Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series. Today we will be going over the Election of 2008; Bush’s second term has become a mess, a number people on both sides are running for president and it culminates in history being made come election day.

Problems in Iraq and Prisoner Abuse

After his narrow victory over Senator John Kerry in the 2004 Election, President George W. Bush probably believed he could finally start leading the country back into a era of propserity similar to that of the 1980’s…Instead Bush’s second term would see him deal with diaster after diaster both from a foreign policy and domestic standpoint, let’s start with the foreign policy.

Following the outsing of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the hope by the Bush Adminsration was to create a government that would not only be friendly with America and their allies but also to spread freedom and democracy in Iraq after so many years of Saddam’s repressive leadership.

However by 2006 it became clear that this wasn’t going to happen as instablity began to break out in Iraq thru bombings and other forms of terrorists attacks. On top of that, terrorists groups like ISIS who were put in line by the Hussein Adminsration were now given the chance to expand their anti-western ideas in the area while also making Iraq a safe haven for terrorism.

Combine this with the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqis killed or injured on the battlefield plus the amount of money spent to fund the war and it’s easy to see how foreign policy became a quagrime for Bush especially following the shocking discovery of abuse in prisons like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

Reports and photos of this abuse revealed that the Bush Adminsration tortured individuals who were suspected to be terrorists or connected to terrorism except they weren’t but, the adminsration didn’t question it.

Without going into the monsterous details, prisoners were subjected to among other things waterboarding, beatings, sexual assault and being fed food into areas of the body that food shouldn’t be in. In short, these atrocious acts put the United States’ image of peace keepers looking to spread democracy very much into question.

Hurrricanes and Recessions: Dubya’s Second Term

While Bush’s efforts to nation build in Iraq were floundering and reports of abuse with suspected prisoners didn’t do him any favors aboard, the catastrophic issues that he faced domestically would destory any good will he and his adminsration had with the American people.

Things kicked off even before Bush’s second term after signing into the law the PATRIOT ACT and the Authorization for Use of Miltary Force in 2001 which allowed the U.S. Government to spy on their fellow Americans, expanded the NSA’s ability gather information without a warrant and in the case of the AUMF Act, it gave the president a blank check to launch endless wars all over the world without asking Congress for support.

In August of 2005, a typical storm known as ‘Hurricane Katrina’ devastated New Orleans and it’s mostly African American inhabitants with efforts to help those affected by the tragedy being ineffective by the Bush Adminsration and leading to claims (most notably Kayne West) about George Bush’s indifference towards African Americans.

When it came to the economy things were just as bad if not worse as 90% of jobs that dealt with manfacturing were gone in the early part of the decade. By 2007 all hell broke loose when the housing market collapsed only to be following by widespread finanicial failures in 2008 with many corporations and banks being caught on charges of corruption and reckless banking leading to ‘The Great Recession’.

Although, President Bush passed legislation that bailed out a number of banks and corporations affected by the Great Recession, the billions of dollars that were used to so do came from the taxpayers and with many top executives also not facing justice for their white collar crimes it’s not too surprising to find out that George Bush’s approval numbers which again were at one point 90% fell all the way down to 25%.

2008 Republican Presidential Candidates

With President’s Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney’s approval numbers tanking alongside the economy, the Republicans needed to find someone who could represent the party in the upcoming 2008 election despite the GOP’s chance for victory come election day looking more than a little unlikely.

Several GOP politicians ran for their parties nomination including:

• Rudy Giuliani- Mayor of New York City
• Mitt Romney- Governor of Massachusetts
• Fred Thompson- Former Actor and Senator of Tennessee
• Ron Paul- U.S. Representative from Texas
• Mike Huckabee- Governor of Arkansas
• John McCain- Senator from Arizona

Giuliani was leading in the polls for most of 2007 and Romney was another candidate who had a good chance to win in the early stages, however scandals, positions that went against the Republican orthodox and Romney’s Mormon faith left both men falling to wayside and eventually dropping out in early 2008.

The primaries and caucuses saw the GOP jockeying for position with Mike Huckabee winning the Iowa Caucus only for John McCain to win primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida which was impressive considering McCain was trailing in single digits before a new campaign strategy saw the senator supporting the Iraq War and ensuring confidence that the conflict can be won helped him greatly throughout the primaries.

Unlike his performance on Super Tuesday in the 2000 election, John McCain soon became the Republican Party’s nominee for President and chose Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin which made here the second woman to be a running mate for a major presidential ticket.

