In United States politics and government, the term presidential nominee has two distinct meanings.
The first is the person chosen by the primary voters and caucus-goers of a political party to be the party's nominee for President of the United States. The main nominees for the presidential election 2008 were Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.[1]
The second meaning is someone nominated by the sitting U.S. President for appointment to any of numerous governmental positions, under the President's executive authority, subject to the approval of Congress.