Recent Presidential Elections

2008 Election

Results, Pre-Convention Smears

2008 Election Results

		Candidate	Party	Electoral Votes	Popular Votes
✓		Barack H. Obama	Democratic	365	69,456,897
		John S. McCain	Republican	173	59,934,814

The 56th quadrennial United States presidential election was held on November 4, 2008. 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. Domestic policy and the economy eventually emerged as the main themes in the last few months of the election campaign after the onset of the 2008 economic crisis.

Democrat Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain. Nine states changed allegiance from the 2004 election. Each had voted for the Republican nominee in 2004 and contributed to Obama's sizable Electoral College victory. …

There were several unique aspects of the 2008 election. The election was the first in which an African American was elected President. It was also the first time two sitting senators ran against each other. The 2008 election was the first in 56 years in which neither an incumbent president nor a vice president ran — Bush was constitutionally limited from seeking a third term by the Twenty-second Amendment; Vice President Dick Cheney chose not to seek the presidency. It was also the first time the Republican Party nominated a woman for Vice President (Sarah Palin, then-Governor of Alaska). Additionally, it was the first election in which both major parties nominated candidates who were born outside of the contiguous United States. Voter turnout for the 2008 election was the highest in at least 40 years (2008 1).

In the last three general elections – 2004, 2006, and 2008 — young voters have given the Democratic Party a majority of their votes, and for all three cycles they have been the party’s most supportive age group. This year, 66% of those under age 30 voted for Barack Obama making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.

 

This pattern of votes, along with other evidence about the political leanings of young voters, suggests that a significant generational shift in political allegiance is occurring. This pattern has been building for several years, and is underscored among voters this year. Among voters ages 18-29, a 19-point gap now separates Democratic party affiliation (45%) and Republican affiliation (26%). In 2000, party affiliation was split nearly evenly among the young.

Young voters are more diverse racially and ethnically than older voters and more secular in their religious orientation. These characteristics, as well as the climate in which they have come of age politically, incline them not only toward Democratic Party affiliation but also toward greater support of activist government, greater opposition to the war in Iraq, less social conservatism, and a greater willingness to describe themselves as liberal politically.

Young people were not, however, crucial to Barack Obama’s victory, according to the exit polls. Obama would have lost Indiana and North Carolina, but carried other key states such as Ohio and Florida, as well as the national vote. But young people provided not only their votes but also many enthusiastic campaign volunteers. Some may have helped persuade parents and older relatives to consider Obama’s candidacy. And far more young people than older voters reported attending a campaign event while nearly one-in-ten donated money to a presidential candidate.

While Obama captured 66% of the youth vote, compared with McCain’s 31%, voters age 30 and older divided roughly evenly between the two candidates. Among those ages 18-29, Obama took a majority among whites (54%-44%), and captured more than three-fourths of young Hispanic voters (76%-19%). However, among both younger and older voters, there was no difference in the vote of those with college experience and those without.

…

One of the most striking features of young voters is their racial and ethnic diversity. Just 62% of voters age 18-29 identify as white, while 18% are black and 14% Hispanic. Four years ago, this age group was 68% white. In 2000, nearly three-quarters (74%) of young voters were white.

Women significantly outnumber men among younger voters, constituting 55% of those 18-29 and 30-44. Among voters ages 45-64, 52% are female, while 51% of voters age 65 and older are women.

Compared with those age 30 and older, fewer young voters say they are affiliated with a religious tradition (16% vs. 12% overall), and fewer report regular attendance at worship services. Among all voters, 40% attend religious services weekly or more often; among those 18-29, just 33% do so (Rosentiel 1-2).

5 Reasons Why the 2008 Election Is Historic

1. Barack Obama is the first African-American ever to be elected president of the United States.

2. Joe Biden is the first Roman Catholic ever to serve as vice president.

3. It is estimated that 136.6 million Americans voted for president this election, up from 122.3 million in 2004. That would give 2008 a 64.1 percent voter turnout rate, the highest since 1908.

