By Adrian Carrasquillo

Focus on Caucus States

Obama’s won a tough contest against Hillary Clinton by a razor thin margin. His victory can be attributed to a better overall strategy and execution, but specifically, the focus on caucus states made a big difference. Obama’s campaign was bigger on enthusiasm and volunteer strength—what is usually described as grassroots strength. This allowed Obama to win six states in a row and pull even in delegate rich Texas, which had a caucus component as well.

Philadelphia Speech

Jeremiah Wright! Goddamn America! United States of KKK! By now the rantings of Obama’s former pastor have been widely disseminated, but when the news broke, it had the potential to derail Obama’s candidacy. The reason that Wright was never a major focus during the general election was because the issue had come out fast and furiously- but had fallen flat.

And it had receded from the news because Obama took it on head-first. Obama took on race issues in America, possibly the most explosive thing that everyone accepts but doesn’t talk about. His speech went a long way towards calming voters who felt uncomfortable about a candidate who was close to someone they would never associate with.

Obama’s Convention

There was never a chance that Democrats were going to vote for McCain en masse. As the campaigns drags on and party identity comes to the forefront, hurt feelings over the primary tends to fade away. But the strength of Obama’s convention was to continue his evolution as a candidate that could be accepted by most of America.

His supposed “greek columns” drew conservative ire for a couple of days but the speech in front of nearly 90,000 people and millions more on television went a long way towards making Obama more normal to Americans.

Economic Crisis

Stocks tumbled and voter confidence plummeted. With the debates set to begin, a time when many Americans make their decisions, the economic crisis was seemingly placed to provide the most drama possible.

Obama took time to figure out the best course of action and then provided guidelines that congress should follow in their negotiations over the bailout. McCain swung for the fences and it cost him. He suspended his campaign and threatened to suspend the debate. McCain said that he was going to go to Washington to get the bailout done but Obama was the one questioning Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson during negotiations.

Debate Performances

Obama is known to give great speeches but uneven performances in debates. McCain’s enemy is the teleprompter but his knowledge is on full display during debates. However, when the debates started, Obama stood out for projecting calm and McCain was a little uneven when it counted.