The Peculiarities of the electoral campaign of 2008

The Peculiarities of the electoral campaign of 2008

The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Obama received 365electoral votes, and McCain 173. Obama received the most votes for a presidential candidate in American history. Along with the Democratic and Republican parties, three other parties nominated candidates who appeared on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win the election. These were the Constitution Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party. In addition, independent candidate Ralph Nader ran his own campaign.

This was the first U.S. presidential election since 1952 in which neither major party nominee was the incumbent president, nor the incumbent vice president, and the first since 1928 in which neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president was involved in the electoral process (either in primaries or at the convention). It was the first U.S. presidential election in which the nominees of both major parties were sitting U.S. senators.

This also was the first U.S. presidential election in which an African American was elected, as well as the first in which an African American won the nomination of one of the two major parties.

In the United States, there are two major political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There are also several minor parties, usually called third parties, who have not won a presidential election since 1848 (Lincoln's National Union Party, which won in 1864, was a short-lived coalition of Republicans and Northern Democrats rather than an independent party), although in 1912 former President Theodore Roosevelt, as candidate of the Progressive Party came in second by a wide margin. Most media and public focus is on the two major parties.

Each major party hosts candidates who go through a nomination process to determine the presidential nominee for that party. The nomination process consists of primaries and caucuses, held by the 50 states, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Early polls taken before anyone had announced a candidacy had shown Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as the most popular potential Democratic candidates. Nevertheless, the media speculated on several other candidates, including Al Gore, the runner-up in the 2000 election; John Kerry, the runner-up in the 2004 election; John Edwards, his running mate; Delaware Senator Joseph Biden; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson; Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack; and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.

Edwards was one of the first to formally announce his candidacy for the presidency, on December 28, 2006. This run would be his second attempt at the presidency. Clinton announced intentions to run in the Democratic primaries on January 20, 2007. Obama announced his candidacy on February 10 in his home state of Illinois. None of the candidates received a significant bounce in their poll numbers after their official announcements. Through most of 2007, even after it was evident Al Gore would not run, John Edwards and Al Gore each hovered between the third and fourth place spots in the polls behind Clinton and Obama.

The early primaries and caucuses are considered the most critical of nomination process. Most candidates lacking support drop out after doing poorly in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, and these states' results often shift national preferences, according to historical polling data. The states that hold early primaries and caucuses are, chronologically, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. In 2008, Florida and Michigan moved their primaries into January against the Democratic Party's rules, and the results of these primaries were discounted and disputed until after the rest of the contests occurred. Iowa is viewed as the state that jump-started Obama's campaign and set him on track to win the nomination and the presidency.

Super Tuesday occurred on February 5, 2008, during which the largest-ever number of simultaneous state primary elections was held. Super Tuesday ended up leaving the Democrats in a virtual tie, with Obama amassing 847 delegates to Clinton's 834 from the 23 states that held Democratic primaries. Louisiana, Nebraska, Hawaii, Wisconsin, U.S. Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia primaries and the Washington and Maine caucuses all took place after Super Tuesday in February. Obama won all of them, giving him ten consecutive victories after Super Tuesday.

On Super Tuesday, McCain won his home state of Arizona, taking all 53 delegates, and the largest of the Super Tuesday prizes, nearly all of California's 173 delegates. McCain also scored wins in seven other states, picking up 574 delegates.

On August 28, 2008, when Obama formally accepted the Democratic nomination for President, he became the first African American to be nominated for President by a major political party.

Issues

Iraq

The unpopular war in Iraq was a key issue during the campaign. John McCain supported the war while Barack Obama opposed it. (Obama's early and strong opposition to the war helped him stand out against the other Democratic candidates during the primaries, as well as stand out to a war-weary electorate during the general campaign). Though McCain meant it as a peacetime presence like the United States maintained in Germany and Japan after World War II, his statement that the United States could be in Iraq for as much as the next 50 to 100 years would prove costly. Obama used it against him as part of his strategy to tie him to the unpopular President Bush.

George W. Bush had become increasingly unpopular by the beginning of 2008. Polls consistently showed that only twenty to thirty percent of the American public approved of his job performance. In March 2008, Bush endorsed McCain at the White House, but Bush did not make a single appearance for McCain during the campaign. Bush appeared at the 2008 only through a live video broadcast. He chose not to appear in person due to disaster events in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. Although he supported the war in Iraq, McCain made an effort to show that he had disagreed with Bush on many other key issues such as climate change.

