It came down to black vs. white, Democrat vs. Republican. The fight for President was a tough one, but in the end the winner was Barack Obama, leader of the Democrats!
There were many disputes over the fact that Obama was black. That was the reason many didn’t vote for him, and that was the reason many did. But what if we went back to the days when there was no television or internet, and all we had were radios and word of mouth. If we based our vote on how well he spoke and all the ideas he put forth, and were only able to hear this through the radio and were not able to see him through television, I am quite sure that many people that were against him would change their vote. This was very similar to the Kennedy and Nixon Presidential election. It came down to credible versus likable. They were framing politics through politicians. People were voting for the person and not their ideas. People who listened to the radio said Nixon had good points and won the debate, but people who watched him on television said he lost because he was sweaty, nervous, not trustworthy, and didn’t look likable.
Their campaign methods were quite interesting. McCain started to bad mouthing Obama in television campaign commercials. He may have thought that this would help his career, but it only made him seem very immature. He was the one that started it, but Obama soon followed. It quickly became a dissing battle. Obama than started to use youtube as a source of campaigning. This was a major reason he was able to advertise himself, because youtube is free, thus allowing him to save a lot of money. Have you ever noticed when you watched their commercials, how much it is like a movie trailer or even a movie? With all the makeup, lighting, camera editing, and what I find is the biggest aspect of it all, the music. They used music painting to help emphasis the mood when they were speaking. Advertisers do this to keep us entertained and wanting more. The election became a popularity contest and a form of entertainment. It was something newsworthy that gave people something new and exciting to talk about.
In the end, I am hoping that most people voted Obama because of his dream of hope and change. His ideas seem like he is trying to Canadianize America by changing many of the American laws to something similar to what Canada has.
