by SE Mathews

Created on: February 23, 2009

The history making Presidential win of Barack Obama is a chronicle of a man who was in the right time with the right people in the right places under the right circumstances.

Years from now, social and political scholars will still be picking apart what it was that helped Obama roll to victory, but from a layman person's view, the following attributes and social circumstances certainly helped him:

1. The shadow of President Bush. History will decide if George W. Bush was as bad as his last days purported him to be, but in 2008, there is no denying that his presence made it a lot easier for Republicans who normally would have never looked at a Democrat look at the Democrats. From the war to the tanking economy, Bush had a no-confidence vote from the people and fair or not, that no-confidence reflected onto the Republicans.

2. The effective use of the Internet by a Democrat. For all the right wing's blathering about how the media is liberal-biased, the right wing has owned the media from FOXNews to Rush Limbaugh to CNN's wannabes of Rush and FOXNews. On the Internet, the playing field was more even and the Progressives and Liberals used it to get their message out faster and more effectively than ever before. This helped Obama's campaign keep control of the message when in any other Presidential year, the message would have been lost (see Jeremiah Wright).

3. The John McCain/Sarah Palin ticket was weak. That is a topic unto itself but it is, nonetheless, a reason why Obama won.

4. Democrats knew when and when not to show their face. In other words, the Democratic Party showed discipline. Unlike 2004 when Kerry was getting battered for his Vietnam years from both sides, the Democrats knew when to let the Obama campaign deal with problems that came up without them getting into the fray to make themselves look better. It is hard to win an election when the Party is at odds with itself. In 2008, the Democrats wanted to win and they kept their act together long enough to do it.

5. Obama's campaign went into Red Territory. In years past, the Democrats won from the coastal states that were rich in electorate votes. This year, Obama went into states where he had no choice in 2007 but by 2008, he had a 50/50 chance. He didn't win all those states, but for those he picked off, it gave him a comfortable advantage.

6. Obama was a damn good candidate. He played his game and controlled the tenor and the tempo from start to finish. The winner usually does.

7. Money. Obama won the fundraising

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>