| Campaign | 2008 Democratic primaries 2008 U.S. presidential election |
|---|---|
| Candidate | Barack Obama U.S. Senator fromIllinois (2005–2008) Joe Biden U.S. Senator fromDelaware (1973–2009) |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Status | Announced: February 10, 2007 Presumptive nominee: June 3, 2008 Official nominee: August 27, 2008 Won election: November 4, 2008 Certification: January 8, 2009 Inaugurated: January 20, 2009 |
| Headquarters | 233 NorthMichigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60601 |
| Key people | David Plouffe (manager) Penny Pritzker (finance) David Axelrod (media) Michael Slaby (chief technology officer) Robert Gibbs (communications) Bill Burton (spokesman) Henry De Sio (chief operating officer) Claire McCaskill (co-chair) Tim Kaine (co-chair) Paul Hodes (co-chair) |
| Receipts | US$670.7 million (November 24, 2008) |
| Slogan |  |
| Chant | Yes We Can Fired up! Ready to go! |
| Website | |
| www.barackobama.com (Archived) | |
 2008 U.S. presidential election |
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| Democratic Party |
| Republican Party |
| Minor parties |
| Related races |
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Personal Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senator from Illinois 44th President of the United States Tenure
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Personal U.S. Senator from Delaware 47th Vice President of the United States Vice presidential campaigns 46th President of the United States Tenure  | ||
Barack Obama, thenjunior United States senator fromIllinois, announced his candidacy forpresident of the United States on February 10, 2007, inSpringfield, Illinois.[1] After winning a majority of delegates in theDemocratic primaries of 2008, on August 23, leading up to the convention, the campaign announced that SenatorJoe Biden ofDelaware would be thevice presidential nominee.[2] At the2008 Democratic National Convention on August 27, Barack Obama was formally selected as theDemocratic Party nominee forpresident of the United States in2008.[3] He was the firstAfrican American in history to be nominated on a major party ticket.[4] On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated theRepublican nominee, SenatorJohn McCain ofArizona, making him thepresident-elect and the firstAfrican American elected president.[5][6]
Obama was the third sitting U.S. senator, afterWarren G. Harding andJohn F. Kennedy, to be elected president. Upon the vote of theElectoral College on December 15, 2008, and the subsequent certification thereof by aJoint Session of theUnited States Congress on January 8, 2009, Barack Obama was elected as president and Joe Biden as vice president, with 365 of 538 electors.[7][8] He also became the first president to not be born in thecontiguous United States, as he was born inHawaii.
Manypundits have considered Obama's 2008 campaign to be one of the greatest politicalunderdog stories in U.S. history.[9][10] The campaign is credited for shifting thestatus quo of the Democratic platform, especially on issues such ashealthcare reform. Prior to 2007, Obama was largely unknown on a national level outside of his Senate constituency in Illinois. His primary victory overHillary Clinton is considered one of the greatest politicalupsets of all time, as Clinton had an early lead in the polls and was expected to secure the nomination early on.[11] In the general election, overwhelming backing by two-thirds of voters aged 18–29 and minority voters (66% of Hispanic voters and 95% of Black voters) were considered the most crucial demographic victories for Obama.[12] Analysts also praised his campaign's effective use of the Internet in general andsocial media in particular, and considered their utilization of both a crucial factor in Obama's victory.[13]
On June 3, 2008, after theMontana andSouth Dakota primaries, he secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination of the Democratic Party for President of the United States.[4] His opponent in the general election,RepublicanJohn McCain, passed the delegate threshold to become the apparent nominee of his party on March 4.[14] On June 7,Hillary Clinton, Obama's remaining opponent in the quest for the Democratic nomination, conceded defeat and urged her supporters to back Obama.[15] After a June 26 dinner at which Obama encouraged his fundraisers to donate to Clinton's debt-saddled campaign,[16] Obama and Clinton ran their first post-primary event together inUnity, New Hampshire, on June 27.[17] Over the first two weeks of July, the campaign ran a heavier schedule of fundraising events, drawing from former donors to Clinton's campaign.[18]Obama strategically had pictures made with financial expertsWarren Buffett andPaul Volcker so the public would perceive him as having inside knowledge of Wall Street.[19]
Obama's vice presidential running mate had been a subject of speculation since the end of the primaries. As of August 2008, some of the most popular choices for vice president included, but were not limited to, New York SenatorHillary Clinton, Delaware SenatorJoe Biden, Indiana SenatorEvan Bayh, Kansas GovernorKathleen Sebelius, Virginia GovernorTim Kaine, retired General and former Secretary of StateColin Powell, New Mexico GovernorBill Richardson, and retired GeneralWesley Clark.