4. States achieved record voter turnout numbers of African-Americans and Hispanics. Whites are estimated to have made up 74 percent of the 2008 electorate, down from 81 percent in 2008 because of the increase in black and Hispanic voting. In North Carolina, blacks make up 22 percent of the population, but 31 percent of newly registered voters were black.

5. Obama raised more money in this election than any candidate in history.

Pre-Nomination Character Assassination

There are copious anti-Obama texts from the earliest days of his campaign … “proving” that Obama wouldn’t sing the national anthem or salute the flag, had an American flag removed from the exterior of his campaign plane, wouldn’t wear a flag pin, and dissed the Boy Scouts of America.

…

There are the beliefs that … he’s gay and had arranged for numerous lovers who referred to him as “Bathhouse Barry” to be killed so that they couldn’t out him. …

In the early days of the campaign following Obama’s announcement of his candidacy on December 10, 2007, very few of these texts were covered by the mainstream media. The Obama campaign took the position that to deny them in any kind of a conspicuous way would be to plant them in the minds of people who hadn’t yet heard them (Turner 422-423).

…

However, an inquiry from a reporter caused the Obama campaign in June 2008 to create a “Fight The Smears” tab on their campaign website (Pickler 2008). It wasn’t a rumor about Barack Obama that prompted the course correction; it was about Michelle, and the accusation was that she had used the word “whitey” from the pulpit of Jeremiah Wright’s church. And for the duration of the campaign, if you went to the website for Obama, this feature worked like a campaign-specific Snopes. But prior to the election, the Obamas rarely addressed the texts head-on. Instead, they clearly attempted to debunk the rumors by showcasing behaviors and practices that would negate them. Although his use of a flag pin had been irregular during the early days of the campaign, Obama soon made it a permanent fixture on his lapel. To this day, it is hard to find an image of him that doesn’t contain the flag pin or abundant patriotic iconography. The entire January 2009 inauguration ceremony can be read as an attempt by Obama and his team to discredit the slurs that had accumulated during the campaign. From his overcoat during the parade to his tuxedo at the inauguration balls, every garment he wore had a flag pin. Much to the consternation of many of his supporters, he chose an evangelical faith leader, Pastor Rick Warren, to read the invocation, and, no doubt to stifle any concerns that he was being sworn in with the Quran, he requested to be sworn in with the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln. ...

When the controversy over Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright reached critical mass last week, it was the political equivalent of the green flag at a NASCAR race. The conservative strategists and talkers had been slowly circling the track, feet itchy on the accelerator, just waiting for the signal to floor it. But now, as The Politico reported in a story titled "GOP sees Rev. Wright as path to victory," the Republican strategists know exactly what must be done …

… these kinds of attacks have their greatest power when they tap into pre-existing archetypes voters already carry with them, and the deeper they reside in our lizard brains the better. So they will make sure white Americans know that Obama is not Tiger Woods. He's not the unthreatening black man, he's the scary black man. He's Al Sharpton, he's Malcom X, he's Huey Newton. He'll throw grievance in your face, make you feel guilty, and who knows, maybe kill you and rape your wife. …

Pre-Nomination Character Assassination

There are copious anti-Obama texts from the earliest days of his campaign … “proving” that Obama wouldn’t sing the national anthem or salute the flag, had an American flag removed from the exterior of his campaign plane, wouldn’t wear a flag pin, and dissed the Boy Scouts of America.

…

There are the beliefs that … he’s gay and had arranged for numerous lovers who referred to him as “Bathhouse Barry” to be killed so that they couldn’t out him. …

In the early days of the campaign following Obama’s announcement of his candidacy on December 10, 2007, very few of these texts were covered by the mainstream media. The Obama campaign took the position that to deny them in any kind of a conspicuous way would be to plant them in the minds of people who hadn’t yet heard them (Turner 422-423).

