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"Fight The Smears" website: How much about the Ayers controversy should be here is presently disputed.
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* [[Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories|Claims that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States]].<ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate The truth about Barack's birth certificate]", Obama for America. Retrieved 2008-06-14.</ref>
* [[Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories|Claims that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States]].<ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate The truth about Barack's birth certificate]", Obama for America. Retrieved 2008-06-14.</ref>
* Portrayals of his [[Obama-Ayers controversy|relationship]] with [[Bill Ayers]].<ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/22/AyersSmear The truth about Barack Obama and William Ayers]", Obama for America. Retrieved 3-9-2009.</ref><ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/11/nextswiftboat Next Generation Swift Boaters]", Obama for America. Retrieved 3-9-2009.</ref>.
* Portrayals of his [[Obama-Ayers controversy|relationship]] with [[Bill Ayers]].<ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/22/AyersSmear The truth about Barack Obama and William Ayers]", Obama for America. Retrieved 3-9-2009.</ref><ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/11/nextswiftboat Next Generation Swift Boaters]", Obama for America. Retrieved 3-9-2009.</ref> CNN responded in an October article stating, "the relationship between Obama and Ayers went deeper, ran longer and was more political than Obama -- and his surrogates -- have revealed, documents and interviews show<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/obama.ayers/index.html
| title = Ayers and Obama crossed paths on boards, records show
| date = 2008-10-07
| accessdate = 2009-02-20
| publisher = CNN Politics.com
}}</ref>.
* Claims that he is a Muslim and not a Christian.<ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/3/baracksfaith The Truth About Barack's Faith]", Obama for America. Retrieved 3-9-2009.</ref>
* Claims that he is a Muslim and not a Christian.<ref>"[http://fightthesmears.com/articles/3/baracksfaith The Truth About Barack's Faith]", Obama for America. Retrieved 3-9-2009.</ref>



Revision as of 17:44, 12 March 2009

Obama for America

2008 Obama–Biden campaign logo
CampaignU.S. presidential election, 2008
CandidateBarack Obama
U.S. Senator 2005–2008
AffiliationDemocratic Party
StatusWon election, November 4, 2008
Headquarters233 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Key peopleJoe Biden (VP Nominee)
David Plouffe (Manager)
Penny Pritzker (Finance)
David Axelrod (Media)
Robert Gibbs (Communications)
Bill Burton (Spokesman)
Claire McCaskill (Co-Chair)
Tim Kaine (Co-Chair)
Paul Hodes (Co-Chair)
ReceiptsUS$670.7 (2008-11-24)
Slogan
ChantYes We Can
Website
www.barackobama.com

Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007.[1] On August 27, 2008 he became the nominee[2] of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election. He is the first African American in history to run on a major party ticket.[3] On August 23, 2008 Barack Obama's campaign confirmed earlier reports that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be the Vice Presidential nominee.[4]

On November 4, 2008, projections indicated that Obama won the election, making him the President-elect and the first African American elected President of the United States.[5][6] He is the third sitting Senator, after Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, to be elected President. His constitutional election to the office was completed with the meeting of the Electoral College on December 15, 2008, and the subsequent certification of the college's vote by the Joint Session of the United States Congress on January 8, 2009.[7][8] Based on the results of the electoral vote count, Barack Obama was declared the elected President of the United States and Joseph Biden was declared officially as the elected Vice President of the United States in the 2008 presidential election.[9]

Chronicle

End of the primaries

On June 3, 2008, after the Montana and South Dakota primaries, Barack Obama secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination of the Democratic party for President of the United States.[3] His opponent in the general election, Republican John McCain, passed the delegate threshold to become the presumptive nominee of his party on March 4.[10] On June 7, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's remaining opponent in the quest for the Democratic nomination, conceded defeat at a rally in Washington, D.C. and urged her supporters to back Obama.[11] After a June 26 dinner at which Obama encouraged his fundraisers to donate to Clinton's debt-addled campaign,[12] Obama and Clinton ran their first post-primary event together in Unity, New Hampshire on June 27.[13] Over the first two weeks of July, the campaign ran a heavier schedule of fundraising events, drawing from former donors to Clinton's campaign.[14]