Change vs. experience

Before the Democratic primaries had even begun, the dichotomy of change versus experience had already become a common theme in the presidential campaign, with Senator Hillary Clinton positioning herself as the candidate with experience and Obama embracing the characterization as the candidate most able to bring change to Washington. In his presidential run announcement, Obama framed his candidacy by emphasizing that "Washington must change." In response to this, Clinton adopted her experience as a major campaign theme. By early and mid-2007, polls regularly found voters identifying Clinton as the more experienced candidate and Obama as the "fresh" or "new" candidate. Exit polls on Super Tuesday found that Obama won voters who thought that the ability to bring change was the most important quality in a candidate, who made up a majority of the Democratic electorate.

Obama’s promised “universal health care, full employment, a green America, and an America respected instead of feared by its enemies”.

John McCain quickly adopted similar campaign themes against Obama at the start of the general election campaign.

Economy

In the fall of 2008, many news sources were reporting that the economy was suffering its most serious downturn since the Great Depression. During this period, John McCain's election prospects fell with several politically costly comments about the economy.

Debates

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced four debates:

ü September 26: The first presidential debate took place at the University of Mississippi. The central issues debated were supposed to be foreign policy and national security. However, due to the economic climate, some questions appeared on this topic. The debate was formatted into nine nine-minute segments, and the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, introduced the topics.

ü October 2: The vice-presidential debate was hosted at Washington University in St. Louis, and was moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS.

ü October 7: The second presidential debate took place at Belmont University. It was a town meeting format debate moderated byNBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, and addressed issues raised by members of the audience, particularly the economy.

ü October 15: The third and final presidential debate was hosted at Hofstra University. It focused on domestic and economic policy. Like the first presidential debate, it was formatted into segments, with moderator Bob Schieffer introducing the topics.

Another debate was sponsored by the Columbia University political union and took place there on October 19.

Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama created a broad popular movement and a new method of campaigning by courting and mobilizing activists, donations, and voters through the Internet. It was part of a campaign that mobilized grassroots workers in every state.

Election

Election Day was on November 4, 2008. Obama won the entire Northeast and the Great Lakes states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

McCain managed to hold on to traditionally Republican states like North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona (his home state).

Obama won Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Obama also won the hotly contested states of Iowa and New Mexico. Also, for only the second time since 1940 (1964 being the other), Indiana went Democratic.

Obama was immediately declared the winner in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii.

Following Obama's speech, spontaneous street parties broke out in cities across the United States including Philadelphia, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, Madison, and New York City and around the world in London; Bonn; Berlin; Obama, Japan; Toronto; Rio de Janeiro; Sydney; and Nairobi.

Analysis

Obama, having a Caucasian mother and Kenyan father of the Luo ethnic group, became the first African American and the first bi-racial president. Obama became the first Democratic candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976, the first to win a majority of both votes and states since Lyndon Johnson in1964, and the first Northern Democrat to win a majority of both votes and states since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

Впервые в истории США за президентское кресло боролись два действующих сенатора. Впервые оба кандидата от основных партий родились вне континентальной территории США — Обама на Гавайях, а Маккейн в Зоне Панамского канала. Впервые с 1952 годов в выборах не участвовали ни действующий президент, ни действующий вице-президент (Джордж Буш-младший по Конституции не мог баллотироваться на третий срок, а Ричард Чейни неоднократно и решительно отвергал все попытки выдвинуть его в президенты).

Праймериз (предварительные выборы) Этап президентских выборов, позволяющий определить ведущих претендентов на президентский пост от основных политических партий. Предварительные выборы могут быть открытыми [open primary], закрытыми [closed primary], обязательными [mandatory primaries], необязательными [optional primaries] и беспартийными [non-partizan primaries]. В той или иной форме праймериз проводятся в абсолютном большинстве штатов США с февраля по июнь года президентских выборов.

The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses held in each U.S. state and territory is part of the nominating process of United States presidential elections. This process was never included in the United States Constitution, and thus was created over time by the political parties. Some states only hold primary elections, some only hold caucuses, and others use a combination of both. These primaries and caucuses are staggered between January and June before the general election in November. The primary elections are run by state and local governments, while caucuses are private events that are directly run by the political parties themselves.

Caucuses ['kɔːkəs] - закрытое собрание членов политической партии (для выдвижения кандидатов на предстоящие выборы или для выработки политической линии).

Polls - избирательный участок, список избирателей, голосование, выборы, баллотировка.

endorsed [ɪn'dɔːs] - подтверждать, одобрять; поддерживать, рекомендовать.

Nominee	Barack Obama	John McCain
Party	Democratic	Republican
Home state	Illinois	Arizona

Дата добавления: 2015-11-05