Obama\'s Presidential Campaign of 2008 Related to the Book Game Change

Game Change

In the book Game Change, there is a focus on different aspects of the 2008 Presidential campaign. This is accomplished by taking a behind the scenes look at the primaries and the tactics that were used. To fully understand what happened, there will be an emphasis on how Obama won the primary and the way this strategy helped him to win the White House. Together, these different elements will provide specific insights about the challenges impacting the campaign and how they were addressed.

How Obama Won the Primary?

From the very beginning, Obama was considered to be a long shot for winning the Democratic nomination and the White House. This is because Hillary Clinton had polled better than he did in a number of key states. At the same time, she had the name recognition and popularity to her advantage. As a result, everyone assumed that Clinton would more than likely win the nomination and challenge the Republicans in the fall. (Heilemann, 2010)

However, Obama had tremendous amounts of support from many Democratic insiders (i.e. Harry Reid and Charles Schumer). They believed that he was there best chance of winning the White House. This is because they felt that many of the established candidates were not exciting their political base and general public. To increase the total amounts of enthusiasm for their ideas and platforms; meant that some kind change had to occur in their strategy. The results were that Obama was approached by Reid and Schumer in 2006 about the possibility of running for President. This is illustrating how many Democratic insiders believed that Hillary Clinton and other candidates could not generate the same kind excitement or enthusiasm. (Heilemann, 2010)

Obama as a Candidate for President

Despite the support that Obama received from many party officials, the reality is that his candidacy was a threat to the political establishment (most notably: Hillary Clinton). What happened is she felt that he was unqualified to be President and pointed out these differences during the primary. The problem was that these tactics were ineffective against Obama's grassroots campaign. This resulted in her campaign engaging in methods that were designed to show how he was using his race to give him an unfair advantage. (Heilemann, 2010)

A good example of this occurred during the Iowa Primary. This is considered to be the first test as to who will become the nominee for the party. Everyone wants to win this event, because it gives their campaign momentum going into other states. When this happens, the odds increase that they will have enough delegates to win the nomination. In this case, Clinton had a heated discussion with pollster Mark Penn. During this conversation, she accused Obama of playing the race card and importing voters into Iowa (in the days before the caucus). (Heilemann, 2010)

The results were that Obama won Iowa and Clinton continued to feel as if she was being short changed by his tactics. This is showing how the party establishment was not fully behind Obama during the early primaries and caucuses. When this occurred, there were increased amounts of animosity and anger about Obama being so successful (without having to go through the same kind of political vetting process in contrast to other candidates). (Heilemann, 2010)

As the focus moved on to other states; the underlying amounts of pressure on Obama continued to increase. This is because the various candidates wanted to limit any kind of positive momentum his campaign was receiving. The basic strategy was to show how Obama lacked experience and did not have the intellect to serve as President. In the future, this was supposed to provide rivals with enough leverage to force some of the established party leaders to openly endorse their candidate. (Heilemann, 2010)

For example after the Iowa caucus, Bill Clinton was actively lobbying party officials to support his wife. The problem was that many wanted to wait and see how things turned out before committing to a particular candidate. This made it difficult for Hillary's campaign, as she could not find the big name endorsements that would give her momentum. (Heilemann, 2010)

In one particular conversation, between Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, is when these views were obvious. What happened is he had been pushing Kennedy to come out and support his wife. However, Kennedy felt that it was prudent to wait and see the opinions of the voters. This angered Clinton who said, "A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee." In response Kennedy came out and fully endorsed Obama. This animosity is showing the frustrations of the Clinton campaign and their inability to stop Obama. (Heilemann, 2010)

In response to these comments, many civil rights leaders came out and openly criticized Clinton. Evidence of this can be seen with views from the Reverend Al Sharpton who said, "I think this is disturbing because it is showing someone seeking to stop Mr. Obama's campaign and making a direct reference. If someone said that he would have been getting us coffee like that it would be very offensive to me. I would definitely take Mr. Clinton on as I did in South Carolina." This illustrating how Clinton's strategy of accusing Obama of racism back fired on the campaign. The reason why, is because Obama was not actively involved in this kind of negative campaigning. When this happened, the Clinton's appeared to be prejudice, jealous and spiteful. (Heilemann, 2010)

The way that Obama won the primary, was to show how he was above all of the political infighting. As he would talk about the issues and the way he could help ordinary Americans, who were suffering from an imploding economy. Moreover, the continuing attacks on Obama's race made rivals appear to be prejudice. Once this happened, is when he could show that he was beyond these issues and was unfairly targeted by rivals. This helped to increase his popularity and following. Moreover, these actions encouraged large numbers of minority voters to come out in support of Obama. Over the course of time, this gave him an edge in winning critical states and eventually defeating Clinton for the nomination. (Heilemann, 2010)