Research Paper on "Democratic Nomination of Obama for President"

Research Paper 21 pages (7199 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

2008 Democratic Presidential Primary -- Clinton vs. Obama

Why -- and when -- did Obama decide to make a run for the White House? Did he believe his chances were good -- or was he just setting the table for a future run?

"…I have chosen a life with a ridiculous schedule, a life that requires me to be gone from Michelle and the girls for long stretches of time and that exposes Michelle to all sorts of stress. I may tell myself that in some larger sense I am in politics for Malia and Sasha, that the work I do will make the world a better place for them. But such rationalizations seem feeble and painfully abstract when I'm missing one of the girl's school potlucks because of a vote, or calling Michelle to tell her that session's been extended and we need to postpone our vacation…" (Barack Obama, the Audacity of Hope, p. 348).

From Obama's books and his speeches leading up to late 2006, it seems safe to say he had the White House on his radar for years before his announcement. In Obama's second book, the Audacity of Hope, published early in 2006, he explains that he is feeling guilt about the fact that his busy schedule as a U.S. Senator is keeping him from enjoying family life. But by December 2006, according to Richard Wolffe's book, Renegade: The Making of a President, Obama had a "restless ambition" to run for the presidency, which would take him away from his lovely family far more often then he would as a U.S. senator. Wolffe, who had near-constant access to Obama in the months leading up to the Democratic Primary, and throughout the whirlwind, wildly exciting yet pressure-packed primary campaign, writes that Obama "…realized that his family time would disappear, that every word and every vote would be scrubbed, parsed, distorted, and exploited" (Wolffe, p. 24). And yet, Wolffe goes on, Obama knew "this moment might never come again."

Wolffe's early chapters set the tone and the stage for Obama's decision to run for the presidency; Wolffe traces the life Obama led as a young boy in Hawaii and Indonesia -- and steers the reader into the relationship between Obama and his mother (Stanley Ann) an anthropologist, who woke her son up "…at four each morning in Indonesia to teach him an American correspondence course" (Wolffe, p. 27). She also "…drilled a sense of empathy into her son and left him with a deep commitment to social justice" (Wolffe, p. 29). She would occasionally wake her son up in the middle of the night "to stare at a magical moon"; and she took Obama on her fieldwork for her Ph.D -- tours of temples and churches. "What is best in me I owe to her," Obama told Wolffe (p. 29). Obama had actually began to think about running for the presidency shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Wolffe write on page 44. Because he was the only African-American senator, he felt obligated to speak out about the devastation in New Orleans. And so when he went on ABC's This Week political talk show, he used the opportunity to explain that the people in New Orleans "…were abandoned long ago" -- not just after the hurricane. They were abandoned "…to murder and mayhem in their streets; to substandard schools; to dilapidated housing; to inadequate health care; to a pervasive sense of hopelessness" (Wolffe, p. 44).

Pushing Obama closer and closer to a decision was the power of his popularity; the swarming thousands who showed up at his book signings gave him the little push he needed, Wolffe continues (p. 48). "What became clear was that the mood for something different, for change, was strong…when we were in Seattle for a book signing and put out free tickets over the Internet, they were gone in two hours. When people were scalping tickets for a free book signing, you got a sense that people's interest was still high" (Wolffe, 48-49). All those ego-fulfilling moments on the book tours were energizing Obama, but he still needed the support of his wife Michelle, who was "angry at his selfishness and careerism" during his failed campaign for Congress in 200 (Wolffe, p. 52).

From November through the end of the holidays in 2006, Obama tapped the advice of everyone he trusted, and by January, 2007, he made his announcement. He was not testing the waters for a future run at the White House, he was in it to win as a renegade.

In the book the Battle for America 2008 (Balz, et al., 2009) the authors suggest that Obama's 17 day trip to Africa during his second year as U.S. senator "has a profound effect" on the senator. "He began to think about how his election as president might change America's image around the world," Balz wrote on page 27. But the trip that "moved him irretrievably into the 2008 campaign" was a book-signing visit to New Hampshire in December, 2006. The crowds were huge, the enthusiasm was intense, and 1,500 people paid $25 each for a chance to hear Obama.

If he did decide to run, he pointed out in news conferences in New Hampshire, his reasons for running would be "because I think I will serve the country well…and I think what is going on is that people are very hungry for something new" (Balz, p. 32). People want something "larger than the kind of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics" that has been in evidence in the country in recent years, Obama explained. He said he believed he was "a stand-in for that desire on the part of the country" (Balz, p. 32).

Did Obama believe running against a woman would help -- or hurt -- his chances?

From the literature available, there is no indication from Obama or his close associates if he thought facing a woman would be an advantage or disadvantage. It was clear that Obama was more in tune with the idea that he was facing a Clinton (a name that was synonymous with the Democrat Party); he was facing off against an experienced politician with international name recognition and a husband who is a former president.

In March, 2007, after Hillary Clinton had thoroughly beaten Obama in a candidate's forum in Las Vegas, Obama realized he had "leaped into the deep end of a very cold pool" and it took him "a while to figure out how to swim" (Balz, p. 74). Clinton was razor sharp on health care -- Obama had no plan ready to discuss -- and Clinton gave a "full-blown stump speech," Balz writes. Indeed after two and a half months on the campaign trail Obama was "exhausted" and he "looked miserable" (Balz, p. 74). But Obama had an ace up his sleeve; he had not supported the invasion of Iraq and Clinton had supported it. While Clinton changed her answers regarding why she voted for Bush's invasion, Obama trumpeted his reasons for speaking out against it from the beginning. Meantime, when the debates began Clinton was the strong candidate who seemed ready and Obama was still learning on the job.

Some bad blood between the Clintons and Obama was inevitable, and the sparks that flew between the two campaigns were heated and personal and well reported through a media hungry for controversy. Obama was critical of Clinton, but when asked by the book's authors (Balz and Hanes Johnson) if he (Obama) was "portraying Clinton as embodying the worst of the political system," he did not agree with that harsh description of his campaign rhetoric (Balz, p. 118). Although Obama knew full well he was "running against the dominant brand name of the Democratic Party" (p. 119), he refused to say Clinton "represents the worst of the system." But he had his own style of attack politics: "…she's run a textbook campaign and the textbook that is issued by Washington conventional wisdom says you should you be vague and avoid definitive answers…" (pp. 118-119).

When Clinton lost the Iowa caucuses to Obama in 2008, it did not come as a surprise to her at all, because Clinton's internal polling showed that five days prior to the Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Iowa, close to election day for the caucuses Clinton led 32 to 25 over Obama; but five days later "Obama had surged into the lead" (Balz, p. 121).

Racism played a role in the 2008 Democratic Primary

Both candidates were attacked of course for their political positions, but they were also forced to deal with bias; for Clinton the bias tended to be gender-based and for Obama his race came into play and often in unfair doses of prejudice. When an African-American is gunning for the presidency and has made surprisingly substantial strides in the campaign, that is big news in the U.S.; but when the principal opponent of that candidate is a woman, who is running neck-in-neck with the black candidate, that is even bigger news.… READ MORE

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