2008

If the 2004 presidential campaigns demonstrated a paradigm shift as mass-mediated campaigning gave way to networked media campaigning (which in turn changed the power dynamic between supporters and campaigns), the 2008 election was about learning to control supporters through networked interactivity to the campaigns’ greatest advantage. The Obama campaign built on not just the innovations from 2004 but also on the earlier practices from 2000 and 1996, establishing an effective digital media strategy for fundraising and organizing. Other candidates, especially Democratic primary candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican primary candidate Ron Paul, experimented with and centralized DCTs as key components of their campaigns. The financial disadvantage John McCain’s campaign had compared to Obama in the general election was substantial. McCain's campaign had little choice but to focus on tried-and-true mass mediated campaigning and could not fully build enough with DCTs to work their advantage.

The Race of a More Perfect Union

This chapter uses the 2008 election of President Barack Obama to examine racial tensions and divisions present in memory, both between and within black and white Americans. P. J. Brendese’s study of Baldwin addresses the political implications of segregated memory in order to dismantle those unconscious barriers preventing the desegregation of history, narrative, and myth. The chapter goes on to expand Baldwin’s views of history; namely, that the past and present are inextricably and forever bound to one another. Utmost emphasis is placed on understanding both individual and societal histories. In order to move forward, a greater collective memory must be rectified, or else the stark divisions present in America’s remembering speak ill of the potential for future progress.

The Postracial Saint: On Barack Obama

All saints are, in a sense, post-racial. By definition, saints transcend worldly concepts and categories, but in doing so they draw on the specificity of their worldly features. During the 2008 election campaign and in the early days of his presidency, Barack Obama was represented as saintly. Was this merely a metaphor, or is there something about the theological structure of sainthood that captures Obama’s representation (and self-presentation)? By moving back and forth between analysis of Obama’s image and reflection on sainthood, this chapter attempts to move both conversations about black politics and about sainthood forward, helping us racially inflect our understanding of saints and helping us theologically deepen our understanding of the first black president.

Introduction

“Will they turn out to vote this year?” With every election, it seems that this is the question most commonly asked about young adults. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t always clear. After years of steady decline, the 2008 election marked an uptick in youth voter turnout rates and, seemingly, in political interest and enthusiasm as well. Then came a 6 percent decline in rates in 2012, followed by record low rates of registration and turnout in 2014. As the 2016 election loomed on the horizon, yet again, there were signs of hope. Youth voter turnout rates throughout the primaries and caucuses broke records....

The 2008 Election, Black Women’s Politics, and the Long Civil Rights Movement

This chapter uncovers the significance of African American women's high voter turnout in the 2008 election. It argues that black women's power as voters in 2008 originates in their political activism in the first half of the twentieth century. Here the chapter offers a major new synthesis of African American women's politics by arguing that their efforts evolved from the “politics of association” (1900–1920) to the “politics of citizenship” (1920–30) to the “politics of community” (1930–40) to the “politics of protest” (1940–50). Barack Obama's victory, then, is in part the result of long-term efforts by black women to undo the damage inflicted by disfranchisement more than a century ago.