…

However, an inquiry from a reporter caused the Obama campaign in June 2008 to create a “Fight The Smears” tab on their campaign website (Pickler 2008). It wasn’t a rumor about Barack Obama that prompted the course correction; it was about Michelle, and the accusation was that she had used the word “whitey” from the pulpit of Jeremiah Wright’s church. And for the duration of the campaign, if you went to the website for Obama, this feature worked like a campaign-specific Snopes. But prior to the election, the Obamas rarely addressed the texts head-on. Instead, they clearly attempted to debunk the rumors by showcasing behaviors and practices that would negate them. Although his use of a flag pin had been irregular during the early days of the campaign, Obama soon made it a permanent fixture on his lapel. To this day, it is hard to find an image of him that doesn’t contain the flag pin or abundant patriotic iconography. The entire January 2009 inauguration ceremony can be read as an attempt by Obama and his team to discredit the slurs that had accumulated during the campaign. From his overcoat during the parade to his tuxedo at the inauguration balls, every garment he wore had a flag pin. Much to the consternation of many of his supporters, he chose an evangelical faith leader, Pastor Rick Warren, to read the invocation, and, no doubt to stifle any concerns that he was being sworn in with the Quran, he requested to be sworn in with the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln. ...

When the controversy over Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright reached critical mass last week, it was the political equivalent of the green flag at a NASCAR race. The conservative strategists and talkers had been slowly circling the track, feet itchy on the accelerator, just waiting for the signal to floor it. But now, as The Politico reported in a story titled "GOP sees Rev. Wright as path to victory," the Republican strategists know exactly what must be done …

… these kinds of attacks have their greatest power when they tap into pre-existing archetypes voters already carry with them, and the deeper they reside in our lizard brains the better. So they will make sure white Americans know that Obama is not Tiger Woods. He's not the unthreatening black man, he's the scary black man. He's Al Sharpton, he's Malcom X, he's Huey Newton. He'll throw grievance in your face, make you feel guilty, and who knows, maybe kill you and rape your wife. …

…

The e-mails aren’t a well-funded, faux-grassroots smear like the attacks on John Kerry's war record.

Instead, most observers believe, it's a largely organic expression of a dark place in the American consciousness. And the campaign is aware it is operating in a changed media landscape in which a powerful, false idea can spread deep into the American psyche, almost entirely under the radar of the mainstream media and with no authoritative broadcast voice to put it to rest.

…

"We have no way of tracing where these e-mails come from, but what I know is they come in waves, and they somehow appear magically wherever the next primary or caucus is, although they're also being distributed all across the country. But the volume increases as we get closer to particular elections," he [Obama] said. "That indicates to me that this is something that is being used to try to raise doubts or suspicions about my candidacy."

The campaign's first public test in regards to the e-mail came on Jan. 17, 2007, not long after the researchers were first hired, when Insight Magazine, followed by Fox News, reported, falsely, that Obama had attended a radical Islamic madrassa as a child in Indonesia.

…

When Politico looked into the e-mails in mid-October [2007], reporters found that "Obama Muslim" had risen nearly to the top of Google Suggest, which tracks the frequency of Internet searches. Public polls suggested that substantial numbers of Americans would guess, if asked, that Obama was a Muslim.

By November, the campaign recognized it had a problem. Staffers were getting copies of the similar e-mails forwarded to them by concerned friends and family members. And the issue had begun to pick up steam on the ground in Iowa, where Obama had staked his campaign.

"Our field organizers started to raise some alarms," said Hildebrand. "They said, 'It's really, really out there. People are starting to ask about it.'"