On August 21, 2008, Obama announced that he had made a selection for his running mate, but would not reveal until August 23 who it was.[20] Obama's campaign encouraged supporters to sign up for atext messaging system that would alert them the moment he announced his choice.
Shortly after Biden withdrew from the presidential race, Obama privately told him he was interested in finding an important place for Biden in his administration.[21] Biden declined Obama's first request to vet him for the vice-presidential slot, fearing the vice presidency would represent a loss in status and voice from his Senate position, but he later changed his mind.[22][23] In early August, Obama and Biden met in secret to discuss the possibility,[21] and developed a strong personal rapport.[24] On August 23, 2008, Obama announced that Biden would be hisrunning mate.[25]The New York Times reported that the strategy behind the choice reflected a desire to fill out the ticket with someone withforeign policy andnational security experience—and not to help the ticket win aswing state or to emphasize Obama's "change" message.[26] Others pointed out Biden's appeal to middle-class andblue-collar voters, as well as his willingness to aggressively challenge Republican nominee John McCain in a way that Obama seemed uncomfortable doing at times.[27][28] In accepting Obama's offer, Biden ruled out running for president again in2016,[21] but his comments in later years seemed to back off that stance, as he did not want to diminish his political power by appearing uninterested in advancement.[29][30][31] Biden was officially nominated for vice president on August 27 by voice vote at the2008 Democratic National Convention inDenver.[32]
Biden's vice-presidential campaigning gained little media visibility, as far greater press attention was focused on the Republican running mate,Alaska GovernorSarah Palin.[33][34] During one week in September 2008, for instance, thePew Research Center'sProject for Excellence in Journalism found that Biden was included in only five percent of coverage of the race, far less than the other three candidates on the tickets received.[35] Biden nevertheless focused on campaigning in economically challenged areas ofswing states and trying to win over blue-collar Democrats, especially those who had supportedHillary Clinton.[22][33] Biden attacked McCain heavily despite a long-standing personal friendship.[a] He said, "That guy I used to know, he's gone. It literally saddens me."[33] As the2008 financial crisis reached a peak with theBankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and thebailout of the banking industry became a major factor in the campaign, Biden voted in favor of the $700 billionEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which went on to pass in the Senate 74–25.[37]
On October 2, 2008, Biden participated in thevice-presidential debate with Palin atWashington University in St. Louis. Post-debate polls found that while Palin exceeded many voters' expectations, Biden had won the debate overall.[38] During the campaign's final days, he focused on less populated, older, less well-off areas of battleground states, especially Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where polling indicated he was popular and where Obama had not campaigned or performed well in the Democratic primaries.[39][40][41] He also campaigned in some normally Republican states, as well as in areas with large Catholic populations.[41]
Under instructions from the campaign, Biden kept his speeches succinct and tried to avoid offhand remarks, such as one he made about Obama's being tested by a foreign power soon after taking office, which had attracted negative attention.[39][40] Privately, Biden's remarks frustrated Obama. "How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?" he asked.[42]: 411–414, 419 Obama campaign staffers referred to Biden blunders as "Joe bombs" and kept Biden uninformed about strategy discussions, which in turn irked Biden.[31] Relations between the two campaigns became strained for a month, until Biden apologized on a call to Obama and the two built a stronger partnership.[42]: 411–414 Publicly, Obama strategistDavid Axelrod said Biden's high popularity ratings had outweighed any unexpected comments.[43] Nationally, Biden had a 60% favorability rating in aPew Research Center poll, compared to Palin's 44%.[39]
On November 4, 2008, Obama and Biden were elected with 53% of the popular vote and 365electoral votes to McCain–Palin's 173.[44][45][46]
