Obama's Road to the White House

When traditionally red states and towns start going blue, that is a hint that something historical is bound to happen. At the start of midnight on Nov. 2, 2008, the citizens of Dixville, Notch, N.H. voted in sharp contrast to four decades of voting there, as 15 out of 21 citizens leaned towards Obama. The last Democratic candidate to win Dixville was Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

Not only did Dixville go blue but states that traditionally have gone Republican turned a shade that most people were not used to seeing on result screens as votes came in. Indiana, that is a predominately Republican state and has only gone to the Democrats once in the last 40 years, went for Obama. It was the same case for Virginia and North Carolina. But all eyes were on Florida which proved to be the determinant factor with hanging chads in the 2000 election. In 2008, however, Florida voters highly favored the Democratic nominee and so did Ohio, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Less surprising but equally impressive was Obama's ability to sweep the states of New England and the Northeast, such as Maryland and Delaware, as well as the states in the mid-northern part of the US such as Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. As expected, California, Oregon and Washington on the West Coast followed suit.

Obama's path to the White House included a strategy of being competitive in every state and not only in states where victory seemed possible. The thought process behind this strategy was one followed by Barack Obama long before he became the front-runner to a run for the White House.

Life was never very easy for Obama. His mother was white, from Wichita, Kansas and his dad was black and originally from Kenya. He struggled for a long time to fit into the black community. Born in Hawaii, he moved to Jakarta, Indonesia when he was 6, gaining an understanding of how America was viewed abroad. He then went on to attend Columbia University and Harvard Law School. During his summers while at law school, he worked in Chicago where he met his wife, Michelle. Barack Obama practiced law and was also a professor at the University of Chicago before becoming an Illinois state senator in 1996.

In the state senate, Obama became known for his ability to reach across party lines and compromise for the good of everyone involved. After eight years in the state senate, Obama decided to try for the position that would catapult him to the presidency.

In 2004, Barack Obama ran for the national Senate seat in Illinois. He ended up winning in a landslide. Obama gave a speech in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention that was the beginning of his rise to rock-star status. He called for a unification of conservatives and liberals to reach a better America for everyone.

His frankness and honestly helped connect him to the American public. Obama was also different from other Presidential candidates because he did not come from a political family, he was not previously famous and he didn't have as much political experience as many of his opponents. While some thought this would be a shortfall in his campaign, it helped Obama because people could see themselves in a man who decided to run for a position not because of a title but because of the responsibility.

Obama announced his run for the presidency in February of 2007. While Obama steadily gained more convention delegates than his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, due to the closeness of the race, the Democratic campaigns started having a negative tone which Obama really wanted to avoid.

Super Tuesday, which should have determined the Democratic candidate, did not help the dead-heat between Obama and Clinton. Both candidates failed to win a clear majority of delegates and the race went on. Obama ended up winning 12 straight primary contests but Clinton won Ohio and Texas, which had a lot of delegates.

Soon after, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorsed Obama and he started gaining superdelegates. Clinton was short on money and her path to victory was quickly becoming an impossible task. Soon after, Sen. John Edwards, who had campaigned against Obama early on in the contest, gave his support to Obama. This helped Obama's appeal to blue-collar workers.

Obama went on to win the Democratic nomination and his battle for the presidency would be against John McCain, a war hero. Obama ran on a campaign of change and tried to appeal to everyone, regardless of race, age or economic status. He ran on a slogan of "Yes we can" which turned into "Yes we did" as he became the President of the United States.