United States Presidential Election of 2008

United States Presidential Election of 2008

▪ United States government
Introduction
 On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected Illinois senator Barack Obama (Obama, Barack) their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, became, when he was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, the country's first African American president. He also was the first sitting U.S. senator to win election to the presidency since John F. Kennedy (Kennedy, John F.) in 1960. With the highest voter turnout rate in four decades, Obama and Delaware senator Joe Biden (Biden, Joe) defeated the Republican ticket of Arizona senator John McCain (McCain, John), who sought to become the oldest person elected president to a first term in U.S. history, and Alaska governor Sarah Palin (Palin, Sarah Heath), who attempted to become the first woman vice president in the country's history, winning nearly 53 percent of the vote.

      The 24/7 news cycle and the proliferation of blogs (blog) as a means of disseminating information (both factual and erroneous) framed the contest as both campaigns attempted to control the narrative. McCain's campaign tried to paint Obama as a naive, inexperienced political lightweight who would sit down with the leaders of anti-American regimes in Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela without preconditions, claimed that he was merely a celebrity with little substance (airing an ad comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton), labeled his ideas socialist (hammering away at Obama's tax policy in particular and pouncing on Obama's comment to “Joe the Plumber” that he would seek “spread the wealth”), and attacked his association with Bill Ayers, who had cofounded the Weathermen, a group that carried out bombings in the 1960s. Ayers, in 2008 a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago—and constantly called an “unrepentant domestic terrorist” by the McCain campaign—lived a few blocks from Obama in Chicago, contributed to his reelection campaign for the Illinois Senate, and served on an antipoverty board with Obama from 1999 to 2002. Obama downplayed his acquaintance with Ayers and denounced Ayers's activities as “detestable” but was quick to note that these activities had occurred 40 years ago when the candidate was eight years old. In addition, on the basis of e-mails and other assertions never proved, a small but still significant percentage of the public erroneously believed Obama (a practicing Christian) to be a Muslim. To defend against the attacks, Obama's campaign took the unprecedented step of establishing a Web site, “Fight the Smears,” to “fight back against ‘hateful,' ‘vicious,' and ‘desperate' robocalls and mailers.” In turn, Obama's campaign attempted to cast doubt on McCain's maverick persona and diminish his appeal to independent voters by tying him at every opportunity to Pres. George W. Bush (Bush, George W.), whose popularity was among the lowest of any modern president, and broadcasting ads that showed the two in embrace and often repeating that McCain voted with the Bush administration 90 percent of the time. The Obama campaign also sought to frame McCain as “erratic,” a charge that was often repeated and that some alleged was an oblique reference to McCain's age, as he would be the oldest person ever to be inaugurated to a first term as president.

      The fall campaign was also conducted against the backdrop of a financial crisis that gripped the country in September, when world markets suffered heavy losses, severely hitting the retirement savings of many Americans and pushing the economy to the top of voters' concerns, far outdistancing the war in Iraq (Iraq War) and the war on terrorism. From September 19 to October 10, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 26 percent, from 11,388 to 8,451. At the same time, there was a severe contraction of liquidity in credit markets worldwide, caused in part by the subprime mortgage crisis, which resulted in the U.S. government's providing emergency loans to several American firms and the bankruptcy or sale of several major financial institutions. The U.S. economic and political establishment reacted by passing (after an unsuccessful first attempt) the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008), which sought to prevent further collapse and to bailout the economy.

      The effect of the economic crisis was dramatic, turning a small McCain-Palin lead in the polls in early September into a steady Obama-Biden lead. Obama's lead was further supported by his performance in the three presidential debates, with polls indicating that he was the winner of all three. In both the debates and his response to the financial crisis, Obama scored points with the public for his steadiness and coolness (characterized as aloofness by his critics). Whereas McCain announced the suspension of his campaign for a few days in September to return to Washington, D.C., to address the financial crisis and suggested that the first debate be postponed, Obama played more of a behind-the-scenes role and insisted that the debate take place, saying “It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once.” Obama was also aided by his decision to opt out of the federal financing system, which would have limited his campaign to $84 million in spending. The McCain campaign criticized this decision, citing a questionnaire Obama filled out in 2007 in which he pledged to stay within the public financing system; however, Obama defended the decision, arguing that in the same document he called for a plan that would require “both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election” and that if he won the Democratic nomination he would “aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” The Obama campaign's decision paid off, as it attracted more than three million donors and raised an astounding $150 million in the month of September alone, enabling the campaign to outspend the McCain campaign by significant margins in the battleground states and to purchase 30 minutes of prime-time television six days prior to the election (more than 33 million Americans watched the Obama infomercial).

