This is the seventh episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, Election of 1800, was published Aug. 14.
The 2008 presidential campaign witnessed the meteoric rise of America’s first Black president amid one of the worst economic crises in the country’s history and two failing wars. First-term Illinois Sen. Barack Obama decisively defeated Vietnam War veteran and longtime Arizona Sen. John McCain by a vote of 365-173 in the Electoral College and by 10 million popular votes.
The general election may not have been the most dramatic (or nastiest) race of the year. Mr. Obama first had to get past Sen. Hillary Clinton in a lengthy Democratic Party primary battle that saw Mr. Obama win 33 states to Mrs. Clinton’s 23. The former first lady seemed to resent the upstart Obama, whose optimistic message — Yes we can — connected on an emotional level with young voters especially.
On the Republican side, McCain outlasted a crowded field that included former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. His most memorable move, however, was selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Mrs. Palin drew large and enthusiastic crowds to her rallies as she energized the party’s conservative base, despite a string of interviews in which she failed to exhibit a basic understanding of politics or current events.
In this episode of History As It Happens, historian Jeremi Suri reflects on this unforgettable election year and its enduring relevance. “It might be the most relevant election for the election we’re having this year, and what happens this year will in many ways affect how we view 2008. Was Obama’s election a fluke … or what is a harbinger of what we might see?” said Mr. Suri, a scholar at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
“What I think is most important about the 2008 election is it was the first time an African-American man was able to put together a movement not only to run for president but to unseat the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and then win against a war hero in John McCain. It transformed our political landscape for some people…. But it also sparked a backlash that was already evident during that election,” Mr. Suri added.
The subprime mortgage crisis and bailouts of some Wall Street banks, underway before voters went to the polls, devastated working-class Americans. The failure of Washington to fully reckon with the consequences was yet to come in 2008 when Mr. Obama rode a wave of optimism to the White House.
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