THE 2008 USA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Name:
Course title:
Instructor:
Institution:
Date Due:
THE 2008 USA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Introduction
In the year 2008, after rigorous presidential campaign that had lasted for more than two years, the US citizens elected Barack Obama as 44th president of the USA. This was an historic event, as Obama, being an Illinois based first-time senator became the nation’s first time Negro President. He also sets history by becoming the first time senator to win presidential elections from the time of President John F. Kennedy in 1960. The election also saw a large number of voters turning out as Obama outmatched his greatest rival John McCain, the oldest candidate in the presidential race. In this election, Obama had scooped more than half of the total votes. This paper will evaluate the political environment at the time of the campaign, Obama’s strengths and weaknesses during this time, challenges he encountered, the strategies he employed, the keys that led to the victory and our viewpoints on what it takes to become president today.
The 2008 Political Environment in USA
Hillary Clinton was one of the competitions for the nomination of the presidential ticket under the Democratic Party. During this electioneering period, she formed a committee and filed with the FEC for the nomination of the Democratic Party. Consequently, she sought campaign money through fundraisings and started her vigorous campaigns for her presidential bid. For many months preceding the election period, she was the leading among other presidential contestants in opinion polls. However, Obama started to pull closer by substantial margins in these opinions polls until he became even with her. Hillary then regained her opinion leads by large margins. For instance, in the autumn of 2007, she was the leader among other candidates in the Democratic Party by large margins in the opinion polls. However, the subsequent opinion polls saw her lose popularity and therefore l...