      The campaign generated enormous enthusiasm, with millions of new registrants joining the voting rolls (though the McCain campaign alleged that many of these were registered illegally, after allegations surfaced that several employees hired by ACORN, an interest group that lobbies on behalf of lower-income families, had submitted falsified registrations). McCain hosted numerous townhall meetings (a format in which he excelled) throughout the country, in which attendees could question the candidate; however, some of these meetings came under media scrutiny when some audience members became heated in their criticism of Obama. Obama rallies consistently attracted large crowds—including some 100,000 at a rally in St. Louis, Mo., in mid-October—and tens of thousands often came out to see Palin on the stump (the campaign had provided only limited access to Palin for the media). Although some commentators, including conservative ones, questioned her readiness for the vice presidency and presidency, she proved enormously popular: a record 70 million Americans tuned into the vice presidential debate, and her appearance on Saturday Night Live, whose Tina Fey (Fey, Tina) had lampooned her several times previously, drew the show's highest ratings for 14 years.

      The 2008 primary campaign was also historic. On the Democratic side, the field narrowed quickly to pit Barack Obama (Obama, Barack) against Hillary Clinton (Clinton, Hillary Rodham). Both candidates were seeking to become presidential “firsts”—Obama the first African American president and Clinton the first woman president. A sometimes bitter contest between Obama and Clinton produced the narrowest of victories for Obama. The Republican campaign produced a surprising winner, John McCain (McCain, John). Many pundits had written off McCain during the summer of 2007, as his campaign was faltering, while many others had anointed Rudy Giuliani (Giuliani, Rudolph W.) as the front-runner. But Giuliani failed to capture a single state in the primaries, and McCain went on to defeat strong challenges from Mitt Romney (Romney, Mitt) and Mike Huckabee (Huckabee, Mike) easily.

Background and Context
      This section contains links to Britannica articles that provide background on the presidency.
● Presidency of the United States (presidency of the United States of America): Historian Forrest McDonald provides a historical overview of the office, and Britannica's Executive Editor Michael Levy details the historical evolution of the selection process.
first lady: Betty Caroli, author of First Ladies, describes how the role of first lady has changed since Martha Washington's time.
electoral college: Georgetown University's Stephen Wayne, author of The Road to the White House, details how the electoral college works and how it came into existence.
White House: B. Philip Bigler, the 1998 Teacher of the Year and author of Washington in Focus, looks at the president's official office and home.
electronic voting: René Peralta, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, explores voting technology.

The Nominees

 Presidential Nominee: Barack Obama (Obama, Barack)

● Born: August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii
● Education: Columbia University (B.A., 1983); Harvard University (J.D., 1991)
● Vice Presidential Nominee: Joe Biden (Biden, Joe)
● Spouse: Michelle Obama (Obama, Michelle)
● Children: 2 (Malia and Sasha)
● Political Experience: U.S. Senate (Illinois), 2005–present; Illinois Senate, 1996–2004
● Select videos:
● Presidential nomination acceptance speech () (August 28, 2008; Denver, Co.)

 Presidential Nominee: John McCain (McCain, John)

● Born: August 29, 1936, Panama Canal Zone
● Education: United States Naval Academy (B.S., 1958)
● Vice Presidential Nominee: Sarah Palin (Palin, Sarah Heath)
● Spouse: Cindy McCain (McCain, Cindy)
● Children: 7 (Doug, Sidney, Andy, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, Bridget)
● Political Experience: U.S. Senate (Arizona), 1987–present; U.S. House of Representatives, 1982–86
● Select videos:
● Presidential nomination acceptance speech () (September 4, 2008; St. Paul, Minn.)

 Presidential Nominee: Bob Barr (Barr, Bob)

● Born: November 5, 1948, Iowa City, Iowa
● Education: University of Southern California (B.A., 1970); George Washington University (M.A., 1972); Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 1977)
● Vice Presidential Nominee: Wayne Allyn Root
● Spouse: Jerri Barr
● Children: 4 (Adrian, Derek, Heidi, Chip)
● Political Experience: U.S. House of Representatives (Georgia), 1995–2003

Independent
 Presidential Nominee: Ralph Nader (Nader, Ralph)

● Born: February 27, 1934, Winsted, Connecticut
● Education: Princeton University (A.B, 1955); Harvard Law School (L.L.B., 1958)
● Vice Presidential Nominee: Matt Gonzalez
● Spouse: unmarried
● Children: 0
● Political Experience: Consultant to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then Assistant Secretary of Labor (1964)

The Also-Rans

Democratic Party
● Joe Biden (Biden, Joe)
● Hillary Clinton (Clinton, Hillary Rodham)
● Chris Dodd (Dodd, Chris)
● John Edwards (Edwards, John)
● Mike Gravel (Gravel, Mike)
● Dennis Kucinich (Kucinich, Dennis)
● Bill Richardson (Richardson, Bill)

