United States in 21th century : The Presidential Election

The financial crisis came right in the midst of the presidential election campaign between the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, and the Republican candidate, John McCain. Although Obama was leading in the polls and was widely regarded as the frontrunner, McCain made missteps in the midst of the crisis that probably cost him the election. First, he tried to reassure voters by calling the economy “fundamentally sound,” although the depths of the economic crisis soon became apparent. Then, he attempted to cancel the second of three presidential debates, saying he was suspending his campaign so that he could return to Washington, D.C., to help fashion a rescue plan. However, McCain played a relatively insignificant role in the negotiations between the Bush administration and Congress over the rescue plan, and his attempt to cancel the debate struck many observers as somewhat erratic and without justification. Obama blamed Bush’s economic policies of deregulation for the crisis and linked those policies to McCain, who had also been an advocate of deregulation. Having already made the case that McCain supported Bush in backing the U.S.-Iraq War, Obama’s strategy of linking McCain with the unpopular Bush appeared to prove successful. Obama began to surge in most of the polls, especially in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, where economic issues were primary for most voters.

In the end Obama was swept into office as a result of widespread dissatisfaction with eight years of the Republican-led Bush administration and growing fears over the economy. He won 53 percent of the popular vote, the most for a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson, and his tally of 365 electoral college votes was impressive.

In becoming the first African American president, Obama put together an impressive coalition that included blacks, Hispanics, and other minority groups and a significant share of the white vote. He won three Southern states—Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia—and made inroads in the West by winning Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, states that were formerly reliable as Republican strongholds in presidential elections.

With solid support in the Northeast and on the West Coast, the Democrats threatened to make the Republicans a regional, minority party based in the Deep South and the Plains states. Perhaps more threatening to the Republicans, Obama won among all age groups except for those 65 and older. He won overwhelmingly among those aged 29 and younger and among first-time voters, mostly those who had just turned 18. There were no clear class differences in the 2008 election. Although Obama won easily among those earning less than $15,000 a year and although he won a majority of union households, he also won or held even among all other income groups, including those making more than $100,000 annually.

For many observers of American history, Obama’s election was a transformative event, signaling a new era in race relations in the United States and establishing an important milestone in African American history and achievements. Some even called it the final chapter of the American Civil War, or at the very least the fulfillment of the Reconstruction era and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Encarta