At the same time Biden was running for vice president he was also running for reelection to the Senate,[47] as permitted by Delaware law.[48] On November 4, he wasreelected to the Senate, defeating RepublicanChristine O'Donnell.[49] Having won both races, Biden made a point of waiting to resign from the Senate until he was sworn in for his seventh term on January 6, 2009.[50] He became the youngest senator ever to start a seventh full term, and said, "In all my life, the greatest honor bestowed upon me has been serving the people of Delaware as their United States senator."[50] Biden cast his last Senate vote on January 15, supporting the release of the second $350 billion for theTroubled Asset Relief Program,[51] andresigned from the Senate later that day.[b] In an emotional farewell, Biden told the Senate: "Every good thing I have seen happen here, every bold step taken in the 36-plus years I have been here, came not from the application of pressure by interest groups, but through the maturation of personal relationships."[55] Delaware GovernorRuth Ann Minner appointed longtime Biden adviserTed Kaufman to fill Biden's vacated Senate seat.[56]
In July 2008 Obama traveled toKuwait,Afghanistan,[57]Iraq,[58]Jordan,[59] the West Bank,[60]Israel, Germany, France, and Britain. During the course of this trip he met with assorted international leaders, including PresidentHamid Karzai ofAfghanistan,[61] Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki of Iraq, KingAbdullah II of Jordan,Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas,Prime Minister of IsraelEhud Olmert, ChancellorAngela Merkel of Germany, PresidentNicolas Sarkozy of France,[62] and Prime MinisterGordon Brown of the United Kingdom, as well as former British Prime MinisterTony Blair andConservative opposition leader (and future Prime Minister)David Cameron.[63]
On July 24, 2008, he gave a speech at theVictory Column inBerlin before a crowd of estimated 200,000 to 240,000 people.[64][65][66]
There were threepresidential debates between Obama and McCain. No third-party candidates or Independent candidates were offered an invitation to join in any of the debates,[67] as Obama and McCain were the only candidates on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. TheCommission on Presidential Debates proposed, and the candidates agreed, that two of three 90-minute debates would be in an informal, seated, talk show format, while the third would be in a town hall format that allowed both candidates to walk around.[68]
On June 4, John McCain proposed a series of ten jointtown hall meetings with Obama, at which the two could engage each other.[69] Obama first agreed in principle to the notion,[70] but later rejected McCain's proposal, offering instead one town-hall event on theIndependence Day holiday and four traditional debate-style joint appearances.[71][72]Hank Paulson, President Bush's Treasury Secretary, said Obama's comprehension of the2008 financial crisis compared to McCain's was as broad as "night and day". McCain's confidence vastly lowered when Obama questioned his ideas on the financial crisis in a meeting on September 25 at the White House with Bush and other congressmen. McCain did not have suggestions regarding what he would do to fix the economy, particularly Henry Paulson's $700 billion three-page bank recovery plan (TARP). Neither McCain nor Bush had read it. Obama's confidence escalated from that point. This was the turning point of the campaign.[73] That stock market loss was subsequently exceeded by an even larger −7.0% plunge on September 29, 2008.
On September 24, 2008, after the onset of the2008 financial crisis, McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington to help craft a $700 billion bailout package for the troubled financial industry, and he stated that he would not debate Obama until Congress passed the bailout bill.[74] Despite this decision, McCain was portrayed as not playing a significant role in the negotiations for the first version of the bill, which fell short of passage in the House. He eventually decided to attend the first presidential debate on September 26, despite Congress' lack of immediate action on the bill. His ineffectiveness in the negotiations and his reversal in decision to attend the debates were seized upon to portray McCain as erratic in his response to the economy. Days later, a second version of the original bailout bill was passed by both the House and Senate, with Obama, his vice presidential running mateJoe Biden, and McCain all voting for the measure (Hillary Clinton would as well).[75]
The Civil Forum on the Presidency was the venue of back-to-back interviews of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama by pastorRick Warren on August 16, 2008, at Saddleback Church inLake Forest, California.
Following his victory, Obama gave his victory speech[76] atGrant Park in his home city ofChicago[77] on November 4, 2008, before an estimated crowd of 240,000.[78][79] Viewed on television and the Internet by millions of people around the globe, Obama's speech focused on the major issues facing theUnited States and the world, all echoed through hiscampaign slogan of change.[80] He also mentioned his grandmother, who had died two nights earlier.
