Elections 2008

In a historic election Nov. 4, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois became the 44th President of the United States, beating Republican Sen. John McCain and becoming the first African American to hold the office.

Obama won 53 percent of the vote and, with more than 65 million votes, beat McCain by nearly eight million votes, the largest winning margin for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson's 16 million vote landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964. His total of 364 electoral votes, compared with McCain's 163 (Missouri is still too close to call at press time, so hasn't been included) is the largest since Bill Clinton beat George H.W. Bush 370 to 168 in 1992.

Swing states were also kind to Obama as he won all the ones having been contested, even coming close in conservative states that have little history of backing a liberal candidate.

Obama also notched an impressive margin of victory in Sonoma County, getting 73.5 percent of the vote, a total surpassing even perennially popular 6th District Representative Lynn Woolsey, who received 70.6 percent of the vote in her House of Representatives race.

Despite the remarkable popular and electoral victories, Obama faces one of the toughest times in United States history with a number of concerns on the minds of Americans.

"Two wars of course, the economy, the Chinese economy competing with us…lots of foreign policy issues," said Daniel Kold, 19, a Business major, citing his concerns.

Though Obama won a decisive victory, many still see problems with his abilities to tackle these issues.

"He doesn't have much experience, [I'm] worried about that," said Kold, who voted for John McCain based on his foreign policy experience and taxation policies.

McCain touted his experience throughout the campaign, though some believe his choice of Sarah Palin, the first term Alaska governor with little experience in national politics, had a negative effect on this argument and contributed to his seven percentage point loss to Obama.

This became especially apparent in the days following the elections, in which some of McCain's campaign aides spoke about her in unflattering terms, alleging crucial gaps in knowledge of important foreign policy affairs. These included the now famous accusations of Palin not being able to name the countries (U.S.A., Canada and Mexico) that participate in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as well as her recognizing Africa as a country, rather than a continent composed of many countries.

Now that the election is over and these allegations have been levied, much attention has been put on the reactions from McCain and Palin, both of whom have denied all attacks on Palin's knowledge and urge a spirit of bipartisanship in helping the Obama administration succeed.

Obama also pledged a bipartisan effort in his first public address as President-Elect on Nov. 7. Obama spoke from a room aimed at making him look presidential, with eight American flags and a podium bearing a round seal reading "The Office of the President-Elect."

He focused, as on the campaign trail, predominantly on economics, stating his number one priority as passing an economic stimulus plan that would expand unemployment benefits, send aid to the poor to help pay for essentials like food, dispatch Medicaid money to states and allocate tens of billions of dollars for public works projects aimed at creating new jobs. Obama said if this didn't make it into law before his inauguration that it would be among his first projects as president.

Rather than announce any bold ideas for new policy Obama preferred to defer to President Bush's team until their tenure is up and his has begun.

"The United States has only one government and one president at a time…Immediately after I become president, I will confront this economic challenge head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity," Obama said in his speech.

With Obama's election a Democratic wave inundated the country, with many states ousting or rejecting Republicans in favor of Democrats. Though Democrats won six new seats in the Senate and at least 19 in the House of Representatives, many races were incredibly close, necessitating a recount or runoff election.

In Minnesota the hotly contested Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic-Farmer-Labor (Minnesota's version of the Democratic Party) Al Franken will undergo a recount. Currently Coleman, former mayor of St. Paul, leads Franken, a former author/satirist, Saturday Night Live contributor, by a margin of only 438 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast. Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley got 15 percent of the vote.

Georgia faces a similar but much more contentious situation. In the Senate race there neither incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss, Democrat Jim Martin nor Libertarian Allen Buckley won a majority of the vote, which is required by Georgia law in Senate elections.

There are still a few thousand votes in Fulton County, GA being counted, but a runoff election will be the only option should the results remain the same. In the Nov. 4 election Chambliss won 50 percent of the vote, Martin 47 percent and Buckley three percent.

Local elections also proved to be very close in certain cases. In the 3rd district Supervisor race, covering western Sonoma County, Efren Carillo, a 27-year-old credit union counselor, beat Rue Furch, a 62-year-old Sonoma County planning commissioner, by 660 votes out of over 34,000 cast.

Local city council positions proved to be even more closely fought. In Rohnert Park Gina Belforte, Jake Mackenzie and Joseph Callinan claimed the three available spots in a race that saw less than a six point difference between Belforte, who received the most votes, and last place finisher Dawna Gallagher.