Republican Party
● Sam Brownback (Brownback, Sam)
● Rudy Giuliani (Giuliani, Rudolph W.)
● Mike Huckabee (Huckabee, Mike)
● Duncan Hunter (Hunter, Duncan)
● Alan Keyes (Keyes, Alan)
● Ron Paul (Paul, Ron)
● Mitt Romney (Romney, Mitt)
● Tom Tancredo (Tancredo, Tom)
● Fred Thompson (Thompson, Fred)
● Tommy Thompson (Thompson, Tommy)

The General Election: Key Dates

● September 26: First presidential debate, in Oxford, Miss., on the campus of the University of Mississippi, moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS.
● October 2: Vice presidential debate, in St. Louis, Mo., on the campus of Washington University, moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS.
● October 7: Second presidential debate, in Nashville, Tenn., on the campus of Belmont University, moderated by Tom Brokaw of NBC.
● October 15: Third presidential debate, in Hempstead, N.Y., on the campus of Hofstra University, moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS.
● November 4: Election Day
● December 15: Electors meet to cast electoral votes
● January 8, 2009: Electoral votes are counted in the U.S. Congress
● January 20: Inauguration of the 44th president of the United States

The National Conventions

Democratic National Convention
City and State Information
 Site: Denver, Colorado

● City Population: 545,198 (2005 est.)
● Metropolitan Area Population: 2,359,994 (2005 est.)
● Colorado Electoral Votes: 9
● 2004 Colorado Result: George W. Bush 52%; John Kerry 47%

Convention Highlights

Monday, August 25: One Nation
● Michelle Obama (Obama, Michelle) headlined the night.
● Senator Ted Kennedy (Kennedy, Edward M.) gave a surprise speech.
● Other featured speakers included Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Pelosi, Nancy) and Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill.
Tuesday, August 26: Renewing America's Promise
● Senator Hillary Clinton (Clinton, Hillary Rodham) was the headline speaker.
● The DNC's keynote address was delivered by a former Virginia governor, U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner.
● Other speakers included Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Senator Bob Casey, Jr., Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.
Wednesday, August 27: Securing America's Future
● Former president Bill Clinton (Clinton, Bill) was the headline speaker.
● Barack Obama (Obama, Barack) was formally acclaimed the party's nominee for president after Hillary Clinton asked that the roll call be suspended and Obama be nominated by acclamation.
● Joe Biden (Biden, Joe) formally accepted the party's vice presidential nomination.
● Other featured speakers included former senator Tom Daschle, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (Richardson, Bill). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Colorado Senator Ken Salazar, House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (Daley, Richard M.).
Thursday, August 28: Change You Can Believe In
● Barack Obama formally accepted the Democratic nomination at Invesco Field.
● Other featured speakers included former vice president Al Gore (Gore, Al).

Republican National Convention
City and State Information
 Site: Minneapolis–St. Paul (Saint Paul)

● Metropolitan Area Population: 3,142,779 (2005 est.)
● Minnesota Electoral Votes: 10
● 2004 Minnesota Result: John Kerry 51%; George W. Bush 48%

Convention Highlights

Monday, September 1: Serving a Cause Greater Than Self
● The Republican National Convention's opening-day schedule was thrown into turmoil as President George W. Bush (Bush, George W.) and others canceled their convention appearances to focus on Hurricane Gustav's threat to the Gulf Coast. The day's theme subsequently was changed from “Service” to “Serving a Cause Greater Than Self.”
● The featured speakers were First Lady Laura Bush (Bush, Laura Welch) and Cindy McCain (McCain, Cindy).
● Featured speakers included President Bush via satellite, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman (Lieberman, Joseph), and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson (Thompson, Fred).
● John McCain (McCain, John) was officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate.
● The party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin (Palin, Sarah Heath), was formally selected, and she addressed the convention.
● Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani (Giuliani, Rudolph W.) delivered the convention's keynote address.
● Other speakers included former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (Romney, Mitt) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (Huckabee, Mike).
● John McCain formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination.
● Other speakers included Cindy McCain, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge (Ridge, Tom), Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (Brownback, Sam), Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and former U.S. Senate majority leader Bill Frist.

The “Keys” to the White House
      The following article was written by Allan J. Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C., and the author of The Keys to the White House. For his assessment of the 2008 election, see his 2007 blog post () at the Britannica Blog.

      The Keys to the White House are a historically based prediction system that retrospectively has accounted for the popular-vote winners of every U.S. presidential election from 1860 to 1980 and prospectively has forecast the popular-vote winners of the presidential elections thereafter. The Keys are based on the theory that presidential election results are referenda on the performance of the party controlling the White House. Campaigning by challenging or incumbent-party candidates has little or no impact on results. Rather, a pragmatic American electorate chooses a president based on the consequential events and episodes of a term, such as economic boom and bust, foreign policy successes and failures, social unrest, scandal, and policy innovation.

