The 2008 Electoral College Map: A Nation Divided and a Historic Victory

The 2008 United States presidential election, held on November 4, 2008, marked a significant turning point in American history. The election saw the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeat the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. This election was unique for several reasons, including the fact that neither the incumbent president nor vice president was on the ballot for the first time since 1952. Furthermore, it was the first time the Republican Party nominated a woman for Vice President. The election also saw the highest voter turnout in at least 40 years.

The Candidates and Their Campaigns

The candidates for president typically seek the nomination of a political party, in which case each party devises a method to choose a candidate for the position. The general election in November is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the president and vice president.

Democratic Primaries: A Battle Between Obama and Clinton

The Democratic primaries were marked by a sharp contest between Obama and the initial front-runner, former first lady and Senator Hillary Clinton. Other challengers, including Senators John Edwards and Joe Biden, dropped out before most of the primaries were held.

Obama became the new front runner in New Hampshire, when his poll numbers skyrocketed after his Iowa victory. The Clinton campaign was struggling after a huge loss in Iowa and no strategy beyond the early primaries and caucuses. According to The Vancouver Sun, campaign strategists had "mapped a victory scenario that envisioned the former first lady wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination by Super Tuesday on Feb.

California was one of the Super Tuesday states that could provide a large number of delegates to the candidates. Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia primaries and the Washington and Maine caucuses all took place after Super Tuesday in February. Only one state held a primary in April. This was Pennsylvania, on April 22. Although Obama made a strong effort to win Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton won that primary by nearly 10%, with approximately 55% of the vote. Obama had outspent Clinton three to one in Pennsylvania, but his comment at a San Francisco fundraiser that small-town Americans "cling" to guns and religion drew sharp criticism from the Clinton campaign and may have hurt his chances in the Keystone State. In addition, Clinton had several advantages in Pennsylvania. Throughout the primary process, she relied on the support of older, white, working class voters. Pennsylvania held a closed primary, which means that only registered Democrats could vote.

After Pennsylvania, Obama had a higher number of delegates and popular votes than Clinton did and was still in a stronger position to win the nomination. On May 6, North Carolina and Indiana held their Democratic presidential primaries. Clinton and Obama campaigned aggressively there before the voting took place. During late 2007, the two parties adopted rules against states' moving their primaries to an earlier date in the year. The Democratic Party allowed only four states to hold elections before February 5, 2008. There was some speculation that the fight over the delegates could last until the convention in August. On May 31, 2008, the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic Party reached a compromise on the Florida and Michigan delegate situation. In June, after the last of the primaries had taken place, Obama secured the Democratic nomination for president, with the help of multiple super delegate endorsements.

He was the first African American to win the nomination of a major political party in the United States. For several days, Clinton refused to concede the race, although she signaled her presidential campaign was ending in a post-primary speech on June 3 in her home state of New York. She finally conceded the nomination to Obama on June 7.

Republican Primaries: McCain Emerges as the Frontrunner

McCain secured the Republican nomination by March 2008, defeating his main challengers Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, and selected Palin as his running mate.

Huckabee, winner of Iowa, had little to no money and hoped for at least a third-place finish in New Hampshire. McCain eventually displaced Rudy Giuliani and Romney as the front runner in New Hampshire. With the Republicans stripping Michigan and Florida of half their delegates for moving their primaries into January 2008 against party rules, the race for the nomination was based there. McCain was also endorsed in February by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger before the California primary took place on Super Tuesday. This gave him a significant boost in the polls for the state's primary, which awarded the greatest number of delegates of all the states.

On Super Tuesday, McCain won his home state of Arizona, taking all 53 delegates. He also won nearly all of California's 173 delegates, the largest of the Super Tuesday prizes. McCain also scored wins in seven other states, picking up 574 delegates. Huckabee was the "surprise performer", winning 5 states and 218 delegates. Romney won 7 states and 231 delegates. Two days later, Romney suspended his presidential campaign, saying that if he stayed in the race, he would "forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win". His departure left Huckabee and Paul as McCain's only major challengers in the remaining primaries and caucuses. Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Washington held primaries in February after Super Tuesday. Despite McCain picking up big victories, Huckabee won Louisiana and Kansas. McCain narrowly carried the Washington caucuses over Huckabee and Paul, who amassed a large showing. The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico closed February for the Republicans.

After Super Tuesday, John McCain had become the clear front runner, but by the end of February, he still had not acquired enough delegates to secure the nomination.

Third-Party Candidates

Along with the Democratic and Republican parties, three other parties nominated candidates with ballot access in enough states to win the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win the election. These were the Constitution Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party.

The Constitution Party nominated writer, pastor, and conservative talk show host Chuck Baldwin for president, and attorney Darrell Castle from Tennessee for vice president. While campaigning, Baldwin voiced his opposition to the Iraq War, the Sixteenth Amendment, Roe v.

