Your 2008 Presidential Winner: Barack Obama

Despite being the winner, this was a rough campaign for Obama. It was a campaign where John McCain's Straight-Talk Express saw itself derail, and turn into a massive blob of vitriol and hatred.

And that was after a run for the nomination against Hillary Clinton that was close and hard-fought, and some said exhausted both camps, despite Obama's being the winner.

That was just the start of an even harder task: the actual run for the Presidency.

For while John McCain always prided himself on being a maverick, but as the actual Presidential campaign continued, it was evident that the GOP and McCain were choosing to focus not on becoming a winner on issues, but on character assassination and innuendo.

The 2008 election marked the first time since 1928 in which neither an incumbent President nor an incumbent Vice President ran for their party's nomination in the presidential election, and the first time since 1952 that neither the incumbent President nor incumbent Vice President was a candidate in the general election.

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr., a Kenyan, and Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii where his father was a foreign student. They later separated and divorced. His father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.

After remarrying, Obama's mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995.
For Obama, it was not a life of privilege, something brought up in the campaign. He eventually returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979. This differs greatly from John McCain, who was born with a silver spoon, and certainly of Cindy McCain, who is chair of Hensley & Co., founded by her father and one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the United States.

At one time in the campaign, McCain tried to characterize Obama as "elite," but based on his income and material wealth compared to Obama, this was a poor comparison.

That was just one of the attempts made by McCain and the GOP in this election, to negate Obama's edge. But Obama campaigned on change, and it was also clear from his sheer, nearly rock-star like quality and eloquent and --- dare I say --- Presidential way of speaking, that he had the qualities that could grab the public ... and he did, becoming the eventual winner.

While in John McCain's last few days on the trail he saw crowds as small as 1,000, Obama had crowds as large as 100,000 at his stump speeches. Additionally, some saw Obama's message: Hope, and Change, and it drew new and younger voters into the mix.

Still, the McCain campaign brought out some dirty tricks. and had some ammo, as well.

a) Reverend Wright, the former pastor of Obama's church, had made some clearly radical statements regarding in the past, and this was picked on by the McCain camp. But Obama pulled off what some would say is one of the greatest orations in history,in Philadelphia on March 18, an address, entitled "A More Perfect Union" that addressed issues of race. This speech clarified Obama's position, separating him from Wright, as well as giving an honest look at race relations in the U.S.

A New York Times editorial praised the speech, saying, "Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better."

It was a trancendent momemt, one worthy of the eventual winner.

b) While the Wright case tied Obama to a somewhat radical Christian pastor, some tried to call Obama a Muslim. This was debunked by the well-known site Snopes.

c) Some tried to use his middle name, Hussein, which was taken from his father, as a weapon. Well, a name does not make a Muslim.

d) Some even called him an Arab. Once again, a lie.

e) He was tied, somewhat vaguely, to Bill Ayers, once of the radical Weather Underground, a terrorist organization. Of course, the fact was that Bill Ayers was a terrorist when Obama was 8. And the link, one based on the fact that in 1995, Ayers hosted "a coffee" for "Mr. Obama's first run for office."

Why the big deal? Trying to add all the issues: Muslim, Arab, Terrorist together, and build on fear, as the GOP is wont to do.

f) Some tried to claim Barack Obama's birth certificate was a forgery and that he had not been born in Hawaii. Why? Because his mother was a citizen and his father was not; at the time you either had to be born in the U.S. to be a citizen or have both parents of U.S. citizenship. In 1986 this was changed; if either parent is a citizen the child is one as well. At any rate, once again this was debunked by Snopes.

But Obama made many key moves, and one key move for Obama, which he made based on the grass roots popularity that favored him, was divesting himself of public funding. By doing so, he would outside John McCain by a huge amount.

And one big mistake for McCain, made the day after Obama's Democratic nomination acceptance speech in Denver, was the naming of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his VP nominee. While this played heavily on the fact that Obama had passed over Hillary Clinton for his VP pick, selecting Joe Biden instead, McCain erred greatly in his choice.

Sarah Palin, though possessing the same chromosome that Clinton did, making her a woman, had neither the experience or knowledge to be a VP, much less a president which, based on McCain's age of 72, was a likely prospect.

To be honest, in her series of interviews with Katie Couric she came across as confused, uninformed, and to some, downright intellectually challenged.

While this was a big mistake, it was the U.S. economic crisis that took down John McCain. Before that, he was close, or even leading in many polls. After the huge meltdown on Wall Street, the bottom started to fall out, gradually, from under his poll numbers.

Certainly Bush was a major drag on McCain. His administration was blamed for the crisis on Wall Street, and McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time --- a damning fact.

McCain's final desperation move in the closing days was to say that people should vote Obama in because it would create an all-Democratic advantage in the Executive and Legislative branches. This was somewhat of a confusing tactic, as no one complained when the GOP held them both.

As tonight unfolded, it started badly for Obama, with most of the states, which granted, were already polled and marked for McCain, moving in that direction.

But then the first news came in: Pennsylvania for Obama. That was a big win, but it was a blue state they wanted to keep blue. Then Ohio for Obama, a red state changing to blue. That seemed to signal a turning point in the night.

Obama went over the top at 8PM, when polls closed in the Western states, as electoral votes from California, Oregon and Washington were added to Obama's tally.

Add to that Virginia, which came in later, and you have a landslide. At the time of this writing, the total is 297 - 146, and Obama needed 270 to win.

And there are still close races in several states, including Florida. This was truly a lambasting of the old political system.

Obama will speak in Grant Part in Chicago later tonight, with thousands --- and Oprah --- in attendance.

A huge, huge sea change. And the world will awake tomorrow to a historic day.