      If the country fares well during the term of the incumbent party, that party wins another four years in office; otherwise, the challenging party prevails. According to the Keys model, nothing that a candidate has said or done during a campaign, when the public discounts conventional electioneering as political spin, has changed that candidate's prospects at the polls. Debates, advertising, television appearances, news coverage, and campaign strategies count for virtually nothing on election day.

       13 Keys to the White HouseI developed the Keys system in 1981 in collaboration with Vladimir Keilis-Borok, director of the Institute of the Theory of Earthquake Prediction and Mathematical Geophysics in Moscow. We applied pattern-recognition methodology used in geophysics to the analysis of U.S. presidential elections from 1860, which was the first election with a four-year record of competition between Republicans and Democrats. Through this procedure we identified 13 diagnostic indicators that are stated as propositions that favor reelection of the incumbent party. When five or fewer of these propositions are false or turned against the party holding the White House, that party wins another term in office. When six or more are false, the challenging party wins (see table (13 Keys to the White House)).

      Unlike other forecasting models, the Keys are not based on a fixed numerical relationship between the percentage of votes won by candidates and factors such as economic growth rates and presidential approval ratings in public opinion polls. Each Key is equally weighted, and any combination of six negative Keys is sufficient to predict the defeat of the party controlling the White House. The Keys include no polling data and do not presume that voters are driven by economic concerns alone. The Keys model incorporates a wide-ranging assessment of presidential performance and tracks the prospects for the incumbent party throughout the course of the presidential term.

      The model correctly predicted the popular-vote winner of every presidential election between 1984 and 2004. The Keys anticipated Vice Pres. George H.W. Bush's victory in the spring of 1988 when he trailed Michael S. Dukakis by nearly 20 percent in the polls and was being written off by the pundits. The Keys predicted, in April 2003, Pres. George W. Bush's reelection victory in November 2004—an election contest that pollsters found too close to call right up to election eve.

      As a nationally based system, the Keys cannot diagnose the results in individual states and thus are attuned only to the popular vote. In three elections since 1860, where the popular vote diverged from the electoral college tally—1876, 1888, and 2000—the Keys accurately predicted the popular-vote winner.

      The Keys have implications for American history and politics.
● For nearly 150 years of American history, voters have chosen the U.S. president according to the same pragmatic criteria. This historical pattern has not been altered by the advent of television, polls, or the Internet or by the vast political, social, demographic, and economic changes that have taken place since the Civil War.
● Elections are decided by the four-year record of the party holding the White House. No party has an enduring hold on the American presidency.
● The electoral fate of an incumbent party is largely in its own hands, depending on how well it governs, not on how well its candidate campaigns.
● Except for the rare circumstance of an unusually charismatic candidate or a national hero, the so-called "electability" of candidates has no impact on presidential election results.
● Political leaders need not move to the ideological centre. As demonstrated by presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, a strong ideology can be the driving force behind domestic and foreign policy initiatives that keep in line the Keys needed to retain the White House.
● Given that campaigns do not decide elections, candidates could abandon conventional politics and develop the themes, issues, and grassroots support needed for effective governance during the next four years.

Primary Results

August 11, 2007: Iowa Republican Straw Poll
Mitt Romney 4,516 votes
Mike Huckabee 2,587 votes
Sam Brownback 2,192 votes
Tom Tancredo 1,961 votes
Ron Paul 1,305 votes
Tommy Thompson 1,039 votes
Fred Thompson 203 votes
Rudy Giuliani 183 votes
Duncan Hunter 174 votes
John McCain 101 votes
John Cox 41
See as table:
      Note: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson did not contest the poll.

      Source: CNN.

January 3, 2008: The Iowa Caucuses
● Iowa Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 38%
John Edwards 30%
Hillary Clinton 29%
Bill Richardson 2%
Joe Biden 1%
See as table:

● Iowa Republican Caucus
Mike Huckabee 34%
Mitt Romney 25%
Fred Thompson 13%
John McCain 13%
Ron Paul 10%
Rudy Giuliani 4%
Duncan Hunter 1%
See as table:

January 5: Wyoming Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 8 delegates
Fred Thompson 3 delegates
Duncan Hunter 1 delegate
See as table:

January 8: The New Hampshire Primaries
● New Hampshire Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 39%
Barack Obama 37%
John Edwards 17%
Bill Richardson 5%
Dennis Kucinich 1%
Others <1%
See as table:

● New Hampshire Republican Primary
John McCain 37%
Mitt Romney 32%
Mike Huckabee 11%
Rudy Giuliani 9%
Ron Paul 8%
Fred Thompson 1%
Duncan Hunter <1%
See as table:

January 15: The Michigan Primaries
● Michigan Republican Primary
Mitt Romney 39%
John McCain 30%
Mike Huckabee 16%
Ron Paul 6%
Fred Thompson 4%
Rudy Giuliani 3%
Uncommitted 2%
Duncan Hunter <1%
See as table:

● Michigan Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 55%
Uncommitted 40%
Dennis Kucinich 4%
Chris Dodd 1%
Mike Gravel <1%
See as table:
      Note: Michigan initially was stripped of its Democratic delegates to the national convention because its primary was held outside the approved timetable of the Democratic National Committee. Barack Obama and John Edwards were not on the Michigan Democratic ballot. The Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee later restored Michigan's delegates and split them 69 for Clinton and 63 for Obama; each delegate would receive only a half vote at the national convention.

January 19: The Nevada Caucuses and South Carolina Republican Primary
● South Carolina Republican Primary
John McCain 33%
Mike Huckabee 30%
Fred Thompson 16%
Mitt Romney 15%
Ron Paul 4%
Rudy Giuliani 2%
Duncan Hunter < 1%
See as table:

● Nevada Democratic Caucus
Hillary Clinton 51%
Barack Obama 45%
John Edwards 4%
See as table:

● Nevada Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 51%
Ron Paul 14%
John McCain 13%
Mike Huckabee 8%
Fred Thompson 8%
Rudy Giuliani 4%
Duncan Hunter 2%
See as table:

January 26: The South Carolina Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 55%
Hillary Clinton 27%
John Edwards 18%
See as table:

January 29: The Florida Primaries
● Florida Republican Primary
John McCain 36%
Mitt Romney 31%
Rudy Giuliani 15%
Mike Huckabee 14%
Ron Paul 3%
See as table:

● Florida Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 50%
Barack Obama 33%
John Edwards 14%
See as table:
      Note: Florida initially was stripped of its Democratic delegates to the national convention because its primary was held outside the approved timetable of the Democratic National Committee. The Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee later restored Florida's delegates and split them 105 for Clinton and 69 for Obama; each delegate would receive only a half vote at the national convention.

February 2: The Maine Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 52%
John McCain 21%
Ron Paul 19%
Mike Huckabee 6%
See as table:

February 5: Super Tuesday
Alabama Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 56%
Hillary Clinton 42%
See as table:

● Alabama Republican Primary
Mike Huckabee 41%
John McCain 37%
Mitt Romney 18%
Ron Paul 3%
See as table:

Alaska Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 75%
Hillary Clinton 25%
See as table:

● Alaska Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 44%
Mike Huckabee 22%
Ron Paul 17%
John McCain 15%
See as table:

Arizona Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 51%
Barack Obama 42%
See as table:

● Arizona Republican Primary
John McCain 48%
Mitt Romney 34%
Mike Huckabee 9%
Ron Paul 4%
See as table:

Arkansas Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 70%
Barack Obama 27%
See as table:

● Arkansas Republican Primary
Mike Huckabee 60%
John McCain 20%
Mitt Romney 14%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

California Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 52%
Barack Obama 42%
See as table:

● California Republican Primary
John McCain 42%
Mitt Romney 34%
Mike Huckabee 12%
Ron Paul 4%
See as table:

Colorado Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 67%
Hillary Clinton 32%
See as table:

● Colorado Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 60%
John McCain 19%
Mike Huckabee 13%
Ron Paul 8%
See as table:

Connecticut Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 51%
Hillary Clinton 47%
See as table:

● Connecticut Republican Primary
John McCain 52%
Mitt Romney 33%
Mike Huckabee 7%
Ron Paul 4%
See as table:

Delaware Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 53%
Hillary Clinton 43%
See as table:

● Delaware Republican Primary
John McCain 45%
Mitt Romney 33%
Mike Huckabee 15%
Ron Paul 4%
See as table:

Georgia Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 67%
Hillary Clinton 31%
See as table:

● Georgia Republican Primary
Mike Huckabee 34%
John McCain 32%
Mitt Romney 30%
Ron Paul 3%
See as table:

Idaho Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 79%
Hillary Clinton 17%
See as table:

Illinois Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 65%
Hillary Clinton 33%
See as table:

● Illinois Republican Primary
John McCain 47%
Mitt Romney 29%
Mike Huckabee 17%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

Kansas Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 74%
Hillary Clinton 26%
See as table:

Massachusetts Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 56%
Barack Obama 41%
See as table:

● Massachusetts Republican Primary
Mitt Romney 51%
John McCain 41%
Mike Huckabee 4%
Ron Paul 3%
See as table:

Minnesota Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 67%
Hillary Clinton 32%
See as table:

● Minnesota Republican Primary
Mitt Romney 41%
John McCain 22%
Mike Huckabee 20%
Ron Paul 16%
See as table:

Missouri Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 49%
Hillary Clinton 48%
See as table:

