The 2008 Election

In the 2008 presidential elections Americans hungered for change, and they were offered two major candidates who attempted to satisfy that appetite. Barack Obama benefited from his clear and early opposition to an unpopular war, as well as his compelling personal biography and stunning ability to connect with and engage voters. John McCain, the perennial Senate maverick and often enemy of the party establishment, attempted to portray himself as the one best suited to change the way Washington worked. In terms of structure, both campaigns were at times party-centric and at other times candidate centered. To some extent each candidate was party agent and independent of his party. The major difference, though, and this was perhaps crucial, was that Barack Obama and his campaign clearly understood and mastered Internet campaigning and fundraising as they built upon the pioneering work of the Howard Dean 2004 primary campaign.

One year before the 2008 convention, the clear favorites of the party insiders were Mitt Romney and Hilary Clinton. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/04/nation/na-timespoll4
There was residual suspicion of McCain because of his unpredictable, maverick nature, and his past cooperation with Democratic senators such as Russ Feingold and Edward Kennedy on key pieces of legislation. Hilary Clinton had the endorsement of many key party leaders, including many African American leaders, due in large part to the continuing reservoir of goodwill for her husband and his presidency, Obama was regarded by many party leaders as too young, inexperienced and risky as a general election candidate. Had the smoke-filled rooms of old prevailed, or the “parties resurgent” model of Cohen, et.al, McCain and Obama would not have been the nominees

.Despite Hilary Clinton’s impressive resume, her abundant endorsements, and the vast resources of the Bill Clinton political machine, Barack Obama prevailed over the conventional wisdom of the party establishment and many pundits. For many Democrats, the Iraq war was a key issue, and former Senator Clinton’s vote to support the war severely handicapped her on that issue. Obama’s oratory of hope and uplift stirred the passions of many voters in a way that Senator Clinton’s did not. Obama and his campaign were relentlessly focused, organized and on message and quick to deal with the brushfires that did crop up, such as the Reverend Wright affair. Obama’s personal story resonated with many voters of diverse backgrounds, only adding to his appeal. Beyond all of that, though, Obama was able to use the Internet, and particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, to engage and involve voters in a way that no candidate had done before, with the exception of Howard Dean four years earlier.

In reaching the White House, Obama did not, of course, ignore the party establishment. The extraordinarily close primary contest involved some compromise with the Clinton forces. In choosing a running mate, Obama chose an old Senate warhorse rather than a young agent of change such as himself.

The McCain campaign achieved the nomination as a candidate-centered campaign and lost the general election as a campaign too beholden to the party establishment. With no one Republican primary candidate able to appeal to a broad cross-section of the party, the primary contests became personality-driven campaigns. McCain’s maverick image helped him to win a plurality of the vote in enough winner-take-all contests to seize the nomination. Once nominated, though, McCain tried to be the outsider while being inextricably linked to the failed policies of President Bush. The fact that his advisers ran a general election campaign in the “slash and burn” mode of Karl Rove, only added to the feeling that he was Bush Redux.

It is too early to pronounce the death of party-dominated presidential elections, but it is clear that all future candidates will need to heed the words of Teachout and the deeds of Obama in 2008.

(Note: The Obama campaign most definitely carries on the “netroots” campaign even after the election.)