis and a serious economic downturn, mccain and palin went on to lose the election to democrats barack obama and running mate joe biden.