Presidential Election 2008

The road to the White House is a long one. A candidate runs through the long gauntlet of the primaries, starting almost two years before the general election. They are then christened by their respective party's national convention to be sent off and tempered by the flames of the general election. Character attacks, ghosts of the past and smears ensue. It has been a tumultuous election year. This was the most wide-open race since 1928, that was the last time a sitting vice-president or incumbent president had not run. Here is how the victor made it through.

The Primaries Democrats

The early front-runners in Iowa (America's first caucus) were Sen. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. Early in the primary, Clinton would tout her role as the "inevitable" candidate. When the smoke cleared after the caucus, she came up in third, just behind Edwards. Obama surprisingly came in first with 38 percent of the delegates awarded.

Thanks to the Democratic Parties 2008 primary rules, the primary was far from over. The new rules awarded primary delegates based on proportional representation. Obama ended up with 16 delegates, Edwards 15 and Clinton with 14. Clinton went on to squeak out a win in the next contest, the primary in New Hampshire. Next was Nevada. Clinton won the popular vote there but, thanks to the nature of caucuses, received fewer votes than Obama (who carried rural areas). In South Carolina, Former President Bill Clinton stumped for his wife and drew criticism for injecting racism into the race; African Americans were one of his strongest bases beforehand. Hillary ended up being beat 2 to 1 by Obama in South Carolina. Bill drew even more fire when he compared these results to Jesse Jackson's 1988 primary win there. Edwards dropped out but did not bestow his delegates on one of his opponents (late in the race he endorsed Obama). On Super Tuesday, Obama won 13 states (79 percent of the vote in Idaho), while Hillary won 10. They still remained in a dead heat in delegate totals. Clinton banked on her undecided superdelegate advantage and uncounted delegates from the Michigan (Obama wasn't even on the ballot there, 35 percent of the voters voted for not Clinton) and Florida primaries to clinch the nomination. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) stripped both state's delegates because both put their primaries too early. Obama steadily chipped away at that lead. Finally, the D.N.C. ruled that half of Michigan and Florida delegates would be seated. Clinton vowed to appeal the ruling. Death bells were ringing for her campaign. Obama had a sizeable delegate lead and finally broke even in superdelegates. Obama clinched the nomination when Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed him on June 7.

Republicans

With the incumbent president leaving and his Veep saying he would not run, the Republican primary was just as wide open as the Democratic one. The top contenders in Iowa, the first contest, were Rudy Giuliani (former mayor of NYC), Mitt Romney (Former Governor of Massachusetts), Fred Thompson (Senator turned actor) and Mike Huckabee (former governor of Arkansas). John McCain skipped Iowa and concentrated on New Hampshire, where he won in the 2000 primary. Huckabee ended up winning Iowa even though Romney, who came in second, outspent him 40-1. McCain, who was good with independents, won New Hampshire, with Romney taking second again. Romney had the advantage of his vast personal fortune. His downfall was, as a practicing Mormon, he had problems with evangelicals (a major part of the GOP base) of whom some viewed his faith as a cult. Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, was popular with social conservatives. His problem was a lack of money. He ended up with a second place in South Carolina, with McCain ahead and Romney in third. Thompson dropped out after South Carolina; his run was seen as underwhelming and half-hearted. Giuliani, whose campaign was mainly built around his role as a leader after the 9/11 attacks, did miserably in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He was banking on Florida's primary, where he ended up placing fourth and dropping out of the race. John McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Ron Paul were the only candidates left going into Super Tuesday. McCain won 9 states, Romney 7, Huckabee 5 and Paul none. Unlike the Democratic primary, the GOP does not use proportional representation in many of its primaries/caucuses. Because of this, McCain came out of Super Tuesday with a substantial lead. Romney dropped out afterwards. Huckabee stayed in until McCain reached the magic number of delegates to clinch the nomination. Paul never dropped out but had less than a percent of the delegates at the Republican National Convention.

The General Election

With Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee and John McCain as the Republican, the election season had begun. The Democrat's worries that Hillary supporters would not reconcile with Barack's turned out to be unfounded. McCain's campaign lacked energy. Many Republican's thought he was not conservative enough. He attempted to solve both of these problems with his Vice President pick, Sarah Palin (governor of Alaska). She provided an immediate boost to his poll numbers and media coverage. The boost was dampened by her interviews with Katie Couric, with some Republicans calling for her to resign. In these interviews, Palin came off badly to say the least (watch "Palin can't name a newspaper she reads" or "supreme court case she disagrees with other than Roe vs. Wade" on http://www.youtube.com). Criticism of Palin has been labeled as sexism by her supporters. Barack Obama quietly chose Joe Biden (senior senator from New Jersey) as his running mate to offset his own perceived lack of foreign policy experience. Biden is a known talker that is guilty of many gaffes (i.e. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy."). The Obama campaign had been holding him back in the final days of the election trying to keep the gaffes to a minimum. Allegations of racism have plagued the Republican side. At some of Palin rallies, the crowds would yell Barack Hussein (Obama's middle name). An assertion employed to infer that he is Muslim, which he is not. As the economy soured McCain's foreign policy went with it. Both sides promised to tread the high road, but the campaign has gotten very dirty. In all three debates, Obama polled as the winner. But McCain finally found a stirring rally cry after scrambling for one, that Obama would raise taxes to "spread the wealth around." In the last month of the campaign Obama led in polls of key battleground states. McCain narrowed the lead in the days before the election. With Obama, America would have its first African-American as president; with McCain, its oldest to take the office. It will be a tight race. We will know who the victor is when the smoke clears.