2008 Election Has Some Interesting Facets

The 55^th consecutive quadrennial election for president and vice president of the United States will take place on Nov. 4, 2008. There are a couple of things that make this upcoming election particularly noteworthy.

First election without incumbents since 1928

In the past, the vice president who served the president who is leaving office has often been a leading candidate for the next presidency and the nominee most likely to succeed him. But 2008 will be the first year since 1928 that neither an incumbent president nor incumbent vice president will be running in the presidential election.

The three most recent outgoing, two-term presidents were Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. In each of those administrations, the incumbent vice president ran for president in the next election (Richard Nixon lost his bid for president in 1960; George H.W. Bush was elected president in 1988; and Al Gore fell in the 2000 election).

In 1952, the presidential race was on between Republican candidate Eisenhower and Democrat Adlai Stevenson after incumbent President Harry S. Truman contested the New Hampshire primary. He lost his bid to Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver and stepped aside.

Also that year, Vice President Alben Barkley went after but lost the Democratic nomination.

Lyndon Johnson was originally set to seek re-election in 1968. He entered and won the primary in New Hampshire, but rethought his run after having a national poll conducted that showed the majority of voters would not cast ballots for him. Johnson announced in a television speech that was broadcast across the country that he would not seek re-election after all.

After Johnson dropped out of the race, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey threw his hat in the ring, and at the end was chosen as the Democratic nominee.

Other incumbent vice presidents who have sought the presidency include Dan Quayle and Walter Mondale. Mondale succeeded Jimmy Carter, the president he served under, as the Democratic candidate, while Quayle did not win a nomination.

Comments made -- and reiterated -- by current Vice President Dick Cheney indicate that 2008 will definitely be an open seat election. Cheney first said he would never run for president in 2001. Then in 2004 during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney said, "I will just say as hard as I possibly know how to say, if nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve."

About the money

Michael Toner, the Federal Election Commission chairman, said in January that the 2008 U.S. presidential race was shaping up to be "the most expensive election in American history."

Toner has estimated that the 2008 race will carry funding of in the area of $1 billion. He stated that for candidates to have a shot at winning the office, they would have to raise at least $100 million by the end of this year.

Reports on the cost of campaigning for president show those expenses have risen sharply in the past few years. A report in one government publication said that costs for the sum of the Republican and Democratic campaigns added together shows that costs have more than doubled since 1996 (they jumped from $448.9 million in 1996 to $1.01 billion in 2004).

How is the election decided?

Everyone knows who the president and vice president are -- the president is the head of state and the head of government, and also serves as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces; the vice president is the president's deputy and president of the Senate.

But how is it really decided who lives in the White House for four years?

Elections in the United States are based on an Electoral College. The winner of the presidency is the candidate who receives the majority of votes (270 are needed) in the Electoral College. In 2008, the 44^th president of the United States will be elected, and the 47^th vice president will be chosen (these numbers are based on the assumption that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will serve out the remainders of their terms). In the event that none of the candidates running for president gets the 270-vote majority from the Electoral College, the president-elect is voted on by the House of Representatives (this last happened in 1825). If no candidate for vice president receives the majority of the votes from the Electoral College, the winner of that election is decided by a vote of the Senate (the last time this happened was in 1837).

How are electoral votes calculated?

The allocation of electoral votes represented by each of the 50 states in the 2008 election will be based primarily on the 2000 national Census (this is the same Census that determined electoral votes in the 2004 presidential election).

The inauguration of the next president and vice president of the United States is set to take place on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009.