Before McCain said the “fundamentals of the economy are strong” and picked Palin to sink his chances, Obama ensured to win in Iowa during the Democratic nominations… here is a speech that many say propelled him to convince voters than “white voters” would in fact support a Black President:
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Now that the election is over, Newsweek is at liberity to reveal all the juicy gossip it’s been saving up throughout the campaign. Here are a few nuggets:
- $150,000 is actually a low estimate for the amount Sarah Palin spent on her wardrobe.
- The Secret Service found “a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October” after vitrolic Palin rallies.
- McCain’s advisers decided not to tell him the campaign was over before his last debate.
- Palin brought up Obama’s relationship with William Ayers without McCain’s approval.
- McCain set the following boundaries: “no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military.”
- Obama didn’t choose Hillary Clinton because of her husband. This relieved McCain.
- Hillary Clinton and John McCain are friends who do shots together.
- Before her RNC speech, Sarah Palin greeted campaign advisors wearing only a towel.
The majority of voters cited the economy as the key issue for them in this campaign, unsurprisingly. This information helps shed light on when, exactly, John McCain lost his chance at the White House. You’d think it would be difficult to pinpoint the exact moment (or moments, at least) when an election is lost for a candidate. Journalist and columnist Daniel Gross asks these questions about McCain and his campaign:
But when, precisely, did John McCain lose the narrative on the economy? Was it last July, when economic adviser Phil Gramm, discussing the “mental recession,” noted that “we’ve sort of become a nation of whiners”? Perhaps it was back in December 2007, when McCain said, “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” Or was McCain’s economic goose cooked long before the campaigns started? Ray Fair, the Yale professor who plugs macroeconomic data into an election-predicting model, said that “since November 2006, the model has consistently been predicting that the Democratic candidate would get about 52 percent of the two-party vote.” (Read more…)
In fact, the beginning of McCain’s loss can be traced back to mid-September of this year. On the brink of economic crisis, the man told a crowd in Jacksonville, Florida that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
McCain’s misstatement about the economy’s strength was a symptom of a bigger problem for his campaign (that his team had no set narrative or strategy, while Obama stayed strong and true to his message throughout the campaign. Read more about that here.)
Once he admitted there was a problem with the economy, McCain suspended his campaign to fly to Washington and find a solution. He was unable to convince Obama he should do the same, and finally resumed his campaign without having solved anything.
Finally, the third debate. Joe the Plummer, while a wonderful “mascot,” could not stack up to the concrete former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Warren Buffett presented by Obama.
The point is: Obama ran a flawless campaign that stuck to a clear message. He stayed away, for the most part, from issues of race - not using it as a crutch to win votes, but also overcoming it as an issue with some white voters. There were many obstacles to overcome, which Obama did. And now he can apply that know-how to running the United States. Read more for a run-down of Obama’s whole campaign…
Kenya has declared Thursday a national holiday, in honor of Barack Obama being elected US president. Obama’s father was from Kenya, and the people see his election as a step in the right direction. Read more…