● Missouri Republican Primary
John McCain 33%
Mike Huckabee 32%
Mitt Romney 29%
Ron Paul 4%
See as table:

Montana Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 38%
Ron Paul 25%
John McCain 22%
Mike Huckabee 15%
See as table:

New Jersey Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 54%
Barack Obama 44%
See as table:

● New Jersey Republican Primary
John McCain 55%
Mitt Romney 28%
Mike Huckabee 8%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

New Mexico Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 49%
Barack Obama 48%
See as table:

New York Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 57%
Barack Obama 40%
See as table:

● New York Republican Primary
John McCain 51%
Mitt Romney 28%
Mike Huckabee 11%
Ron Paul 7%
See as table:

North Dakota Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 61%
Hillary Clinton 37%
See as table:

● North Dakota Republican Caucus
Mitt Romney 36%
John McCain 23%
Ron Paul 21%
Mike Huckabee 20%
See as table:

Oklahoma Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 55%
Barack Obama 31%
See as table:

● Oklahoma Republican Primary
John McCain 37%
Mike Huckabee 33%
Mitt Romney 25%
Ron Paul 3%
See as table:

Tennessee Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 54%
Barack Obama 41%
See as table:

● Tennessee Republican Primary
Mike Huckabee 34%
John McCain 32%
Mitt Romney 24%
Ron Paul 6%
See as table:

Utah Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 57%
Hillary Clinton 39%
See as table:

● Utah Republican Primary
Mitt Romney 90%
John McCain 5%
Ron Paul 3%
Mike Huckabee 2%
See as table:

West Virginia Republican Convention
Mike Huckabee 52%
Mitt Romney 47%
John McCain 1%
See as table:

February 9
Kansas Republican Caucus
Mike Huckabee 60%
John McCain 24%
Ron Paul 11%
See as table:

Louisiana Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 57%
Hillary Clinton 36%
See as table:

● Louisiana Republican Primary
Mike Huckabee 43%
John McCain 42%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

Nebraska Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 68%
Hillary Clinton 32%
See as table:

Washington Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 68%
Hillary Clinton 31%
See as table:

● Washington Republican Caucus
John McCain 26%
Mike Huckabee 24%
Ron Paul 21%
See as table:

February 10: The Maine Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 59%
Hillary Clinton 40%
See as table:

February 12: The “Chesapeake” Primaries
Maryland Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 60%
Hillary Clinton 37%
See as table:

● Maryland Republican Primary
John McCain 55%
Mike Huckabee 29%
Ron Paul 6%
See as table:

Virginia Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 64%
Hillary Clinton 35%
See as table:

● Virginia Republican Primary
John McCain 50%
Mike Huckabee 41%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

● Washington, D.C. (Washington), Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 75%
Hillary Clinton 24%
See as table:

● Washington, D.C., Republican Primary
John McCain 68%
Mike Huckabee 17%
Ron Paul 8%
See as table:

February 19
Hawaii Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 76%
Hillary Clinton 24%
See as table:

Wisconsin Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 58%
Hillary Clinton 41%
See as table:

● Wisconsin Republican Primary
John McCain 55%
Mike Huckabee 37%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

March 4
Ohio Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 54%
Barack Obama 44%
See as table:

● Ohio Republican Primary
John McCain 60%
Mike Huckabee 31%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

Rhode Island Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 58%
Barack Obama 40%
See as table:

● Rhode Island Republican Primary
John McCain 65%
Mike Huckabee 22%
Ron Paul 7%
See as table:

Texas Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 51%
Barack Obama 47%
See as table:

● Texas Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 56%
Hillary Clinton 44%
See as table:

● Texas Republican Primary
John McCain 51%
Mike Huckabee 38%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

Vermont Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 60%
Hillary Clinton 38%
See as table:

● Vermont Republican Primary
John McCain 72%
Mike Huckabee 14%
Ron Paul 7%
See as table:

March 8
Wyoming Democratic Caucuses
Barack Obama 61%
Hillary Clinton 38%
See as table:

March 11
Mississippi Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 61%
Hillary Clinton 37%
See as table:

● Mississippi Republican Primary
John McCain 79%
Mike Huckabee 12%
Ron Paul 4%
See as table:

April 22
Pennsylvania Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 55%
Barack Obama 45%
See as table:

● Pennsylvania Republican Primary
John McCain 72%
Ron Paul 16%
Mike Huckabee 11%
See as table:

May 3
Guam Democratic Caucus
Barack Obama 50.1%
Hillary Clinton 49.9%
See as table:

May 6
Indiana Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 51%
Barack Obama 49%
See as table:

● Indiana Republican Primary
John McCain 77%
Mike Huckabee 10%
Ron Paul 8%
Mitt Romney 5%
See as table:

North Carolina Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 56%
Hillary Clinton 42%
See as table:

