There are four main reasons why Obama won in 2008 that are not being replicated in 2016, in fact, one prominent one is the opposite of 2008.
Reasons Obama won:
1. Joe Biden was right. Obama was a clean, well spoken black man. Obama as black, meant many people decided they’d cast a vote for a black man to show their “modern, hip, temperament”. Maybe 10% voted this way.
2. The sudden, screeching halt of the economy. What happened on September 29th, 2008? The Dow fell 777.68 points, the most in any single day in history. Even if manipulated, it had a profound effect. And McCain decided to SUSPEND his campaign so he could fly to Washington and attempt a “fix”. Obama did NOT stop campaigning. Advantage Obama.
3. OVERWHELMING black support. 99%. And a huge voter turnout. The entire eligible (and some say more than those eligible) black population came out and voted.
4. Weariness with the Republicans and George Bush. After 7 years of war and Bush hardly ever defending himself and his policies, it was going to be an uphill battle for a Republican to win. The OPPOSITE, by the way, applies this election. The pendulum has swung to the other side.
wow great post! you hit the nail on the head.
You know what I would have included here:
5. Romney
Romney was just more of the same old, same old , been there done that republican candidates put forth. I think a lot of registered repubs sat it out, disgusted at the Bush presidency (nice guy but caved on everything) and what was happening in the USA. How much worse could it get? Which ha ha of course, way worse. Anyway! I wonder if a lot of those types are Trump supporters today ?