Tag: 2008 presidential election

by Logan Scisco

The 2008 elections, an election cycle some extempers have been speaking about for the last two and a half years has finally come to a close.  The election result, unlike 2000 and 2004, was announced at the end of evening, with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois becoming the first African-American to be elected as the President of the United States.  Obama won the election by a large margin in the Electoral College, at last count 365 to Senator John McCain’s 162, and also won a commanding margin of the popular vote, 52% to 46% (independent candidate Ralph Nader won 1% of the vote).  Obama’s share of the popular vote was the first time a Democratic candidate has won over 50% of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in 1976.

Obama’s victory was accompanied by Democratic triumphs in Congressional races across the country.  In the House of Representatives, Democrats expanded their majority by twenty seats and in the Senate, the Democrats added to their majority by six seats, with three races in Georgia, Minnesota, and Alaska being subject to recounts, absentee ballot counts, or runoffs.  If the Democrats win all three of those contested races they would have a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which would be intact for the first two years of an Obama administration.

This topic brief will give a brief analysis of why Obama managed to win, why McCain lost the election, and where the Republican Party goes from here for the 2012 elections.

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The 2008 elections, an election cycle some extempers have been speaking about for the last two and a half years has finally come to a close.  The election result, unlike 2000 and 2004, was announced at the end of evening, with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois becoming the first African-American to be elected as the President of the United States.  Obama won the election by a large margin in the Electoral College, at last count 365 to Senator John McCain’s 162, and also won a commanding margin of the popular vote, 52% to 46% (independent candidate Ralph Nader won 1% of the vote).  Obama’s share of the popular vote was the first time a Democratic candidate has won over 50% of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in 1976.

Obama’s victory was accompanied by Democratic triumphs in Congressional races across the country.  In the House of Representatives, Democrats expanded their majority by twenty seats and in the Senate, the Democrats added to their majority by six seats, with three races in Georgia, Minnesota, and Alaska being subject to recounts, absentee ballot counts, or runoffs.  If the Democrats win all three of those contested races they would have a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which would be intact for the first two years of an Obama administration.

This topic brief will give a brief analysis of why Obama managed to win, why McCain lost the election, and where the Republican Party goes from here for the 2012 elections.

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Background

There is no doubt that any extemper worth their mettle will be watching the election returns on November 4^th and already begin thinking of the many questions they will receive about the next presidential administration, the fallout from the election, the legacy of George W. Bush that was reflected in the election, and why the candidate who ends up losing ended up doing so.  This is also the very last week for competitors to receive questions they have been receiving since the 2004 election ended which asked “Who will win the 2008 presidential election?”  That question will be resolved, barring another Florida/Ohio scenario, on Tuesday evening.

Due to the fact that this is the last week extempers could receive a question on the 2008 presidential candidates, I felt that it was timely to write this brief.  In two weeks I will break down the 2008 presidential election results (as well as Congressional results) and offer some additional analysis for extempers to ponder.

This brief will focus primarily on the presidential contest between Illinois Senator Barack Obama and Arizona Senator John McCain, but will focus briefly at the end about the odds of the Democrats achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate.

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