The 2008 presidential election is often referred to as a marked progressive turning point in American political culture. While this is indeed the case in some respects, it is important to keep in mind, as Lieb and Kroeger pointed out11, that the diversity of candidates can be viewed as the inevitable result of pre-existing trends. In other words, it was the result of social evolutionary progress, not a sudden revolutionary shift in American socio-political thought. This viewpoint is supported by polling data compiled over the three decades preceding the 2008 election (Table 2).
Table 2: As can be seen, American attitudes towards the possibility of a female or African-American president show a growing favorable trend in the decades prior to the 2008 election.
Inevitable or not, the 2008 election was the first to have serious female or African-American contenders and the significance of that fact was not lost on the electorate- the 2008 presidential primaries and general election had record voter turnout. The 2008 Democratic primaries were especially contentious, notable for their 'dirty tricks' and numerous legal battles.
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By early 2008 the democratic contest had narrowed down to a heated battle between Illinois senator Barack Obama, and former first lady and New York senator Hillary Clinton, with neither candidate enjoying a decisive lead until the July 2008 Lansing Compromise resolved the delegate crisis in Obama's favor. In her 2017 autobiography, "Making a Difference, a Very Personal Look Back on a Public Life", Clinton referred to her April 2008 decision to mount a legal challenge to the initial assignment of delegates (A decision that led to the Michigan Crisis and ultimately the Lansing Compromise) as "Easily the greatest blunder of my political career".
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The Republican race for the presidency was also tumultuous, with Arizona senator, and Republican nominee, John McCain facing persistent questions over the financing of his campaign, his close ties to numerous lobbyists, and allegations of possible past criminal wrong-doing by his running mate, Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Despite these problems, poll numbers prior to 10/01/08 showed McCain and Obama in a statistical tie.
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Interestingly, while race and gender were obviously critical factors in the campaign for president, both campaigns avoided open acknowledgement of the issue. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis would later refer to 'the race issue' in a 2012 opinion article in the New York Times, calling it "...the 900 pound donkey in the room, everyone avoided looking at it, everyone avoided agitating it- we all pretended it wasn't there, but at the same time we were damn careful about where we put our feet". Questionable metaphors aside, consideration of race and gender certainly shaped the McCain and Obama campaigns. In April 2008 McCain chose Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison as his running mate in an attempt to garner some of the female electorate that was expected to vote for Clinton. Obama's choice of New Mexico govenor Bill Richardson for his running mate was an attempt to woo Hispanic-American voters, who were then a sizeable minority, and considered less inclined to vote for an African-American candidate.
All such issues became secondary, however, with the massive terrorist attacks of October first 2008. The 10-01 attacks, despite their lower death toll, likely affected Americans more strongly than the attacks of 9-11-2001. The simultaneous use of numerous Radiological Incendiary Devices (R.I.D.s) in the cities of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City- followed by the very public suicide bombings seen live on TV, the airline crashes and suspenion of air-traffic all combined to seriously traumatize an already anxious public.
The percieved inadequate emergency response and lack of decisive action taken by the Bush administration in reacting to the attacks led to public outrage at the administration, and- by extenion- McCain. The attitude of the American public, already tired of a long and unpopular war and an economy in recession turned decisively against the Republican party. This backlash against the Republicans caught most political pundits of the time by surprise, it was generally accepted that the spectre of the terrorist threat only bolstered the Republican party's standing. Hillary Clinton herself said as much in August of 2007 when she speculated on the effect a pre-election terrorist attack could have: "...if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world." Prior to the 10-01 attacks McCain had increasingly pointed to the lack of terrorist attacks as being evidence of the success of the Bush administration's policies, and advocated 'staying the course'. After 10-01 critics pointed to this stance as evidence of poor judgement.
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Obama was often criticized for his lack of experience, however, it is hard to argue that any possible president could have been prepared for the national and global economic meltdown, and the crises that followed in the opening of his presidential term.
President Obama and the 'Hundred Days of Hell'
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Quoted from a book I have found educational: "American Political Trends of the New Millenium" 2nd edition, by Dr. Fredrick Lawrence, published by D.B. Freeman and Co., (2053)
Signed- You don't know me yet, but I am not who you will think I am. ;-)
My apologies to 'lay low', my once and future friend from otherwhen, in retrospective advance for the sore heads this causes.
