United States presidential election, 2008

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United States presidential election, 2008
November 4, 2008
Nominee		Barack Obama	John McCain
Party		Democrat	Republican
Home state		Illinois	Arizona
Running mate		Joe Biden	Sarah Palin
Electoral vote		365	173
States won		28 + DC + NE-02	22
Popular vote		69,498,516	59,948,323
Percentage		52.9%	45.7%
Electoral college votes for 2008. The winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538, which is just over 50%.
Incumbent President George W. Bush Republican President-Elect Barack Obama Democrat

The United States presidential election, 2008 is a political event which took place on November 4, 2008. During that day the President of the United States and Vice President of the United States were selected. Barack Obama from the Democratic Party defeated John McCain to win the presidency, and is the first African-American president. He was sworn in as President on January 20, 2009. In a United States presidential election a person must get 270 electoral votes to win.

Democratic Primaries

The candidates running for the nomination of the Democratic Party were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson.

The main contest during the Democratic primaries was between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton which was a very close race. Clinton won the popular vote, but ultimately Obama won more unpledged delegates and therefore the nomination.

All candidates except Mike Gravel, who switched to the Libertarian Party during the election, supported Barack Obama.

Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as the vice-presidential candidate on August 23, 2008.

Barack Obama defeated John McCain and became president of the U.S. on January 20, 2009.

Republican Primaries

The candidates running for the nomination of the Republican Party were John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, Jim Gilmore, Sam Brownback, and Duncan Hunter.

Republican President George W. Bush was unable to run for re-election since a president is only able to be elected twice and vice president Dick Cheney chose not to run.

Most of the candidates withdrew early. In result, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney emerged as the three people most likely to win the nomination and Ron Paul became popular among libertarians.

John McCain was nominated by the Republican Party (by a decisive victory).

He chose Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential candidate.

John McCain lost the election to Barack Obama.

The Campaign

The biggest issue during the campaign was the bad economy. Other issues included health care, the Iraq War, the war on terrorism, and energy independence.

The president during the election, George W. Bush (who eventually supported John McCain), was very unpopular due to the 2007-09 "great recession", and because of that, the Obama campaign compared McCain to Bush several times.

There were four television debates during the campaign: three of them were between the two presidential candidates, and one of them was between the two vice-presidential candidates.

Results

Candidate	Votes	%	States led	National ECV
Barack Obama (Democrat)	69,498,516	52.9%	28+DC+NE-02	365
John McCain (Republican)	59,948,323	45.7%	22	173
Ralph Nader (Independent)	739,034	0.56%	0	0
Bob Barr (Libertarian)	523,715	0.40%	0	0
Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)	199,750	0.15%	0	0
Cynthia McKinney (Green)	161,797	0.12%	0	0
Other	242,685	0.18%	0	0
Total	131,313,820	100.00%	50 + DC	538

Results by state

State	Obama Popular Vote	Obama %	McCain Popular Vote	McCain %	Electoral Vote
Alabama	811,510	39%	1,263,741	61%	9
Alaska	80,340	36%	136,348	62%	3
Arizona	851,589	45%	1,012,878	54%	10
Arkansas	418,049	39%	632,672	59%	6
California					55
Colorado					9
Connecticut					7
Delaware	247,386	61%	151,667	38%	3
District of Columbia	210,403	93%	14,821	7%	3
Florida	4,103,638	51%	3,908,736	49%	27
Georgia	1,811,198	46%	2,022,409	53%	15
Hawaii	298,621	72%	110,848	27%	4
Idaho	235,219	36%	400,989	62%	4
Illinois	3,265,509	62%	1,970,622	37%	21
Indiana	1,367,264	50%	1,341,101	49%	11
Iowa	818,240	54%	677,508	45%	7
Kansas	499,979	41%	685,541	57%	6
Kentucky	751,515	41%	1,050,599	58%	8
Louisiana	780,981	40%	1,147,603	59%	9
Maine					4
Maryland	1,409,150	61%	873,320	38%	10
Massachusetts	1,891,083	62%	1,104,284	36%	12
Michigan	2,867,680	57%	2,044,405	41%	17
Minnesota	1,573,246	54%	1,275,466	44%	10
Mississippi	517,899	43%	684,475	57%	6
Missouri	1,436,745	49%	1,442,613	50%	11
Montana	220,401	47%	236,513	50%	3
Nebraska	315,913	41%	439,421	47%	5
Nevada	531,884	55%	411,988	43%	5
New Hampshire					4
New Jersey	2,073,934	57%	1,540,907	42%	15
New Mexico	454,291	57%	334,298	42%	5
New York	4,357,360	62%	2,573,368	37%	31
North Carolina	2,123,334	50%	2,109,281	49%	15
North Dakota	141,113	45%	168,523	53%	3
Ohio					20
Oklahoma	502,286	34%	959,645	66%	7
Oregon					7
Pennsylvania	3,184,807	55%	2,584,119	44%	21
Rhode Island	272,572	63%	150,891	35%	4
South Carolina	842,441	45%	1,008,727	54%	8
South Dakota	170,877	45%	203,002	53%	3
Tennessee	1,093,213	42%	1,487,564	57%	11
Texas	3,521,164	44%	4,467,748	55%	34
Utah	301,771	34%	555,497	63%	5
Vermont					3
Virginia	1,792,502	52%	1,637,338	47%	13
Washington					11
West Virginia	301,438	43%	394,278	56%	5
Wisconsin	1,670,474	56%	1,258,181	43%	10
Wyoming	80,496	33%	160,639	66%	3

Other websites

• 2008 Presidential Electoral Map