● North Carolina Republican Primary
John McCain 73%
Mike Huckabee 12%
Ron Paul 8%
See as table:

May 13
West Virginia Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 67%
Barack Obama 26%
See as table:

● West Virginia Republican Primary
John McCain 76%
Mike Huckabee 10%
Ron Paul 5%
See as table:

May 20
Kentucky Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 65%
Barack Obama 30%
See as table:

● Kentucky Republican Primary
John McCain 72%
Mike Huckabee 8%
Ron Paul 7%
See as table:

Oregon Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 58%
Hillary Clinton 42%
See as table:

● Oregon Republican Primary
John McCain 85%
Ron Paul 15%
See as table:

June 1
Puerto Rico Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 68%
Barack Obama 32%
See as table:

June 3
Montana Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 56%
Hillary Clinton 42%
See as table:

New Mexico Republican Primary
John McCain 86%
Ron Paul 14%
See as table:

South Dakota Democratic Primary
Hillary Clinton 55%
Barack Obama 45%
See as table:

● South Dakota Republican Primary
John McCain 70%
Ron Paul 17%
Mike Huckabee 7%
See as table:

Campaign 2004: A Look Back
      The following account, by David C. Beckwith, Vice President of the National Cable Television Association, originally appeared in the Britannica Book of the Year (2005).

 When a U.S. president seeks reelection, the outcome is usually decisive. A consensus emerges on whether the incumbent deserves to be kept on, and the sitting president is either dismissed or, more often, reelected—and by a substantial margin. Incumbent George W. Bush (Bush, George W.), however, won a second term in 2004 over Sen. John F. Kerry (Kerry, John) of Massachusetts by 3.3 million votes, with the narrowest popular-ballot percentage of any incumbent since 1916, in an election that was remarkable for an extremely polarized electorate, unprecedented spending, and high voter turnout.

      As the year began, former Vermont governor Howard Dean was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, but he faded rapidly, in part because some party leaders thought he was too liberal to defeat a wartime president. Dean was knocked out in the first major event, the January 19 Iowa caucuses. Dean fielded thousands of volunteer workers nationwide but finished with only 18% of the caucus vote, compared with 32% for first-term Sen. John Edwards (Edwards, John) of North Carolina and 38% for Kerry. Dean sealed his fate that evening, capping a defiant address to a raucous crowd of supporters with a primal yell in what became known as the “I Have a Scream” speech.

 Kerry went on to win all but three Democratic primaries, sewing up the nomination by mid-March. He eventually selected as his running mate rival Edwards, a former trial lawyer who had gained good reviews for his populist “two Americas” message. Early on, independent candidate Ralph Nader (Nader, Ralph) appeared poised again to be a spoiler, but Democrats successfully kept him off the general-election ballot in 16 states.

      The president's reelection strategy was overseen by Karl Rove (Rove, Karl), a canny longtime Bush aide from Texas. Bush pointed to significant domestic accomplishments during his first term: a major tax reduction, prescription-drug assistance for seniors, an expansion of federal assistance to public schools, and a real if less-than-robust recovery from the 2001 recession. In contrast to Kerry, Bush also endorsed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which energized religious and conservative voters.

      Kerry faulted the administration's health and education spending records as puny, vowed to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans to finance a more muscular expansion, and taunted Bush repeatedly as the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs during his term.

      The central campaign issue was Bush's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (September 11 attacks), an aggressive approach that split the country virtually down the middle. Bush claimed the strategy was working and promised continuity. Kerry's position was critical of Bush and more nuanced.

      Kerry had been launched into politics by his opposition to the Vietnam War in the early 1970s. As a U.S. senator, he had voted against the 1991 Gulf War, for the resolution authorizing the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (Iraq War), but against an appropriation bill funding Iraq's occupation and rebuilding. At one point, attempting to explain, he noted that he had voted both for and against that funding bill—playing into Bush campaign charges that Kerry was an inveterate “flip-flopper.”

      Many of his supporters opposed the Iraq incursion, but a majority of Americans favoured tough antiterrorism policies, so Kerry walked a narrow ledge. His campaign settled on a strategy: Kerry would underscore his decorated 1968–69 service as a navy lieutenant in Vietnam, background that contrasted favourably with President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, to demonstrate that Kerry had superior qualifications to be in charge during perilous times.

      The late July Democratic convention in Boston became a paean to Kerry's role in Vietnam. Kerry traveled accompanied by his “band of brothers,” shipmates from his Vietnam experience. As he strode on stage to accept the nomination, Kerry saluted and said, “I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty.”

      In early August, as Kerry nursed a small lead in public opinion polls, a new ad-hoc group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, composed of navy officers who had also served in Vietnam, produced anti-Kerry television ads in three states. The commercials challenged Kerry's account of his medal-winning experiences and blasted his later antiwar activism as disloyalty to his comrades in arms. Many major news outlets were slow to cover the Swift Boaters, but conservative Internet “bloggers,” writers of so-called Web logs, helped whip up attention to their claims.

