This period was pivotal to Obama’s campaign, for it was during this time that he faced his toughest opponent, Hilary Clinton. This chapter will end following Obama accepting the Democratic nomination in August 2008. The second chapter will progress from February 2007, shortly after Obama’s announcement that he had entered the presidential race. In particular, it will focus on his Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic Convention and the 2006 Midterm elections, and will lay a strong foundation for the analysis of how Obama beat Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain in later chapters. An understanding of these years is vital to understanding how Obama developed into a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. In my first chapter The first chapter will explore events from July 2004 to February 2007. The chapters will be ordered in chronological order and will offer and focused analysis of the four year period. This dissertation will explore the four years to Obama’s election as President in three chapters. The prevalent belief that Hilary Clinton would head the Democrat’s bid for presidency in 2004 further emphasises the unforeseen nature of Obama’s victory, and makes the question of what happened in those four years that transformed Obama from an unknown to President of the United States even more salient. However Obama’s African American descent in a country that only saw the Civil Rights movement achieve equality in the 1960s and 1970s, paired with his limited experience of national politics made his election more remarkable. This was not the first case in US history of a so called ‘outsider’ becoming President, for the young and catholic John F Kennedy had beaten Richard Nixon in the 1960 Presidential election. In 2004, few Americans had ever heard of Obama, let alone considered voting for him. His victory signalled a cultural and political shift similar to Regan’s landslide victory in 1980, which had been near inconceivable four years before (Nagourney, 2008). Obama was to win the Presidency with the largest margin of victory of any Democratic candidate in history. The campaign that Obama ran in 2008, powered by ‘hope’ in the lead up to the Presidential election is to be considered as nothing less than spectacular. From a country that revered established political zeitgeists such as the Kennedys and the Clintons, the arrival of Barack Hussein Obama signalled a change in not only American politics but also in American voting patterns. A change that will be remembered as the year an African American was first elected President of the United States of America. The former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson was a presidential candidate until he dropped out of the race last month, but he did not endorse any of his rivals.In early November 2008, American politics underwent a historic change. Romney, whose Mormon faith has been cited as a cause for concern among some evangelicals. Only about 2 in 10 said they voted for Mr. Huckabee, who was a Baptist minister before entering politics, received the support of 4 in 10 of those. Two-thirds of Tennessee Republican voters identified themselves as evangelical or born again Mr. McCain drew equal support, and both did better than Mr. Among those worried about the economy, Mr. Voters said the economy was their foremost concern, followed by illegal immigration. Huckabee, the former governor of neighboring Arkansas. Nearly three-quarters of voters identified themselves in exit polls as conservative, and the largest portion - about a third - gave their support to Mr. Romney ran third with about a quarter of the vote. Huckabee won with just over a third of the vote, edging out John McCain who ran a close second.
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