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Wednesday, October 8, 2008












United States presidential election of 2008, scheduled for Tuesday November 4, 2008, will be the 56th consecutive quadrennial United States presidential election and will select the President and the Vice President of the United States.

The Republican Party has chosen John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona as its nominee; Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, has been chosen as the nominee for the Democratic Party. The 2008 election is particularly notable because it is the first time in U.S. history that two sitting senators will run against each other for president, and because it is the first time an African American is a presidential nominee for a major party, as well as the first time both major candidates were born outside the continental United States—Hawaii for Obama and the Panama Canal Zone for McCain. With African American candidate Barack Obama, who is of mixed African and Caucasian parentage, as the Democratic Party nominee for President and John McCain's selection of female Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican Party nominee for Vice-President, the eventual winning ticket is very likely to have a historic context, as either the first African American will be elected President along with the first Roman Catholic as Vice President or the oldest President will be elected with the first woman Vice President.

The Libertarian Party has nominated former Congressman Bob Barr, the Constitution Party has nominated pastor and radio talk show host Chuck Baldwin, and the Green Party has nominated former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Ralph Nader declined to seek the Green Party nomination and is running as an independent candidate.

The election will coincide with the 2008 Senate elections in thirty-three states, House of Representatives elections in all states, and gubernatorial elections in eleven states, as well as various state referendums and local elections. As in the 2004 presidential election, the allocation of electoral votes to each state will be based partly on the 2000 Census. The president-elect and vice president-elect are scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

The 2008 election marks the first time since the 1928 election in which neither an incumbent President nor an incumbent Vice President ran for their party's nomination in the presidential election, and the first time since the 1952 election that neither the incumbent President nor incumbent Vice President is a candidate in the general election.[1] The incumbent President, George W. Bush, is serving his second and final term and is barred from running again by the term limits in the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Vice President Dick Cheney has chosen not to seek the presidency. From 2001, Cheney frequently stated he would never run for President: "I will say just as hard as I possibly know how to say... If nominated, I will not run; if

elected, I will not serve."[2]

In the three previous two-term Presidential administrations—those of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton—the incumbent vice president has immediately thereafter run for president. Richard Nixon lost the 1960 election, George H. W. Bush won the 1988 election, and Al Gore lost the 2000 election.[3][4] The 2008 election is the first in which the Vi

ce President is not a candidate for either the presidency or the vice presidency since Nelson Rockefeller in 1976.

Follows consecutive two-term administrations

Provided that President Bush finishes his second term, the new president elected in 2008 will be the first president in 184 years to take office after multiple consecutive two-term presidential administrations. Bush's predecessor, Democrat Bill Clinton also served two full terms. The last instance of consecutive two-term administrations was the Democratic-Republican succession triad of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe from 1801 to 1825; thus, Clinton and Bush will mark the first time in history that presidents of opposing parties have consecutively served two full terms. Thus, the new president must contend with strong legacies on both sides of the aisle.

Leading candidates are senators

The nominees for the major party nominations are both serving United States Senators: Republican candidate John McCain (Arizona) and Democratic candidate Barack Obama (Illinois). It is the first time in history that the two main opponents in the general election are both sitting Senators.[5] Therefore, it appears virtually certain that the 2008 election will mark the first time since the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 that a sitting Senator will be elected President of the United States, and only the third time ever in American history, after John F. Kennedy and Warren G. Harding. Obama's running mate, Joe Biden (Delaware), is also a sitting senator.

Leading candidates' origins and age

Either candidate would become the first president born outside the Continental United States, as Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and McCain was born at Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, a US naval base. A bipartisan legal review agreed that McCain is a natural-born citizen of the United States, a constitutional requirement to become president.[6]

Obama, having a white mother and Kenyan father of the Luo ethnic group[7] would be the first president to be black and to be biracial. McCain would be the first president from Arizona, while Obama would be the third president elected from Illinois, the first two being Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. The last candidates to run from these states were Adlai Stevenson (D) of Illinois, who ran and lost in 1952 and 1956, and Barry Goldwater (R) of Arizona, who ran and lost in 1964. While being elected from Illinois, Obama would become the first president from Hawaii, his

home state by birth.