The Obama campaign's fundraising broke previous records for presidential primary and general campaigns, and has changed expectations for future presidential elections. The campaign avoided using public campaign funds, raising all of its money privately from individual donors. By the general election the campaign committee raised more than $650 million for itself, and coordinated with both theDemocratic National Committee (DNC) and at least 18 state-level Democratic committees to create a joint-fundraising committee to raise and split tens of millions of dollars more.[81][82][83]
Post-election fundraising continued for the separate transition administration, called theObama-Biden Transition Project, and also the separate inaugural ceremonies and celebrations committee.[81]
According to reports filed with theFederal Election Commission, Obama's campaign raised more money in the first quarter of 2008 ($133,549,000)[84] than it had raised in all of 2007 ($103,802,537). The campaign had a relatively small total of $21.9 million in May, but went on to raise $52 million in June, after Obama had secured the nomination.[85]
On June 19, Obama was the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing for a general election campaign since the system was created in the aftermath ofWatergate.[86][87] Obama was expected to raise $265 million between the time of the announcement and election day.[88]
By rejecting the funds in favor of private donations, the campaign was in a position to outspend John McCain prior to the election. Had he signed on to the plan, the campaign would only have been able to spend $84.1 million between the party convention in August and the general election in November.[89]
Obama explained his decision to opt out of the public financing system, saying, "public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."[87]Critics of the decision argued that the decision contradicted earlier statements that he would attempt to reach agreement with McCain to obtain public financing,[88][90]and asserted that Obama's campaign was receiving as much support from unregulated527 groups as McCain's.[91]
On September 4, 2008, the Obama campaign announced they raised $10 million in the 24-hour period after Republican vice presidential nomineeSarah Palin's acceptance speech. The RNC reported raising $1 million in the same period.[92]
On October 19, 2008, Obama's campaign announced a record fundraising total of $150 million for September 2008. This exceeded the campaign's single-month record ($66 million) for August 2008.[93]
The campaign raised much of its cash in small donations over the internet, with about half of its intake coming in increments of less than $200.[94] Both major party campaigns screened regularly for patterns of abuse and returned or rejected donations in excess of legal limits, from overseas, from untraceable addresses, or from fraudulent names.[95] After some criticism of the Obama campaign on conservative blogs, theRepublican National Committee asked theFederal Election Commission to investigate the Obama campaign's screening practices.[96]
Obama's campaign is notable for its extensive use of alogo. The logo, consisting of a circle, with the center suggesting a sun rising over fields in the colors of theAmerican flag, was designed by a team at Chicago design firm Sender LLC. "We were looking at the "o" of his name and had the idea of arising sun and a new day," according toSol Sender, now a strategist at VSA Partners. "The sun rising over the horizon intended to evoked a new sense of hope."[97]
Obama's campaign used the slogan "Change we can believe in" and thechant "Yes We Can". The latter slogan is shared with theUnited Farm Workers and associated with its founderDolores Huerta and is well known amongst Latinos in its Spanish formSí se puede. The "Change we can believe in" has been used in parodies both during and since the campaign.John McCain attempted to criticize Obama by enumerating various controversial policy positions he allegedly took and proclaiming "that's not change we can believe in" alongside a banner proclaiming McCain as "a leader we can believe in".[98] Since the campaign it has been used to parody campaigns against incumbents as being "change you can't believe in" such as by British blog LeftFootForward againstDavid Cameron[99] or by theEconomist against thePeople's Democratic Party of Tajikistan.[100]
The "hope" poster was an iconic image ofBarack Obama designed by artistShepard Fairey.[101] It consisted of a stylizedstencil portrait of Obama in solid red, white (actuallybeige) and (pastel and dark) blue. Either the words "progress", "hope", or "change" were under the image of Obama (in some versions other words were used). It was created and distributed widely—as a digital image, on posters and other paraphernalia—during the2008 election season. Initially it was distributed independently but with the approval of the official Obama campaign. The image became one of the most widely recognized symbols of Obama's campaign message, spawning many variations and imitations, including some commissioned by the campaign itself. In January 2009, after Obama had won the election, Fairey'smixed-media stenciled portrait version of the image was acquired by theSmithsonian Institution for itsNational Portrait Gallery.