Middle Eastern and European tour

In July 2008 Obama traveled to Kuwait, Afghanistan,[15] Iraq,[16] Jordan,[17] the West Bank,[18] Israel, Germany, France, and United Kingdom. During the course of this trip he met with assorted international leaders, including President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan,[19] Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France,[20] and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, as well as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Conservative opposition leader David Cameron.[21]

On July 24, 2008 he gave a speech at the Victory Column in Berlin before a crowd of estimated 200,000 to 240,000 people.[22]

Missed votes in Senate

In November 2007, it was reported that Obama had missed nearly 80 percent of all votes in the Senate over a three month period while he was conducting his presidential campaign.[23] During the full 110th Congress, Obama missed 303 votes (46.3%).[24] Being in the majority, Senate Democrats could sometimes delay votes in order to accommodate the schedules of Democratic presidential candidates.[25]

Saddleback Civil Forum

The Civil Forum on the Presidency was the venue of back-to-back interviews of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama by pastor Rick Warren on August 16, 2008, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

Vice Presidential selection

Joe Biden and Barack Obama after the presentation of Biden as the vice presidential running mate in Springfield, Illinois

Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate had been a subject of speculation since the end of the primaries. As of August 2008, some of the most popular choices for VP included, but were not limited to, his chief opponent for the nomination Senator Clinton, his eventual choice Senator Biden, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and retired General Wesley Clark.

Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Jill Biden and Joe Biden at the United States Vice Presidential announcement on August 23, 2008 in Template:City-state

On Thursday, August 21, 2008, Obama announced that he had made a selection for the VP spot, but would not reveal until Saturday, August 23 who it was.[26] Obama's campaign encouraged supporters to sign up for a text messaging system that would alert them the moment he announced his choice. On Friday, August 22, KMBC News of Kansas City spotted bumper stickers of an Obama/Bayh '08 ticket that were being printed in Lenexa, Kansas. Three sources close to a local printing plant reported that such material was being produced.[27] The image of the bumper sticker circulated on the internet. However, NBC News later quoted sources stating that Bayh had been informed by Obama's campaign that he was not the pick.[28] According to an Associated Press report that same evening, Joe Biden was selected as Obama's candidate.[29] The Associated Press report was confirmed several hours later, on August 23, on Barack Obama's official campaign website and by a mass text message to supporters.[4]

Opinion polling

Statewide opinion polling for the 2008 United States presidential election up to November 3, 2008.[30]
  >10% Obama lead
  4%–10% Obama lead
  1%–4% Obama lead
  Tie
  1%–4% McCain lead
  4%–10% McCain lead
  >10% McCain lead

The day after Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, announced his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.[31] Almost immediately, the Obama/Biden ticket plunged in the polls: in a Gallup poll of likely voters, the McCain/Palin ticket gained a 10-point lead.[32] The erosion of support for the Obama/Biden ticket was especially pronounced among white women who had previous shown strong support for Hillary Clinton.[33] However, Obama regained a lead in the national poll averages and kept it after September 19.[34]

A RealClearPolitics average of fourteen national polls taken between October 29 and November 2 shows an average 7.3% lead for Obama over Senator McCain. Obama's highest support in the polling average was 8.2% on October 14. Among individual polls tracked by RealClearPolitics, Obama's highest support was recorded in a Newsweek poll conducted between June 18 and June 19 and a Pew Research poll conducted between October 23 and October 26 showing a 15% lead.[35]

Gallup conducted weekly polls of registered voters to measure support among the candidates. The final poll conducted between October 27 and November 2 showed 24% of pure Independents supporting Obama, trailing the 32% who favored McCain. Obama's Independent support peaked at 33% the week of October 6-October 12.[36]

A RealClearPolitics average of four national polls measuring favorable/unfavorable opinions taken between October 28 and November 2 shows an average 55.5% favorable rating and 39.8% unfavorable rating. Obama's highest ratings in the polling average were 61.2% favorable and 32.5% unfavorable on July 8.[37]

As of November 3, 2008, one day before the election, the RealClearPolitics electoral map excluding toss up states shows 278 electoral votes for Obama/Biden, an electoral majority, and 132 electoral votes for opponents McCain/Palin.[38] Including toss up states, the Obama/Biden ticket leads with 338 votes.[39]

Political positions

Obama has taken positions on many national, political, economic and social issues, either through public comments or his senatorial voting record. Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama has emphasized withdrawing American troops from Iraq, increasing energy independence (that includes New Energy For America plan,[40]) decreasing the influence of lobbyists, and promoting universal health care as top national priorities.

