Election+of+2008

2008.

Presidential Election of 2008 By: Melissa Hall and Ariel Boston

Date of the election: November 4, 2008

Who was in the White House at the time of the election? George W. Bush (republican)

What issues/events occured in the past four years previous to the election that influenced this current election? President Bush was in the president before the election and so this meant that Republicans maintained control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Even though Bush was reelected for his second term, his approval rating dropped very quickly because of the Iraq War that was going on and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.The United States had to borrow money from other countries to help pay for the costs of the hurricane. While Bush was in office, many horrible disasters such as the ones just mentioned happened and caused his approval rating to quickly decrease as the years moved on. The same year as the 2008 elections, a subprime mortgage crisis occured which both candidates had to vote on. What happened was that the banks lent hundreds of billions of dollars to homebuyers who were unable to pay them back. It all started in Stockton, California where there ended up being 4,200 homes in default (the first step to foreclosure) and foreclosure. Banks were auctioning of plenty of houses all over America, in states such as Nevada, Florida, Ohio, and Texas as a result of the real estate bubble that had been growing in Stockton since 2003. Developers started turning asparagus fields into subdivisions and lenders handed out free money to anyone who wanted to buy a house. By free money, I mean that people could borrow all the money they needed to buy a house and the bank wasn't checking them to make sure they could pay it back. T.A.R.P.- TARP stands for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. It was the program from the U.S. government to fix the subprime mortgage crisis by purchasing assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen the financial sector signed into law by George W. Bush on October 3, 2008. Tarp allowed the U.S. Department of Treasury to purchase and insure up to $700 billion of troubled assets.

Candidates for each party: Republican- John McCain -from Arizona -naval aviator -was a prisoner of war -has had a media reputation as a maverick for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues Mike Huckabee- former Governor of Arkansas Mitt Romney- former Governor of Massachusetts Ron Paul- U.S. Representative from Texas Rudy Giuliani- former mayor of New York Fred Thompson- former U.S. Senator from Tennessee Alan Keyes- former U.S. ECOSOC Ambassador from Maryland Duncan Hunter- U.S. Representative from California Tom Tancredo- U.S. Representative from Colorado Sam Brownback- U.S. Senator from Kansas Jim Gilmore- former Governor of Virginia Tommy Thompson- former Governor Wisconsin

Democrat- Barack Obama -first African American President -born in Honolulu, Hawaii -elected to Illinois state Senate Joe Biden- U.S. Senator from Delaware Hillary Clinton- U.S. Senator from New York 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.[|[63]] She finally conceded the nomination to Obama on June 7. John Edwards- former U.S. Senator from North Carolina Bill Richardson- Governor of New Mexico Dennis Kucinich- U.S. Representative from Ohio Mike Gravel- former U.S. Senator from Alaska Christopher Dodd- U.S. Senator from Connecticut Evan Bayh- U.S. Senator from Indiana Tom Vilsack- former Governor of Iowa Ralph Nadar- Independent Nadar was concerned with consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism etc. His vice presidential candidate was Matt Gonzalez. Nader received 738,475 votes, for 0.56 percent of the popular vote, earning him a third place position in the overall election results.

Bob Barr- Libertarian

Barr hoped to portray himself as a conservative alternative to the Republican nominee John McCain. He opposed the Republican Party Chuck Baldwin- Green Describe the conventions for each party: Republican National Convention (September 1-4)- It was in St. Paul Minnesota, and McCain said "he's prepared to reach across the aise to get the country back onto the road of prosperity and peace". McCain's remarks on Iraq were short and brief. He reminded delegates that he fought for the "right strategy and more troops...when it wasn't a popular thing to do". McCain also praised George W. Bush for leading the country during the dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and saving us from further attacks.McCain said he would start the "most ambitious national project in decades" and produce more energy within the United States.

Democratic National Convention (August 25-28) In Denver, Colorado Obama countered attacks from McCain and really emphasized his stand point on the change of America. He said that McCain would not help America but rather just continue George W.Bush's policies. He said "We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On November 4, we must stand up and say: 'Eight is enough,' " Obama focused on bringing new ideas into the government so that America could recover from the Bush administration. Obama slammed McCain on topics like Iraq, energy policy and health care. One important thing that Obama proved was that McCain was out of touch with the concerns of an average American. "It's not because John McCain doesn't care," Obama said. "It's because John McCain doesn't get it." Obama concluded his speech by saying his remarkable statements like, "America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in the election, we must pledge once more to march into the future."

What were the major issues that the campaign and candidates focused upon? Some issues they focused on were the economy, education, health, immigration, foreign policies, and taxes. 2 main issues the two candidates focused upon were the economy and health care. Obama (economic)- Wanted to immediately enact a set of tax cuts for individuals and businesses to help deal with current crisis. McCain (economic)- He said he would purchase troubled mortgages directly from financial institutions and restructure them. Obama (health care)- Otherwise known as "Obama Care", he said he would prohibit insurance companies form denying coverage on the basis of health or age would mandate insurance for children. He said he would strive for universal coverage by creating new federal head plan for the uninsured. McCain (health care)- He opposes mandated requiring everyone to obtain health insurance. He wants to give people the freedom to choose their own health care. He said he would provide tax credits; pledged affordable health care for every American.

Results: Obama- Electoral vote=365 (projected) Popular vote=67,842,818 McCain- Electoral vote=173 (projected) Popular vote=58,989, 852 Obama is the first African American elected as the president of the United States. Assessment of the election: Additional product: @http://www.classtools.net/fb/29/NAVJ6F
 * Melissa:** I believe this election was very important for our country. I think this election made the Americans think about how George W. Bush had left our country while he was in office. The candidates agreed on some things, but most of the time had many different views. The health care issues caused a lot of controversy because of how different the two candidates' ideas were. I also think that the issues that the candidates were very important and I am happy they chose to focus on some of the biggest ones like education, health care, the economy and more. The results did not seem to be very suprising because it seemed like people knew that Obama was dominating McCain. I also believe it is a huge step in our government that Barack Obama was the first African American President. This put a whole new outlook on our country, and I am glad it happened.
 * Ariel:** I think this election was important for our country because it changed the ruling of the United States from being republican for so long to finally switching to democratic rule. I think this is important because I don't believe it is very good for just one party to rule for such a long time just republican forever or just democratic forever is a bad idea. This Election also opened the doors for people of different backgrounds to be involved in the government. I think America chose wisely in this election because I feel like the ideas McCain had would have just continued George W. Bush's ideas and nothing would have changed. It was good that Obama emphasized change and really wanted to help America have a chance to do better than it had been doing prior to the election.

Works Cited "Barack Obama Biography." //Bio.com //. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. .

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"Campaign Issues." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">CNN //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/>.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">CNN //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/28/dnc.main/index.html>.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">CNN //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/04/rnc.day/index.html?iref=nextin>.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"ElectoralMaps.org - Timeline of U.S. Presidential Elections - Popular and Electoral Vote Totals - Courtesy of Wikipedia.org." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">ElectoralMaps.org - Timeline of U.S. Presidential Elections - Popular and Electoral Vote Totals - Courtesy of Wikipedia.org //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://www.100bestwebsites.org/alt/evmaps/electoral-maps.htm>.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"On the Issues: Health Care." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">- Election Guide 2008 //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. N.p., 23 May 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/issues/health.html>.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"Presidential Election History from 1789 to 2008 - 2008 Election - ProCon.org." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Presidential Election History from 1789 to 2008 - 2008 Election - ProCon.org //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://2008election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001565>.