The signature campaign typeface wasGotham, typically usingcapital letters with occasional use of the script Snell Roundhand. Gotham was designed in 2000 byJonathan Hoefler andTobias Frere-Jones, originally forGQ magazine. Prior to Gotham, the campaign used the typeface Gill Sans in upper case and lower case.[102] Another Hoefler and Frere-Jones font,Requiem, was used for the campaign logo.[103]
U2's "City of Blinding Lights" was often played in anticipation of Obama's speeches during campaign events.[104]Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" was also played heavily during his campaign rallies.[105]Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" was frequently played immediately after Obama's speeches.[106] Barack Obama personally askedJoss Stone in August to write and record his presidential campaign song, reportedly due to the fact that she appeals across racial boundaries.[107]Ben Harper's "Better Way" was also played at a few events throughout the campaign.[108] Furthermore, Obama's candidacy inspired artists to create more unsolicited music and music videos than any other candidate in American political history.[109] Examples include "Yes We Can" bywill.i.am, of the bandThe Black Eyed Peas; "Make it to the Sun"[110] byRuwanga Samath and Maxwell D; "Barack Obama" byJFC; and "Unite the Nation" by the Greek-American hip hop group Misa/Misa.[111]
Obama was particularly noted for his use of theInternet to rally supporters and make his policies known. He is the first U.S. president to have effectively used the internet andsocial media for successful political outcomes.[112] His successful presidential campaign raised the bar and are now presidential standards.
"The integration of technology into the process of field organizing … is the success of the Obama campaign," says Sanford Dickert, who worked asJohn Kerry's chief technology officer for the2004 campaign. "But the use of technology was not the end-all and be-all in this cycle. Technology has been a partner, an enabler for the Obama campaign, bringing the efficiencies of the internet into the real-world problems of organizing people in a distributed, trusted fashion."[113]
Obama's campaign was further strengthened by his opponentJohn McCain's comparatively limited use of the Internet. McCain did not have the organization of Obama's campaign, nor did he spend a comparable amount of money on this portion of the campaign. Both opportune timing and usage of online campaigning gave Obama significant advantage over McCain.[113]
Through forums and social websites such asMySpace,Facebook, andTwitter[112] Obama built relationships with his supporters, and would-be supporters. He developed an upfront, personable and face-to-face quality that gave his supporters a sense of security and trust, which inspired them to rally others in their local communities. The supporters of Obama themselves formed a nationwide community.
All of his policies were made available online, and updates were sent to the subscribers of his political party viaemail andtext message, ultimately making him the most technologically savvy candidate to date, increasing his popularity among young voters.
In early 2007, the Obama campaign launched a social-networking site called my.barackobama.com, or MyBO for short, and recruited 24-year-oldFacebook co-founderChris Hughes to help develop the platform and their social networking strategy.[114][115] MyBo became the hub of the campaign's online efforts to organize supporters.[116]
The nationwide community provided useful and effective tools, such as the Neighbor-to-Neighbor tool, allowing supporters to reach a large number of people in a short time in their own community, which in turn led to campaign rallying for more Obama support. An unprecedented communication strategy was the "online call tool". Over one million calls were made from residential, personal laptops and desktops.[117] Online communication led to Obama supporters engaging in social activities such as signmaking and door-to-door petitioning for Obama support, as well as simply discussing their opinions about policies and issues they supported along with Obama.[118][119] As described by campaign adviserSteve Spinner, the campaign grew "from zero to 700 employees in a year and raised $200 million. That's a super-high-growth, fast-charging operation."
