The Obama Campaign 2008: a Historical Overview (Report‪)‬

Barack Obama's campaign for the 2008 Presidency is described by many political analysts as brilliant, remarkable, and almost flawless (frill, 2009). Despite his inexperience in national politics and limited experience in state politics (Obama was first elected to political office in 1994), he assembled a remarkably cohesive and effective "no drama" campaign team (Mendell, 2007), which in turn helped him craft and deliver his message of hope and change that ultimately resonated with the majority of American voters on election night, November 4, 2008. The origins of this "improbable" campaign, to use Obama's words, can be traced to July 27, 2004. Obama was on his way to an easy victory in his campaign for the U.S. Senate from Illinois when he was invited to give the keynote address at the Democratic Convention in Boston. Many pundits refer to this speech as the one which placed Illinois State Senator Obama before the national electorate and where he established himself as a different type of Black American politician (Souza, 2008).