I watched the November 4th, 2008 elections, although I strongly believed that there was nothing that could possibly halt Obama. And, there wasn't.
I asked my dad who he voted for. My dad was a fairly grounded democrat, but to my surprise, he said that he had voted for McCain. I thought that Obama would appeal to him, and actually the presidential candidate did. My dad was going back and forth with himself, deciding whether he should vote for Obama or vote for McCain. He was still arguing with himself when he entered the booth, but then he asked himself a single question: "Who will get us out of war?" He voted McCain.
If other people were like my dad I don't think that the elections would've gone the way it had. He has a clear political sense. Although he doesn't follow intricately with politics, he does know what's going on. After watching the people's reactions post election, even though I was happy too, I was kind of amazed. There were so many people on television who seemed to say that their only reason for voting for Obama was because he was black. For the people who voted solely for the race of the candidates and not the candidates themselves, there was no weighing, no last minute deciding like my father had done.
Really, I think just the fact that Obama was a democrat was really what moved people to vote for him. After eight horrible years with a Republican president, the people had had enough. They turned to their escape, an eloquent man who promised change. He was a democrat.
Obama took California, New York, Florida - all huge, huge sources of electoral votes - and even took the swing state of Ohio.