His staff developed a set of talking points to debunk the claims. They printed copies of two letters from local religious leaders, attesting to Obama's faith. And they sent an e-mail to their lists of supporters in the four early primary states warning of and debunking the e-mailed smears, which also include claims that Obama's Chicago church is virulently anti-white and that Obama refuses to cover his heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

The e-mails were not confined to the early states—they ricocheted across almost every imaginable e-mail list. One copy went to a national list of family members of September 11 victims. One mass e-mail from a Department of Defense computer prompted the military to release a memorandum specifically banning the e-mail (Smith and Brown 1-3).

Here is an example of such an e-mail, declared false by snopes.com.

If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts…this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States…better heed this and pray about it and share it.

Who is Barack Obama?

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita, Kansas. Obama’s parents met at the University of Hawaii.

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, “He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.” Obama’s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical.

Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.

Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches.

Let us all remain alert concerning Obama’s expected presidential candidacy.

The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level – through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!! (Mikkelson 1)

Fact: Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father, and this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son’s education.

Willie Horton campaign ad maker Floyd Brown and a couple of other conservative activists are creating a YouTube and viral e-mail campaign against Barack Obama.

Image: Exposeobama.com – This new effort is a viral e-mail campaign that aims to frame Obama as a disastrous-for-the-country left-of-left liberal. It is on view at a website called ExposeObama.com.

…

… studies have shown that peer-to-peer communication of political ideas and opinions is more influential than TV ads in swaying voters' perceptions of candidates.

"ExposeObama.com is trying to create doubt, and trying to create momentum behind that doubt to hit at gut level," says Jeffrey Feldman, a cultural anthropologist and author of a couple of books on political rhetoric. "People won't necessarily think Barack Obama is a terrorist, but they will come to the conclusion: 'I just don't know about this Barack Obama guy.'"

"I think that these ideas will be imprinted in the public’s mind and [if Obama's elected] will cause problems to the Obama administration and to the Democratic party," he adds.

Obama's campaign created a counter-viral campaign this January when it attempted to fight back against the anonymous smear e-mails that have been circulating widely during this campaign cycle. The smear e-mails question Obama's religious and political leanings. To counter those, the Obama campaign created a web page with the facts about Obama’s background, and it allowed users to upload their e-mail address books to send those facts around.

 …

"We are a committed group of conservatives concerned that Barack Hussein Obama would be the worst possible President for America at this time, or any time," write the site's authors. "Obama is a liberal, only slightly more stylish than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, but equally dedicated to the same causes. He will not bring unity or harmony rather he will bring back the confusion, depression and humiliation of the dismal Carter era."

ExposeObama.com's executive director Bruce Hawkins writes:

We have also created a network, where thousands, even tens of thousands of people, can become Publishers, receive our messages and in turn pass them on to their own lists. The objective is to cause our messages to go “viral” and to reach millions of people who otherwise may not see our traditional television ad spots. This is a radically new and innovative approach to political marketing.

...

The group is the creation of the National Campaign Fund, a political action committee set up to help the Republican's presumptive presidential nominee John McCain bid for the White House (Stirland 1-3).

Works cited:

“2008 Presidential Election.” 270 to Win. Web. https://www.270towin.com/2008_Election/

Mikkelson, David, “Who Is Barack Obama? Snopes, March 15, 2007. Web. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/who-is-barack-obama/

Rosentiel, Tom, “Young Voters in the 2008 Election.” Pew Research , November 13, 2008. Web. https://www.pewresearch.org/2008/11/13/young-voters-in-the-2008-election/

Stirland, Sara Lai, “Willie Horton Ad Maker Goes Web 2.0 With Attacks Against Obama.” Wired, June 9, 2008. Web. https://www.wired.com/2008/06/willie-horton-a/

Turner, Patricia A., “Respecting the Smears: Anti-Obama Folklore Anticipates Fake News.” Journal of American Folklore, Volume 131, Number 522, Fall 2018. Web. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/707447/pdf

Waldman, Paul, “Conservatives' Hate-Based Campaign Against Obama.” Vanity Fair, March 25, 2008. Web. https://prospect.org/article/conservatives-hate-based-campaign-obama/