      This was the first election contested under the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform legislation designed to reduce the role of money in politics. The law made “soft-money” contributions from corporations and unions to party organizations illegal but opened the door to “527” groups such as the Swift Boaters operating independently of the campaign. By one estimate total election spending increased by nearly a third, to $3.9 billion, since 2000. Democratic-oriented groups were far quicker to organize under the new rules, and 527s poured about $400 million into the race, helping Democrats overcome a marked Republican-funding advantage.

      By late August, when Republicans gathered in New York City for their convention, Bush had regained a significant polling lead. Moderate Republican stars, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Schwarzenegger, Arnold) and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (Giuliani, Rudolph W.), and disaffected Democrats such as U.S. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, extolled Bush's conduct of the war on terrorism and attacked Kerry's leadership ability.

      Kerry's campaign floundered under the assault, and Bush seemed headed to a comfortable victory—until the two candidates met on September 30 in Miami, Fla., for the first of three debates. Bush's aides had insisted that the first debate cover foreign policy, thought to be Bush's strong suit. The strategy backfired when Bush appeared on the defensive, finding it difficult to explain his positions and often repeating himself. Of the war on terrorism, Bush said some version of “It's hard work” on 11 occasions. Kerry, by contrast, spoke smoothly and authoritatively and, for the first time, emerged as a plausible alternative.

      Within days Bush's lead had almost entirely evaporated. The two candidates spent the final campaign weeks fighting in 14 “battleground” states, with imperceptible movement in the polls. Bush stepped up his game markedly in the second and third debates and thereby halted his slide in the polls and stabilized the race. Potential voters in the 14 battlegrounds were bombarded with repeated candidate visits, saturation media advertising, and multiple phone calls and mail from both campaigns and allied groups.

      To all indications the country was heading toward a second consecutive 50–50 election, and both sides moved in the final days to turn out their voters. Kerry's operation, aided significantly by 527s such as America Coming Together, used a small army of paid staffers to register new voters, identify sympathizers, and get them to the polls. Bush's campaign was more centralized, relying heavily on volunteers who worked their own neighbourhoods to identify and turn out Republican voters.

      Of the most closely watched battlegrounds, Pennsylvania went to Kerry by a small but comfortable margin. Florida, well organized by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, went clearly for the incumbent. That left Ohio, ordinarily GOP-leaning but hard hit by manufacturing job losses, as the decisive major swing state. Shortly after midnight it appeared that Ohio belonged to Bush by about 135,000 votes—but tens of thousands of “provisional ballots” cast by voters whose registration was in question made the results “within the margin of litigation.” As most voters went to bed, it appeared possible the election would again be decided only after court battles. By Wednesday morning, however, the Bush advantage appeared insurmountable, and Kerry delivered a gracious concession speech.

 Political maps again popularized the terms “red states” for Republicans and “blue states” for Democrats. Only three states switched colour from 2000 to 2004: New Hampshire went from red to blue, and Iowa and New Mexico shifted from blue to red. Bush won 8 of the 14 battleground states. Nader, whose 2.9 million votes in 2000 might have cost Democrat Al Gore the race, was not a factor in 2004.

      In the end Kerry and allies were wildly successful in turning out voters to oppose Bush. The Democrat won 57.3 million votes, nearly 7 million more than Gore in 2000 and significantly more than any previous presidential candidate of either party in U.S. history. Nonetheless, Kerry received only 48% of the vote; it was the seventh consecutive presidential election in which the Democratic candidate had failed to top 50%.

      The GOP turnout effort was even better. Targeting infrequent voters in suburban, exurban, and rural areas, Bush attracted 60.6 million votes, some 10.2 million more than he had earned in 2000, a 51% share of the electorate. The 120.3 million total votes was nearly 15 million more than in 2000. Bush's margin of victory, while narrow in a reelection contest, was larger than predicted by public opinion polls.

      In another unusual result, the incumbent's party added seats in both houses of Congress, increasing the number of Republican U.S. senators from 51 to 55. Bush had surprised many analysts by pursuing an aggressive agenda following his narrow 2000 win. At year's end Bush reshuffled his cabinet, replacing 9 of its 15 members, and again claimed a mandate for an activist agenda, including self-sustaining private accounts in social security, reform of the income-tax system, and staying the course in Iraq.

Historical Election Results
       U.S. presidential election results U.S. presidential election resultsElectoral college and popular vote results in U.S. elections are provided in the table.

U.S. Presidents
       Presidents of the United States Presidents of the United StatesThe political party, terms of office, and birthplaces of the U.S. presidents are provided in the table.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”