Five Reasons Barack Obama Won

Five Reasons Barack Obama Won

President-elect Barack Obama has entered history now. He is the first African-American to be elected as President of the United States. Even more amazing is that his victory was so overwhelming. He literally trounced John McCain and the Republicans, leaving more established politicians behind in a trail of dust.

There are a number of reasons I believe that Barack Obama was able to appeal to so many voters and achieve one of the greatest wins in politics.

A Well-Run Organization

Unlike the McCain camp, the supportive team of Barack Obama had more solidarity and ran his campaign like a well-oiled machine. There were no breaks in the ranks and every move was made carefully and decisively to benefit their candidate.

Obama was wise enough to surround himself with high-caliber people who were extremely good at their jobs and knew how to present him at his best.

McCain’s team derailed their man’s success by infighting, pushing him into making questionable choices and having no real grasp of how to make him connect to most voters. Obama’s people, on the other hand, managed to turn their candidate into a virtual modern folk hero through savvy promotion.

The fact is that Obama’s team outclassed McCain’s.

Change

Look at the people who voted for Barack Obama and you will see that he appealed to people from many backgrounds, including those from diverse racial and economic groups, different generations and people from various geographic regions.

What appears to have brought them all together was the desire for change.

John McCain was too closely connected to Washington’s "old guard", the same one which has been blamed for the various messes, at home and abroad, that our country finds itself in

Obama is as far a cry from the status quo as you can get. He is clearly not part of the long-standing group of Washington insiders and "fat cats", who have been so oblivious to the will of the people for years.

Many American voters were simply weary of these jaded, corrupted, ineffective politicians and were wiling to put somebody far removed from their ranks into office.

Communication

Not since John F. Kennedy has a Presidential candidate been so adept at communicating with voters.

Over the course of his run for the Presidency, Barack Obama showed that he was articulate, focused and on point. In terms of explaining his policies and his specific plans for implementing positive improvements in the way our country should be run, he was eloquent and concise.

In comparison to John McCain, Obama seemed more prepared with a battle plan to put into place.

Charisma

Let’s be honest. Personality is an important factor in the choice voters eventually make. Although most of John McCain’s supporters were immune to Barack Obama’s "charms," many other individuals found him impressive and charismatic.

His mesmerizing speeches, his style, his calmness in the midst of criticism, his intelligence, his desire to reach out to people from all backgrounds and persuasions won over a lot of people.

The fact that he represents a younger, fresher viewpoint on how to properly run the nation made him attractive to youthful voters, minorities and whites who felt no connection to his older, far less fascinating opponent.

His Family

She has had her critics, who often misconstrued the meaning of her remarks and accused her of expressing herself too radically.

Despite their disparagement, however, Michelle Obama has been a tremendous asset to her husband. She was actively involved in being a support to her spouse during his run for office and proved that she was not just an attractive appendage, but an intelligent woman, capable of expressing her own independent opinions. She is a graduate of Princeton University and of Harvard Law School. She also worked for a law firm, prior to wedding the man who would go on to become President-elect.

A lot of folks saw Michelle Obama as more reflective of a "modern" 21st-century woman than Cindy McCain. (In fairness to Cindy McCain, however, I do have to say that one of the McCain team’s biggest mistakes was making her virtually invisible during the campaign, thereby, not allowing voters to get to know her better).

The fact that the Obama’s are parents to two children under the age of 12- Malia and Natasha- made many voters feel as though they were easier to identify with.

The idea of having a young First Family with young children was an attractive prospect to some voters and was one of the reasons Barack Obama appealed to them.

What Next?

All of the above being said, we do have to see, now that Obama has been elected as our new President, whether he will be able to measure up to the potential that made his supporters vote him in.

Though I believe he is capable of making strides to deliver on his campaign promises, the reality is that no one human being can magically "fix" all the troubles of our land in an instant.

Those who expect Obama to work miracles immediately are setting both him and themselves up for a great disappointment. It will, as he himself has said, take time to untangle our nation out of the chaos it has fallen into during the 8-years of the Bush administration.

The best we can do is give him the chance to prove himself.

And wait.

By: Ezriela Devereux
Published: 11/09/08

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5 Posted Comments:

@ 2:34 pm 11/09/08 by Julian Riklon

Thank you for this article. I enjoyed reading your five reasons of why Obama won the election and I could not agree with you more. Now that he is being elected, let the American people give him the chance to do whatever he is able to do. As a citizen of another country, I can only pray for God's special blessing on him, his family, and the people of United States.

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Woo Hoo

@ 3:54 pm 11/09/08 by Kyle Shepherd

I think that Barack is ready to use this chance to prove himself. He is ready to lead this country into a new age of cooperation. I think if we have a lot of positive belief in him, and we continue to be as involved as we have been, then there is nothing stopping him from making a real difference in how americans and those abroad a like view our country.

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@ 4:53 pm 11/09/08 by OhMy

Trounced?

48% of the voting population did not vote for Obama.

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@ 5:52 pm 11/09/08 by Pat Young

And you need a proof reader who can spell and who understands punctuation.
A lot of things have changed, but not these.

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@ 2:01 pm 11/10/08 by Julian Riklon

Thank you for your advice. I will honor that and do accordingly. Again, English is my second language and I don't usually know when I'm making a mistake in spelling or punctuation. Anyway, I sincerely enjoyed reading the other people's comments and opinions on Obama. I respect them and I hope they do the same for me.

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