Fundraising

Obama (far right) participates in a bipartisan meeting with President Bush and Senator McCain, and House and Senate party leaders regarding the economy, September 25, 2008

Barack Obama's fundraising repeatedly broke previous records for presidential primary and general campaigns, and has changed expectations for future presidential elections. The campaign avoided using public campaign funds, and raised all of its money privately, from individual donors. By the general election the campaign committee had raised more than $650 million for itself, and had coordinated with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and at least 18 state-level Democratic committees to create a joint-fundraising committee raise and split tens of millions more.[41][42][43]

Post-election fundraising continued for the separate transition administration, called the Obama-Biden Transition Project, and the also separate inaugural ceremonies and celebrations committee.[41]

Chronology

According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama's campaign raised more money in the first quarter of 2008 ($133,549,000)[44] than it had raised in all of 2007 ($103,802,537). The campaign had a relatively small total of $21.9 million in May, but went on to raise $52 million in June, after Obama had secured the nomination.[45]

On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing since the system was created in the aftermath of Watergate.[46][47] Obama was expected to raise $265 million between the time of the announcement and election day.[48] By rejecting the funds in favor of private donations, the campaign put itself in a position to outspend John McCain prior to the election. Had he signed on to the plan, the campaign would only have been able to spend $84.1 million between the party convention in August and the general election in November.[49]

Obama explained his decision to opt out of the public financing system, saying, "public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."[47] Critics of the decision argued that the decision contradicted earlier statements that he would attempt to reach agreement with McCain to obtain public financing,[50][48] and asserted that Obama's campaign was receiving as much support from unregulated 527 groups as McCain's.[51]

On September 4, 2008, the Obama campaign announced they raised $10 million in the 24 hour period after Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech. The RNC reported raising $1 million in the same period.[52]

On 19 October 2008, Obama's campaign announced a record fundraising total of $150 million for September 2008. This exceeded the campaign's single-month record ($66 million) for August 2008.[53]

The campaign raised much of its cash in small donations over the internet, with about half of its intake coming in increments of less than $200.[54] Both major party campaigns screened regularly for patterns of abuse and return or reject donations in excess of legal limits, from overseas, from untraceable addresses, or with obviously fraudulent names.[55] After some criticism of the Obama campaign on conservative blogs the Republican National Committee asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate the Obama campaign's screening practices.[56]

Media campaign

Obama's campaign has been notable for extensive use of a logo consisting of a circle, with the center suggesting a sun rising over fields in the colors of the American flag. It was designed by a team at Chicago design firm Sender LLC. "We were looking at the “o” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day,” according to Sol Sender. "The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope."[57][58]

Hope poster

The Barack Obama "hope" poster is an iconic image of Barack Obama designed by artist Shepard Fairey.[59] It consists of a stylized stencil portrait of Obama in solid red, white (actually beige) and (pastel and dark) blue, with the word "progress", "hope", or "change" below (and other things in some versions). It was created and distributed widely—both as a digital image and on posters and other paraphernalia—during the 2008 election season, initially independently but with the approval of the official Obama campaign. The image became one of the most widely recognized symbols of Obama's campaign message, spawning many variations and imitations, including some commissioned by the Obama campaign. In January 2009, after Obama had won the election, Fairey's mixed-media stenciled portrait version of the image was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for its National Portrait Gallery.

