Running head: The 2008 ELECTION 1

The 2008 Election

Jovianna I Lazo

P3 Cummings

The Polls Have Spoken

The 2008 ELECTION2

Abstract

On February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois, Obama officially announced his candidacy for

president. A victory in the Iowa caucuses in January 2008 made him a viable challenger to the

early frontrunner, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, whom he outlasted in a grueling primary

campaign to claim the Democratic nomination in early June 2008.

Keywords: Victory
The 2008 ELECTION3

The 2008 Election

On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected

Illinois senator Barack Obama their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-

term US senator. When he was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, the countrys first African

American president. He also was the first sitting U.S. senator to win election to the presidency

since John F. Kennedy in 1960. With the highest voter turnout rate in four decades, Obama and

Delaware senator Joe Biden defeated the Republican ticket of Arizona senator John McCain,

who sought to become the oldest person elected president to a first term in U.S. history, and

Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who attempted to become the second woman vice president in the

countrys history.

[Heading 1]

In terms of campaign issues, Obama pledged to get the United States out of the war in

Iraq and expand health care, among other promises. A crushing national financial crisis in the

months leading up to the election shifted the countrys focus to the economy, and Obama and

McCain each attempted to show he had the best plan for economic improvement.

[Heading 2]

Late that night, the president-elect appeared before a huge crowd of supporters in Chicagos

Grant Park and delivered a speech in he which acknowledged the historic nature of his victory

(which came 143 years after the end of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery): If

there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible,

who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power

of our democracy, tonight is your answer Its been a long time coming, but tonight, because of

what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.
The 2008 ELECTION4

[Heading 3].

George W. Bush's policies and actions and the American public's desire for change were

key issues throughout the campaign. During the presidential election campaign, the major-party

candidates ran on a platform of change and reform in Washington. Domestic policy and the

economy eventually emerged as the main themes in the last few months of the election campaign

after the onset of the 2008 economic crisis

[Heading 4].

Democrat Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated

Republican John McCain. Nine states changed allegiance from the 2004 election. Each had voted

for the Republican nominee in 2004 and contributed to Obama's sizable Electoral College

victory. The selected electors from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia voted for

President and Vice President of the United States on December 15, 2008. Those votes were

tallied before a joint session of Congress on January 8, 2009. Obama received 365 electoral

votes, and McCain 173. (Lazo,2017)

The 2008 ELECTION5

References
The 2008 ELECTION6

History.com Staff. (2009). Barack Obama. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/barack-obama

History.com Staff. (2009). Barack Obama. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/barack-obama

History.com Staff. (2009). Barack Obama. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/barack-obama