Also, if inaugurated on January 20, 2009, McCain would be the oldest U.S. president upon ascension to the presidency at age 72 years and 144 days,[8] and the second-oldest president to be inaugurated (Ronald Reagan was 73 years and 350 d

ays old at his second inauguration).[9] Barack Obama and John McCain are 24 years and 340 days apart in age. This is the largest age disparity between the two major party presidential candidates, surpassing Bill Clinton and Bob Dole (23 years and 28 days apart in age) who ran against each other in 1996.

This is also the first Presidential election since 1976, and only the fourth s

ince the American Civil War, in which none of the four nominees for President and Vice-President from the two major parties have ties of birth or political office to any of the three most populous states in the Union (New York, Texas, or California).[citation needed] Obama was born in Hawaii and represents Illinois, McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone and represents Arizona, Biden was born in Pennsylvania and represents Delaware, while Palin was born in Idaho and represents Alaska.


 This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

Former ambassador Alan Keyes, former Congressman Bob Barr, and businessman Wa

yne Allyn Root left the Republican Party to join or seek the nomination of a third party. Keyes was defeated at the Constitution Party National Convention in a bid for

the party's presidential nomination and is currently running as the nominee of the newly formed America's Independent Party. Bob Barr became the Libertarian Party nominee, and Root became Barr's running mate.

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and former Senator Mike Gravel left t

he Democratic Party to join or seek the nomination of a third party. McKinney won the no

mination of the Green Party, and Gravel lost his bid for the Libertarian nomination after being eliminated in the fourth round of voting.

Election controversies

The issues of caging lists and other techniques of voter suppr

ession which gave rise to many 2004 United States election voting controversies have not been addressed by further legislation or a regulatory crackdown, and are predicted by Greg Palast (a reporter who has investigated these controversies) to recur to the extent that they could swing the result.

[citation needed]

An allegation that the Republican Party in Michigan plans to challenge the

eligibility

of voters based on lists of foreclosed homes[10] has lead to a lawsuit from the Obama campaign[11] and a letter from the House Judiciary Committee to the Department of Justice calling for an investigation.[12]


Party conventions

Presidential and vice-presidential debates

Main article: United States presidential election debates, 2008

Four debates have been announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates[42]

A Zogby Internation

al poll released on August 15, 2008, indicated that most Republic

ans and Democrats want Libertarian candidate Bob Barr to be included in the presidential debates. Nearly 70% of independent voters would like to see Barr included. The same poll indicated that nearly half of likely voters, and a majority (59%) of independent voters would like to see independent candidate Ralph Nader in

cluded in the debates as well.[44]

Campaign costs

Main article: Fundraising for the 2008 United States presidential election

The reported cost of campaigning for President has increased significantly in recent years. One source reported that if the costs for both Democratic and Republican campaigns are added together (for the Presidential primary election, general election, and the political conventions) the costs have more than doubled in only eight years ($448.9 million in 1996, $649.5 million in 2000, and $1.01 billion in 2004).[45] In January 2007, Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael E. Toner estimated the 2008 race will be a $1 billion election, and that to be taken seriously, a candidate needed to raise at le

ast $100 million by the end of 2007.[46]

Although he had sai

d he would not be running for president, published reports indicated that billionaire and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg had been considering a presi

dential bid as an independent with up to $1 billion of his own fortune to finance it.[47] Bloomberg ultimately ended this speculation by unequivocally stating that he would not run.[48] Had Bloomberg decided to run, he would not have needed to campaign in the primary elections or participate in the conventions, greatly reducing both the necessary length and cost of his campaign.

With the increase in money, the public financing system funded by the presidential election campaign fund checkoff has not been used by many candidates. John McCain,[49] Tom Tancredo,[50] John Edwards,[51] Chris Dodd,[52] and Joe Biden[53] qualified for and elected to take public funds in the primary. Other major candidates eschewed the low amount of spending permitted, or gave other reasons as in the case of Barack Ob

ama, and have chosen not to participate.

Internet campaigns

Howard Dean collected large contributions via the internet in his 2004 primary run. In 2008 candidates have gone even further in reaching out to Internet users through their own sites and through sites such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.[54][55] Republican Ron Paul[56] and Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama have been the most active in courtin

g voters through the Internet.[57] On December 16, 2007, Ron Paul collected more money on a single day through Internet donations than any presidential candidate in US history with over $6 million.[58] Anonymous and semi-anonymous smear campaigns traditionally done with fliers and push calling have also spread to the Internet.[59]

Election day through to Inauguration

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