Typefaces

The signature campaign typeface is Gotham, typically using capital letters with occasional use of the script Snell Roundhand. Gotham was designed in 2000 by Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, originally for GQ magazine. Prior to Gotham, the campaign had used the typeface Gill Sans in upper case and lower case.[60]

Television advertisements

Soon after becoming the presumptive nominee, Obama began a biographical commercial campaign emphasizing his patriotism.[61] The advertisements ran in 18 states, including traditionally Republican Alaska and North Carolina.[62] Between June 6 and July 26, Obama's campaign spent $27 million on advertisements, against a combined McCain and Republican National Committee total of $24.6 million.[63]

In a September 15, 2008 interview with Good Morning America, Obama stated, "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." What he apparently meant was that McCain had put out more negative ads.[64]

On October 29th at 8:00 PM EST, the Obama campaign's 30-minute infomercial "American Stories, American Solutions" was simulcast on NBC, CBS, Fox, Univision, MSNBC, BET and TV One, focusing on a wide range of issues including health care and taxation. The infomercial then showed an Obama speech live from Florida.[65] Fox asked for the second part of Game Five of the 2008 World Series to be delayed by 15 minutes in order to show the commercial, and that request was granted.[66] ABC was the only major US network not to show the ad after being indecisive during the initial approach and the Obama campaign later declined the offer. The Obama ad got 30.1m viewers across networks compared to ABC's Pushing Daisies which garnered 6.3 million viewers.[67] Prior to this, the last presidential candidate to purchase a half-hour ad was H. Ross Perot, who ran as an independent candidate in 1992.[68] The Obama campaign also bought a channel on Dish Network to screen Obama ads 24/7.[69] Wyatt Andrews reported on a "Reality Check" on the CBS Evening News the next day with doubts over the factual accuracy of some of the promises Obama made in the advertisement, given the government's enormous financial deficit.[70]

Campaign songs

Barack Obama personally asked Joss Stone in August to write and record his presidential campaign song, reportedly due to the fact that she appeals across racial boundaries.[71] Furthermore Obama's candidacy has inspired artists to create more unsolicited music and music videos than any other candidate in American political history. Examples include "Yes We Can" by will.i.am, of the band Black-Eyed Peas, Make it to the Sun[72] by Ruwanga Samath and Maxwell D, "Barack Obama" by JFC, and "Unite the Nation" by the Greek-American hip hop group Misa/Misa.[73]

"Fight The Smears" website

Obama's birth certificate

On June 12, 2008, the Obama campaign launched a website to counter what it described as smears by his opponents.[74] The site provided responses to issues brought up about the candidate,[75] such as:

"Israel for Obama" Campaign

Originally announced by American-Israelis in late May, the campaign aimed to refute the smears made against Obama concerning Israel and the Jewish community by gaining endorsements in Israel.[81] When the Illinois Senator Barack Obama took a Middle East trip from Afghanistan to Iraq, Jordan and finally to Israel, they organized a small "Israel for Obama" rally for him.[82][83][84]

Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council stated that "The Democratic operation in the Jewish community was more extensive than I've seen in 35 years,"[85] The chairman of the campaign in Israel, Yeshiyah Amariel, [86][87][88] and others such as the Jewish Alliance for Change and the Jewish Council for Education & Research used YouTube to releasing video endorsements from officials and normal people in Israel for Obama and his positions (such as "Israelis for Obama"[89] and "right man for the job.")[90] In the closing weeks of the election the campaign used support for Obama from Israelis to fight the smears spread online by bloggers. Its success caused the polls of Jewish support for Obama to increase so that by the time of the Nov 4th general election, according to exit polls, 77% of the American Jewish community voted for Barack Obama over the 23% that were for John McCain.[91][92]

E-mail campaign

Barack Obama speaks at a rally featuring Bruce Springsteen in Template:City-state on November 2, 2008

The National Shooting Sports Foundation alleged that Barack Obama's presidential campaign unlawfully obtained a copy of the NSSF's proprietary SHOT Show media e-mail contact list, which Obama used to send out a press release concerning "National Hunting and Fishing Day."[93][94]

Victory speech

Proposed joint-appearances and presidential debates

On June 4, John McCain proposed a series of ten joint town hall meetings with Obama, at which the two could engage each other, beginning the next week.[95] Obama first agreed in principle to the notion,[96] but later rejected McCain's proposal, offering instead one town-hall event on the Independence Day holiday and four traditional debate-style joint appearances.[97][98]

Presidential debates

There were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain. No third party candidates or Independent candidates were offered an invitation to join in any of the debates,[99] as Obama and McCain are the only candidates on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Commission on Presidential Debates proposed and the candidates agreed that two of three 90 minute debates would be in an informal, seated, talk show format, while the third would be in a town hall format that allowed both candidates to walk around.[100]

Vice Presidential debate

There was one vice presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. As with the presidential debates, no third party or independent candidates were offered an invitation.

