On 4th of November 2008, Barack Obama was elected as the forty-fourth president of the United States [1, p.374]. Obama became the first Democratic candidate to secure the majority of the popular vote since Carter in 1976 as well as to win one of highest numbers of Electoral Votes - 365 - second highest after president Clinton in 1996 [2]. Moreover, among minority voters, Obama won 95% of African-American, 67% of Hispanic and 62% of Asian votes[3], what is noticeably higher than percentages achieved by Kerry, a 2004 Democratic candidate [4, p.17]. Furthermore, as Table 1 demonstrates, the new president-elect also secured a considerable share of young (66%), female (56%) and gay/bisexual (70%) votes as well as secured a clear majority of votes from low- and middle-income backgrounds. Against all the odds, not only did young and vibrate Senator from Illinois become the first
…show more content…
Taking the audacity to challenge the status quo, competing against far more well-known and experienced opponents, such as Clinton and McCain, against all the odds, a relatively unknown young Senator from Illinois became the first African-American president in the history of US. Largely due to the innovative use of the social media, his campaign became the most expensive in US history, fundraising $750m over just 3 million contributions, most of which were online contributions of less than $200 each [2]. The efficiency and rigour of the campaign, the timing of 2008 Financial Crisis and growing dissatisfaction of public with Bush and Washington (the context), the innovative use of digital media, increased cross-media presence, multi-layered and tailored targeting as well as lack of strong Republican opponent ‘meant that with hope on his side’ Obama was able to secure his presidency in 2008
Taking the audacity to challenge the status quo, competing against far more well-known and experienced opponents, such as Clinton and McCain, against all the odds, a relatively unknown young Senator from Illinois became the first African-American president in the history of US. Largely due to the innovative use of the social media, his campaign became the most expensive in US history, fundraising $750m over just 3 million contributions, most of which were online contributions of less than $200 each [2]. The efficiency and rigour of the campaign, the timing of 2008 Financial Crisis and growing dissatisfaction of public with Bush and Washington (the context), the innovative use of digital media, increased cross-media presence, multi-layered and tailored targeting as well as lack of strong Republican opponent ‘meant that with hope on his side’ Obama was able to secure his presidency in 2008