While some believe that McCain was looking to go with Connecticut Senator and Democrat Joe Liberman as his pick for running mate, he ultimately went with Palin which saw the campaign get a much needed boost of enthusiasm especially amongst women and evangelical voters.

2008 Democratic Presidential Candidates

Much like the Republicans, a number of Democrats ran for president with a few key names being:

• John Edwards-Former Senator of South Carolina/John Kerry’s running mate in 2004
• Bill Richardson-Governor of New Mexico
• Joe Biden-Senator from Deleware and who previously ran for president in 1988
• Dennis Kucinich-Former Mayor turned U.S. Representative of Ohio
• Hillary Clinton- Former First Lady turned Senator of New York
• Barack Obama-Senator of Illinois

From the moment she launched her campaign on January 20th 2007, Hillary Clinton was viewed as the undisputed frontrunner for the Democratic nomination; Although John Edwards stood in the race longer than expected, his performances in the primaries and caucuses plus a scandal involving an extra martial affair resulted in him dropping out in January of 2008.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Senator Obama became a major threat to Clinton when after a 10 month grassroots effort in Iowa, the junior senator came in first place in the Iowa Caucus and then won the Caucuses in Texas and Nevada as well as the Iowa, North Carolina and South Carolina primaries.

Still the race between Clinton and Obama continued to be a close one with Clinton winning the primaries in Pennyslvania, Texas, Ohio, New Hampshire, Florida, and Michigan with the latter two states being a source for controversary due to the states moving it’s primary dates earlier than expected.

With his victory on Super Tuesday and getting most of the Super Delegates to his side, Hillary Clinton would drop out of the race on June 7th 2008 and like over a month later, Barack Obama would become the first African American to win a major party’s nomination for president, Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

Experience vs. Change

With McCain and Obama clinching their party’s nominations, the race officially began with both sides using two different strategies in the general election while also using social media to their advantage.

For McCain, his attempts at conveying victory in Iraq is achievable plus his years in Washington were used to paint him as someone who could lead the nation at such a critical time. The Obama campaign are looking to bring the United States into a new direction following the quagmires of the Bush Adminsration by calling for things like Universial Healthcare and bring the troops back from Iraq while also critiquing McCain’s years of experience without going after the senator’s age, a similar method President Bill Clinton used in the election of 1996.

A few blunders began to engulf the McCain campaign ranging from his comment about the fundamentals of the economy being strong to a healthcare plan which further opened the door for free markets to leave many Americans uninsured to his running mate being ridiculed on Saturday Night Live over Palin’s foreign policy comments to the media and finally the failings of George Bush’s second term.

Obama also faced criticism for his health care proposal, his association with a controversial precher named Jeremiah Wright, comments he made during the Pennyslvania primaries about midwesterners clinging too much to their guns and religion and of course the legality of his citizenship.

The presidential debates as well as the VP debate saw both Obama and Biden trounce their Republican opponents according to most pollsters with many spectulating that there was media bias in favor of Senator Obama.

The Birtherism Movement

It may not come as a surprise to hear that many voters of a certain demographic were uneasy with the idea of an African American man becoming president of the United States, but it goes one step further when claims about Obama not being a U.S. Citizen start to take hold in the final stretch of the election.

While nativism isn’t new in America, it gets a new lease on life when claims of Obama being born in Kenya, him secretly being an Arab or Muslim and of course the biggest one: the authenticity of his birth certificate start cropping up in the minds of voters.

While a handful of presidential candidates would lean more into that side of politics in the years that followed, McCain refused to go down that route and even defending Obama from insenstive comments in many of his rallies.

Election of 2008: The Results

Barack Obama came out of election day 2008 as the winner, thus becoming the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to become Commander-in-Chief.

Obama carried 28 states (including D.C. and the second Congressional District in Nebraska) while McCain carried 22 states; In terms of the electoral vote, Obama dominated with 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 173 but in terms of the popular vote, Obama won 52.9% compared to McCain getting 45.7% .

This election marked the third time since 1960 and 1920 that a sitting U.S. Senator became President and it also was the last time the states of Indiana and North Carolina voted for a Democrat while it also became the first time since 1964 and 1976 states like North Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana voted for the Democrats.

In terms of voter demographics, Barack Obama easily got the voters aged 18-39 while John McCain got the 50 and older voters with women and minority voters unsurprisingly voting for Obama in large numbers

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