Election day

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States, sparking many celebrations in the United States and around the world. He gained almost 53% of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes, the popular vote percentage being the best showing for any presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988, and his 365 electoral votes the best showing since Bill Clinton had 379 in 1996. He won Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina, all states that were won by President George W. Bush in 2004. In addition, he became the first Democratic candidate to win one of Nebraska's electoral votes since the state decided to split their electoral votes, the first candidate to be elected President without winning Missouri since 1956, and the first man elected President who was born in the 1960s. Obama also received more total votes then any Presidential candidate in history, totaling well over 69 million votes.

Joe Biden also made history by becoming the first Roman Catholic to be elected Vice President. In addition, he is the longest-serving Senator to become Vice President, having served in the United States Senate for the past 36 years prior to the election. He also won reelection to the Senate, avoiding the fate of Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 and Joe Lieberman in 2000 who were both running mates for losing presidential candidates who nonetheless also were both reelected to the Senate at the same time they were part of the presidential ticket. Bentsen was the running mate of Michael Dukakis when Dukakis lost to George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Joe Lieberman was the running mate of Al Gore when Gore lost in the Electoral College to George W. Bush in 2000.

Certification of the electoral votes

On January 8, 2009, the joint session of the U.S. Congress, chaired by Vice President Cheney as President of the Senate and Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, announced and certified the votes of the Electoral College for the 2008 presidential election. From the electoral votes of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Vice President Cheney declared 365 electoral votes for both Barack Obama of the state of Illinois and Joseph Biden of the state of Delaware and 173 electoral votes for both John McCain of the state of Arizona and Sarah Palin of the state of Alaska. Based on the results of the electoral vote count, Vice President Cheney declared officially that Obama was elected as President of the United States and Biden was elected as Vice President of the United States.[9]


