Political Positions
Obama has taken positions on many national, political, economic and
social issues, either through public comments or his senatorial voting
record
Since announcing his US presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama has emphasized withdrawing American troops from Iraq, increasing energy independence (that includes New Energy For America plan), `decreasing the influence of lobbyists, and promoting universal health care as top national priorities.
Fundraising
According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama's campaign raised more money in the first quarter of 2008 ($133,549,000) than it had raised in all of 2007 ($103,802,537).
The campaign had a relatively small total of $21.9 million in May, but went on to raise $52 million in June, after Obama had secured the nomination.
On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing since the system was created in the aftermath of Watergate.
Obama was expected to raise $265 million between the time of the announcement and election day. By rejecting the funds in favor of private donations, the campaign put itself in a position to outspend John McCain prior to the election.
Had he signed on to the plan, the campaign would only have been able to spend $84.1 million between the party convention in August and the general election in November.
Obama explained his decision to opt out of the public financing system, saying, "public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."
Critics of the decision claimed that the decision contradicted earlier statements that he would attempt to reach agreement with McCain to obtain public financing, and asserted that Obama's campaign was receiving as much support from unregulated 527 groups as McCain's.
On September 4, 2008, the Obama campaign announced they raised $10 million in the 24 hour period after Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech. The RNC reported raising $1 million in the same period.
On 19 October 2008, Obama's campaign announced a record fundraising total of $150 million for September 2008. This exceeded the campaign's single-month record ($66 million) for August 2008.
The campaign raised much of its cash in small donations over the internet, with about half of its intake coming in increments of less than $200.
Both major party campaigns screened regularly for patterns of abuse and return or reject donations in excess of legal limits, from overseas, from untraceable addresses, or with obviously fraudulent names.
After some criticism of the Obama campaign on conservative blogs the Republican National Committee asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate the Obama campaign's screening practices.
Media Campaign
"O" logo
Obama's campaign has been notable for extensive use of a logo consisting of the letter O, with the center suggesting a sun rising over fields in the colors of the American flag. It was designed by a team at Chicago design firm Sender LLC.
Television advertisements
Soon after becoming the presumptive nominee, Obama began a biographical commercial campaign emphasizing his patriotism.
The advertisements ran in 18 states, including traditionally Republican Alaska and North Carolina. Between June 6 and July 26, Obama's campaign spent $27 million on advertisements, against a combined McCain and Republican National Committee total of $24.6 million.
In a September 15, 2008 interview with Good Morning America, Obama stated, "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." What he apparently meant was that McCain had put out more negative ads.
On October 29th at 8:00 PM EST, Obama aired a 30-minute ad entitled "American Stories, American Solutions" that was simulcast on NBC, CBS, Fox, Univision, MSNBC, BET and TV One, focusing on a wide range of issues. Fox asked for Game Six of the 2008 World Series to be delayed by 15 minutes in order to show the commercial, and that request was granted. ABC was the only major US network not to show the ad after being indecisive during the initial approach and the Obama campaign later declined the offer.
The Obama ad got 30.1m viewers across networks compared to ABC's Pushing Daisies which garnered 6.3 million viewers.
The last presidential candidate to put out half-hour long ads was H. Ross Perot who ran as an independent candidate in 1992.
The Obama campaign bought a channel on Dish Network to screen Obama ads 24/7.
Campaign songs
Barack Obama personally asked Joss Stone in August to write and record his presidential campaign song, reportedly due to the fact that she appeals across racial boundaries.
Futhermore Obama's candidacy has inspired artists to create more unsolicited music and music videos than any other candidate in American political history.
Examples include "Yes We Can" by will.i.am, of the band Black-Eyed Peas, "Barack Obama" by JFC, and "Unite the Nation" by the Greek-American hip hop group Misa/Misa.
Counter-smear website
On June 12, 2008, the Obama campaign launched a website to counter what it described as smears by his opponents.
The site provides responses to disparaging rumors about the candidate, such as unsubstantiated claims that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States.
"Israel for Obama " Campaign
Originally announced by American-Israelis in late May, the group aimed to refute the smears made against Obama concerning Israel and the Jewish community by gaining endorsements in Israel.
When the Illinois Senator Barack Obama took a Middle East trip from Afghanistan to Iraq, Jordan and finally to Israel, they organized a small "Israel for Obama " rally for him.
The chairman of the campaign in Israel, Yeshiyah Amariel, promoted using YouTube to releasing video endorsements from officials in Israel for Obama and his positions (such as "Israelis for Obama" and "right man for the job.") In the closing weeks of the election the group used support for Obama in the to fight the smears spread online by bloggers.
E-mail campaign
The National Shooting Sports Foundation alleged that Barack Obama's presidential campaign unlawfully obtained a copy of the NSSF's proprietary SHOT Show media e-mail contact list, which Obama used to send out a press release concerning "National Hunting and Fishing Day."
Proposed joint-appearances and presidential debates
On June 4, John McCain proposed a series of ten joint town hall meetings with Obama , at which the two could engage each other, beginning the next week.
Obama first agreed in principle to the notion, but later rejected McCain's proposal, offering instead one town-hall event on the Independence Day holiday and four traditional debate-style joint appearances.
Presidential debates
There were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain. No third party candidates or Independent candidates were offered an invitation to join in any of the debates, as Obama and McCain are the only candidates on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The Commission on Presidential Debates proposed and the candidates agreed that two of three 90 minute debates would be in an informal, seated, talk show format, while the third would be in a town hall format that allowed both candidates to walk around.
• First presidential debate: Friday, September 26, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi seated, talk show format
• Second presidential debate: Tuesday, October 7, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee town hall format
• Third presidential debate: Wednesday, October 15, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York seated, talk show format
Vice Presidential debate
There was one vice presidential debate between Senator Joseph Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. As with the presidential debates, no third party or independent candidates were offered an invitation.
• Vice presidential debate: Thursday, October 2, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
Election and Victory
The election took place on November 4, 2008. Shortly after 11 o'clock EST, the major media predicted that Barack Obama had won the US Presidential Election, becoming America's first African-American President, and the 44th President of the United States of America.
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