The Green Party nominated former Democratic representative Cynthia McKinney from Georgia for president, and political activist Rosa Clemente from New York for vice president.

The Libertarian Party nominated former Republican representative Bob Barr from Georgia for president, and his former rival for the Libertarian nomination Wayne Allyn Root from Nevada, for vice president.

Key Issues in the 2008 Election

Several key issues dominated the 2008 election, shaping the candidates' platforms and influencing voters' decisions.

The Iraq War

Until the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, the unpopular Iraq War was a key issue during the campaign. John McCain supported the war while Barack Obama opposed it. Obama's early and strong opposition to the war helped him stand out against the other Democratic candidates during the primaries, as well as stand out to a war-weary electorate during the general campaign. Though McCain meant it as a peacetime presence like the United States maintained in Germany and Japan after World War II, his statement that the United States could be in Iraq for as much as the next 50 to 100 years would prove costly. John McCain's support for the troop 'surge' employed by General David Petraeus, which was one of several factors credited with improving the security situation in Iraq, may have boosted McCain's stance on the issue in voters' minds. McCain (who supported the invasion) argued that his support for the successful surge showed his superior judgment.

George W. Bush's Unpopularity

George W. Bush had become increasingly unpopular among Americans by late 2005 due in part by the growing unpopularity of the Iraq War domestically and internationally, as well as Bush's handling of the 2008 financial crisis and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. By the time Obama was elected as President of the United States on November 4, 2008, Bush's approval rating was in the low to mid 20s and his disapproval grew increasingly significant, being in the high 60s, and even low 70s in some polls. Polls consistently showed that his approval ratings among American voters had averaged around 30 percent. In March 2008, Bush endorsed McCain at the White House, but did not make a single appearance for McCain during the campaign. Bush appeared at the 2008 GOP convention only through a live video broadcast. Although he supported the war in Iraq, McCain made an effort to show that he had disagreed with Bush on many other key issues such as climate change.

Age and Experience

Similar to Senator Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, one of the more widely leveled charges against McCain was the issue of his ageâhe turned 72 in August and there was widespread concern about the idea of electing a man who would be 80 years old if he completed two full terms in office. In addition, McCain suffered from the ill effects of his captivity in North Vietnam and reportedly had difficulty lifting his arms above his head. His age in particular was considered a liability against the youthful Senator Obama, who was nearly twenty-five years his junior. McCain, by comparison, was born before World War II and belonged to the Silent Generation. Much like Bob Dole, McCain attempted to counter these charges by releasing all of his medical records, something Obama did not do. McCain's wife Cindy dismissed concerns about his health by arguing that "We went hiking the Grand Canyon last summer and [John] did great and had no trouble keeping up with us." McCain also appeared at several campaign stops with his still-active 95-year-old mother. If elected, McCain would have been the first president born in the 1930s.

Like the Clinton campaign in 1996, Obama avoided discussing McCain's age directly, instead preferring to simply call his ideas and message "old" and "old hat". He also made a strong appeal to youth voters and back during his primary contest with Hillary Clinton, had stated "When I watched the feud between the Clintons and [Newt Gingrich] unfold during the 1990s, I was reminded of old quarrels started on college campuses long ago.

Advantages for McCain and Obama on experience and the ability to bring change, respectively, remained steady through the November 4 election. However, final pre-election polling found that voters considered Obama's inexperience less of an impediment than McCain's association with sitting president George W. McCain appeared to undercut his line of attack by picking first-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Palin had been governor only since 2006, and before that had been a council member.

The Desire for Change

Outgoing Republican President George W. Bush's policies and actions and the American public's desire for change were key issues throughout the campaign. During the presidential election campaign, the major-party candidates ran on a platform of change and reform in Washington.

The Electoral College Map: A Visual Representation of the Outcome

The electoral college map provides a visual representation of the outcome of the election, showing which candidate won each state. Blue denotes states won by Obama/Biden and red denotes those won by McCain/Palin. This map is shaded by how large the popular vote difference was between the two nominees. It is a way to view the relative competitiveness of each state.

Obama won a decisive victory over McCain, winning the Electoral College and popular vote by sizable margins, and flipping nine states that had voted Republican in 2004: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia, as well as Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. He won every state in the Great Lakes region. He also received the largest share of the popular vote won by a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and was the first Democrat to win an outright majority of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. At the time, Obama also received the most popular votes in history, a record which would be broken in 2020.

Nebraska's Unique Electoral System

Nebraska uses a split system for allocating electoral votes. The state allocates one electoral vote to the winner of each of the state's three congressional districts, and the remaining two to the candidate who wins a plurality of the entire state's popular vote. Barack Obama won a plurality in the 2nd congressional district (Omaha), and therefore was awarded one of the state's five electoral votes. John McCain won a plurality in the 1st and 3rd districts, as well as the overall state vote and therefore was awarded four electoral votes.

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