In 2008, campaign staffers stationed in the long-shot battle ground state of Georgia, reinvented the tedious, messy process of reporting and aggregating nightly data and intelligence upward through the campaign apparatus—making the organizing work of vast Obama field infrastructure more immediately measurable.[120][121]NationalField became an internal social network within the field organization, used to monitor the daily activities of the sprawling grassroots effort.[122] It allowed staff to share what they were working on and benchmark themselves against other staffers. Unlike a standard social graph, where all users have access to all information, NationalField was based on a hierarchical social graph where the higher level you were in the organization, the broader your view of the information below you.[123]
The platform closely reflected the team-building model of the Obama Campaign, often associated with organizer andHarvard professorMarshall Ganz in that it was an intensely structured a social network.[121][120]
After trailing Republicans for many election cycles in their use of micro-targeting, the 2008 Obama campaign was the first Democratic presidential campaign to benefit from the existence of a national voter file. In 2007, DNC chairmanHoward Dean centralized data collection and management by hiring theVoter Activation Network and creating the databaseVotebuilder.[114] Votebuilder created a web-based interface for the database and permitted the Obama campaign to give neighborhood-level volunteers access to the registered voter list for their area of responsibility.[124]
In October 2008, Obama was votedAdvertising Age magazine's "Marketer of the Year" by members of theAssociation of National Advertisers for the campaign, surpassingApple andZappos.com.[125] In a post-election analysis of the campaign, the magazine lauded its "understanding of ground-level marketing strategies and tactics, everything from audience segmentation and database management to the creation and maintenance of online communities."[126]
The Obama web campaign used consumer marketing to target individuals with customized information to their predicted interests. Political communication to viewers was based on data collected about them. This data was collected by volunteers, surveys on the website and records of consumption habits. Website surveys took a short amount of time to fill out[127] and the company usedA/B testing to determine which forms converted most effectively, led by the team's Director of AnalyticsDan Siroker.[128][129] More detailed surveys were requested and received through email. Records of consumption habits helped the campaign make predictions about people based on statistical models.[127] People received messages tailored close to their beliefs.[127] Marketing based on consumer data also enabled effective grassroots organizing through the website. Data gathered from the website indicated who the most dedicated constituents were; the website tracked how often a person visited and when.[127] The campaign team then targeted and encouraged activists in contested, winnable areas, such as through the website program Neighbor-to-neighbor.
Soon after becoming the presumptive nominee, Obama began a biographical commercial campaign emphasizing his patriotism.[130] The advertisements ran in 18 states, including traditionally Republican Alaska andNorth Carolina.[131] Between June 6 and July 26, Obama's campaign spent $27 million on advertisements, against McCain andRepublican National Committee's combined total of $24.6 million.[132]
In a September 15, 2008 interview withGood Morning America, Obama stated, "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." What he apparently meant was that McCain had put out more negative ads.[133]
On October 29 at 8:00 pm EDT, the Obama campaign's 30-minute infomercial "American Stories, American Solutions" was simulcast onNBC,CBS,Fox,Univision,MSNBC,BET andTV One, focusing on a wide range of issues including health care and taxation. The infomercial then showed an Obama speech live from Florida.[134] Fox asked for the second part of Game Five of the2008 World Series to be delayed by 15 minutes in order to show the commercial, and that request was granted.[135]ABC was the only major US network not to show the ad after being indecisive during the initial approach and the Obama campaign later declined the offer. The Obama ad got 30.1 million viewers across networks compared to ABC'sPushing Daisies which garnered 6.3 million viewers.[136] Prior to this, the last presidential candidate to purchase a half-hour ad wasH. Ross Perot, who ran as an independent candidate in 1992.[137] The Obama campaign also bought a channel onDish Network to screen Obama ads 24/7.[138] Wyatt Andrews reported on a "Reality Check" on theCBS Evening News the next day with doubts over the factual accuracy of some of the promises Obama made in the advertisement, given the government's enormous financial deficit.[139]
On June 12, 2008, the Obama campaign launched a website to counter what the campaign described assmears by his opponents.[140] The site provided responses to issues brought up about the candidate,[141] such as:
Originally started by American-Israelis in late May, the "Israel for Obama" campaign aimed to refute the allegations made against Obama concerning Israel and the Jewish community. This was done by gaining endorsements from Israel.[146] When he took a Middle East trip from Afghanistan to Iraq, Jordan and finally to Israel, they organized a small "Israel for Obama" rally for him.[147][148][149]
Ira Forman, executive director of theNational Jewish Democratic Council stated that "The Democratic operation in the Jewish community was more extensive than I've seen in 35 years,"[150] The chairman of the campaign in Israel, Yeshiyah Amariel,[151][152][153] and others such as the Jewish Alliance for Change and theJewish Council for Education & Research used YouTube to release video endorsements from officials and normal people in Israel for Obama and his positions (such as "Israelis for Obama"[154] and "right man for the job.")[155] In the closing weeks of the election the campaign used support from Israelis to fight the smears spread online by bloggers. Its success caused the polls of Jewish support for Obama to increase so that by the time of the Nov. 4 election, according to exit polls, 77% of the voting American Jewish community voted for Obama over the 23% that were for John McCain.[156][157]
Obama has taken positions on many national, political, economic and social issues, either through public comments or his senatorial voting record. Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama emphasized withdrawing American troops from Iraq, increasingenergy independence (that includesNew Energy For America plan[158]), decreasing the influence oflobbyists, and promotinguniversal health care as top national priorities.