See also

References

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  2. ^ Adam Nagourney (Published: August 28, 2008). "Obama Wins Nomination; Biden and Bill Clinton Rally Party - NYTimes.com". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b Jeff Zeleny, "Obama Clinches Nomination; First Black Candidate to Lead a Major Party Ticket," The New York Times, 2008-06-04. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  4. ^ a b "Joe Biden!". BarackObama.com. Retrieved 2008-08-28. Breaking news: the text message is out and it's official... Barack Obama has selected Joe Biden to be his running mate! Cite error: The named reference "BOsplash" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
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  7. ^ Nagourney, Adam (2008-11-04). "Obama Wins Election". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ "Obama's Presidency". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2008-11-10 (Updated daily). {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ a b Congress meets to count electoral votes. (2009, January 8). MSNBC. Retrieved January 8 2009.
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  13. ^ "Clinton and Obama rally together," BBC News, 2008-06-27. Retrieved 2008-07-07; Mark Leibovich and Jeff Zeleny, "Obama and Clinton Hold First Post-Primary Event," The New York Times, 2008-06-28. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  14. ^ Michael Luo and Christopher Drew, "Obama Picks Up Fund-Raising Pace," The New York Times, 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2008-07-06. See also: "Obama, Clinton to hold joint fundraisers in NY," Associated Press, 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2008-07-07; Jonathan Weisman, "Obama and Clinton, Together Again," Washington Post, 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  15. ^ Carlotta Gall and Jeff Zeleny, "Obama Opens a Foreign Tour in Afghanistan," The New York Times, 2008-07-20.
  16. ^ Liz Sly, "Obama arrives in Baghdad," Chicago Tribune, 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  17. ^ Mike Dorning, "Obama sizes up Mideast stage," Chicago Tribune, 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  18. ^ Mike Dorning, "'Friend of Israel' also woos Palestinians," Chicago Tribune, 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  19. ^ Kim Barker, "Obama, Karzai keep talk 'positive'," Chicago Tribune, 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  20. ^ Jeff Zeleny and Steven Erlanger, "3 Hours in Paris, and Smiles All Around," The New York Times, 2008-07-26. Retrieved 2008-07-31; Elana Schor, "Obama arrives in Paris to meet Sarkozy," The Guardian, 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  21. ^ Peter Walker, "Obama hails US-UK ties after talks with Brown at Downing Street," The Guardian, 2008-07-26. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  22. ^ "Obama's Berlin Speech: People of the World, Look at Me". Spiegel Online. 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  23. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/02/obama.missed.votes/index.html
  24. ^ http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/
  25. ^ Merten, Andy."McCain Misses Most Votes of Candiddates?", First Read, MSNBC (2008-04-23). Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  26. ^ Alexander Mooney, "[1]," CNN, 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  27. ^ "Bumper Sticker Could Indicate Bayh Is Obama's Veep". KMBC News. 2008-08-22.
  28. ^ "Bayh, Kaine out of Obama's veep race". MSNBC. 2008-08-22.
  29. ^ Lis Sidoti and Nedra Pickler (2008-08-22). "Obama picks Biden for veep". Breitbart.com.
  30. ^ States are colored according to the average from at least the last three poll results from Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2008. Washington, D.C. is presumed heavy Democrat. If there have been more than 3 polls taken within a month of the latest poll, then these are averaged.
  31. ^ "McCain taps Alaska Gov. Palin as vice president pick". CNN. 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
  32. ^ Cook, Charlie (2008-09-09). "Time to Reassess the White House Race". MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
  33. ^ MacAskill, Ewan (2008-09-10). "The Palin effect: white women now deserting Obama, says survey". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-09-13. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ General Election: McCain vs. Obama, RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  35. ^ General Election: McCain vs. Obama, RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  36. ^ Candidate Support by Political Party and Ideology Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  37. ^ Obama: Favorable/Unfavorable, RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  38. ^ RealClearPolitics Electoral College: RealClear Electoral Count, RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  39. ^ RealClearPolitics Electoral College: No Toss Up States, RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  40. ^ "Microsoft Word - Fact Sheet Energy Speech 082508 FINAL.doc" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  41. ^ a b Cooper, Helene (2008-11-11). "Obama's Transition Team Restricts Lobbyists' Role". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-11. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  42. ^ "Obama Recasts the Fund-Raising Landscape". New York Times. 2008-10-19. Retrieved 2008-11-11. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  43. ^ Kurtz, Josh. "Obama, DNC Set Up Fundraising Entity for States". Roll Call. Retrieved 2008-11-11. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  44. ^ Obama for America: Report of Receipts and Disbursements, Federal Election Commission. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  45. ^ Jeff Zeleny, "Obama Raises $52 Million in June," The New York Times, 2008-07-17. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
  46. ^ Jonathan D. Salant, "Obama Won't Accept Public Money in Election Campaign," Bloomberg, 2008-06-19. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  47. ^ a b Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr., "Obama to Reject Public Funds for Election," Washington Post, 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-06-19
  48. ^ a b Ewen MacAskill, "US elections: Obama faces backlash for refusing public campaign funding," The Guardian, 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  49. ^ Emily Cadei, "Q & A: Obama's public funding opt-out," USA Today, 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  50. ^ Kenneth P. Vogel, "Obama move irks reform allies," The Politico, 2008-06-19. Retrieved 2008-06-21; Liz Sidoti, "With money, Obama to try to widen the battleground," Associated Press, 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-06-21. See also: Alan Silverleib, "Analysis: Rejecting public funding won't hurt Obama," CNN News, 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  51. ^ John Dickerson, "The Flip-Flop Brothers," Slate, 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  52. ^ Nico Pitney (2008-09-04). "Obama Raises $10 Million After Palin Speech". The Huffington Post.
  53. ^ Cooper, Christopher (2008-10-19). "Obama Takes in a Record $150 Million, But McCain Narrows Gap in Some Polls". Wall Street Journal. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  54. ^ Michael Isikoff (2008-10-04). "Obama's 'Good Will' Hunting". Newsweek.
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