The day after Obama's acceptance speech at theDemocratic National Convention, Obama'sRepublican opponent,Arizona SenatorJohn McCain, announced his selection ofAlaska GovernorSarah Palin as his running mate.[160] Almost immediately, the Obama/Biden ticket plunged in the polls: in aGallup poll of likely voters, the McCain/Palin ticket gained a 10-point lead.[161] The erosion of support for the Obama/Biden ticket was especially pronounced among white women who had previously shown strong support for Hillary Clinton.[162] However, Obama regained and maintained the national poll average after September 19.[163]
ARealClearPolitics average of 14 national polls taken between October 29 and November 2 showed an average 7.3% lead for Obama over McCain. Obama's highest support in the polling average was 8.2% on October 14. Among individual polls tracked by RealClearPolitics, Obama's highest support was recorded in aNewsweek poll conducted between June 18 and June 19 and aPew Research poll conducted between October 23 and October 26 showing a 15% lead.[163]
Gallup conducted weekly polls of registered voters to measure support among the candidates. The final poll conducted between October 27 and November 2 showed 24% of pure Independents supporting Obama, trailing the 32% who favored McCain. Obama's Independent support peaked at 33% the week of October 6–12.[164]
ARealClearPolitics average of four national polls measuring favorable/unfavorable opinions taken between October 28 and November 2 showed an average 55.5% favorable rating and 39.8% unfavorable rating. Obama's highest ratings in the polling average were 61.2% favorable and 32.5% unfavorable on July 8.[165]
As of November 3, 2008, one day before the election, the RealClearPolitics electoral map excluding toss up states showed 278 electoral votes for Obama/Biden, an electoral majority, and 132 electoral votes for opponents McCain/Palin.[166] Including toss up states, the Obama/Biden ticket led with 338 votes.[167]
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama became the firstAfrican American to be elected President of the United States, sparking many celebrations in the United States and around the world. He gained almost 53% of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes. The popular vote percentage was the best showing for any presidential candidate sinceGeorge H. W. Bush in 1988. His 365 electoral votes was the best showing sinceBill Clinton had 379 in 1996. He won Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia, all states that were won by PresidentGeorge W. Bush in 2004. In addition, he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win one of Nebraska's electoral votes since the state decided to split their electoral votes. He was the first presidential candidate to be elected president without winning Missouri since 1956. Though his record would be broken by both major party candidates 12 years later, Obama received more total votes than any presidential candidate in history up to that point, totaling well over 69 million votes. It would later be broken by Joe Biden in2020.
63% of Americans who met the voting requirements voted, the highest percentage in fifty years. Obama won the moderate vote 60–39 and the independent vote 52–44.[117]
Joe Biden also made history by becoming the first Roman Catholic to be elected vice president. In addition, he is the longest-serving senator to become vice president, having served in the United States Senate for the 36 years prior to the election. Biden also won reelection to the Senate, but served only briefly in the 111th Congress before resigning to take his place as vice president.
On January 8, 2009, thejoint session of the U.S. Congress, chaired byVice PresidentCheney asPresident of the Senate and Nancy Pelosi asSpeaker of the House, announced and certified the votes of theElectoral College for the 2008 presidential election. From the electoral votes of the50 states and theDistrict of Columbia, Vice President Cheney declared 365 electoral votes for both Barack Obama of the state ofIllinois andJoseph Biden of the state ofDelaware and 173 electoral votes for bothJohn McCain of the state ofArizona andSarah Palin of the state ofAlaska. Based on the results of the electoral vote count, Vice President Cheney declared officially that Obama was elected as President of the United States and Biden was elected as Vice President of the United States.[7]
Over 25% of the electorate was of a race besides Caucasian, a first for America.[117]
Breaking news: the text message is out and it's official ... Barack Obama has selected Joe Biden to be his running mate!
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