Running Head: 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
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2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Annotated Bibliography
Bligh, Michelle C., and Jeffrey C. Kohles. 2009. The Enduring Allure of Charisma: How Barack
Obama won the Historic 2008 Presidential Election. The Leadership Quarterly 20 (3): 483-92.
In this article, the authors argue that there are particular qualities that voters look for in
candidates and these are the very qualities that will make the candidate elected as the President
of the United States. This article mainly focuses on the former president, Barack Obama. The
authors add that one of the strongest indicators of leadership ability is charisma. They note that
Obama was recognized for his charisma in media unlike his opponents. The difference between
the ages of McCain and Obama affected their appeal. Obama was younger and energetic while
McCain could play to his wisdom and age. This article was found through the database of
Liberty University and it is peer-reviewed and scholarly. It was published in a journal that
addressed leadership as a topic. The article is credible as it discusses the role of delivery of
speech and how natural-born leadership and charisma may keep the audience engaged. Clinton is
mentioned briefly in her rhetoric and speech style.
Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio. 2015. Fear of Obama: An Empirical Study of the Demand for Guns
and the U.S. 2008 Presidential Election. Journal of Public Economics 130: 66-79.
Depetris-Chauvin analyzes and compares the likelihood of Barack Obama’s election in 2008 to
the demand for guns. The article provides that the fear of Obama is the fear that his policies
would take guns away from those who possessed them and made it impossible or difficult for
those who wanted to have guns to buy them, therefore, people bought guns in advance fearing
that they would not be able to do so after the election. Depetris-Chauvin notes that between 2008
and 2009 there was a significant rise in the sale of guns. The article is peer-reviewed and
scholarly and it was published in the Journal of Public Economics. The article is a credible
source as it might help in developing demographics and articulating what issues were important
to voters, that got them turn out to vote on the Election Day.
Fisher, Patrick. 2010. The age gap in the 2008 presidential election. Society 47 (4): 295-300.
In this article, Fisher explains the difference in how different age block voted in the 2008
presidential election. The analyses of elections are critical and the information presented in them
can be used in future campaign and election strategies. Obama’s strategies in campaigns
accounted for the votes of the youth. Generally, the Democrats received help from George
Bush’s negative polling towards the end of his administration. The information regarding age
gaps is put in historical contexts. It shows that the youth vote more Democrat than the previous
generations. The source is credible as it contains several information graphs making it easily
readable. Also, fisher provides an analysis of the age gaps in the 2008 election and explains why
different generations have different political opinions.
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Kellner, Douglas. 2009. Media spectacle and the 2008 presidential election. Cultural Studies:
Critical Methodologies 9 (6): 707-16.
In this source, Kellner analyzes and discusses the impact of news media and press on presidential
elections and election cycles in the United States over time. Kellner holds that the media and
press can control the image of presidential candidates through how they frame their policies and
the candidates’ positions on these issues. Gender, age, and race were significant spectacles in
press in 2008 during the campaigns as Obama had the opportunity to become the first African-
American president, and Hillary Clinton could become the first female president. The three
candidates had different ages whereby Obama was the youngest and McCain was the oldest. In
addition, the demographics of the vice-presidents are discussed. This article is credible and can
be used in research because it presents to the reader how each candidate was covered by press
and news media. It presents the overall impact of press on the 2008 presidential election results.
Peters, Gerhard, John T. Woolley. "2008 Presidential Election." The American Presidency
Project. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?
year=2008.
In this project, the authors show the results of the 2008 presidential election, as in which states
voted for John McCain and which voted for Barack Obama. For these two candidates, all
statistics such as popular, electoral, and state-by-state breakdowns of votes are shown. The data
helps articulate particular election results and analyze the demographics of the 2008 election.
This source is unbiased as it is one of the main sites for all election results. The author’s
objective is to inform U.S citizens and people from all parts of the world and document the
election results for historical reasons. The source is credible as the data presented in it can be
used in scholarly research. Candidates may use it for voter targeting in particular states during
future elections.
Pew Research Center. "Character and the Primaries of 2008." Pew Research Center's Journalism
Project. May 29, 2008. Accessed October 20, 2020.
http://www.journalism.org/2008/05/29/character-and-the-primaries-of-2008/.
Barack Obama had faced off against Hillary Clinton before he secured the Democrat nomination
for the 2008 election. This article contains information from PEW Research Center and Harvard
Kennedy School. It shows how press and news media impacted the nomination such as the
positive narratives that Barack Obama had a slight advantage of 2% over Hillary Clinton. The
data in this article also shows that Obama was more influential than McCain in the media by
about 20%. The data is reliable since it was presented by renowned and trusted academic
establishments. The source will be useful in the research paper as it offers various points of data
that show how the Americans perceived Obama through the news media and press. They show
the reader why Obama was elected. It also presents the campaign plans of the three candidates,
McCain, Obama, and Clinton.
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Rowland, Robert C. 2010. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Barack Obama and the 2008 Presidential
Election. American Behavioral Scientist 54 (3): 203-21.
In this article, Rowland shows how Barack Obama used the American Dream to rally voters.
Obama focused on the middle-class Americans who struggled to earn a living and ignored by the
Republican Party. He influenced them to make changes in the leadership of the United States of
America. He made them see the need to vote for him to take the country back to the track it
desperately needed. The voters believed that without Obama, the United States would be subject
to more status quo. The source is credible as it contains factual information. It was found in the
Liberty Online Database and published in a journal of scholarly behavioral science.
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References
Bligh, Michelle C., and Jeffrey C. Kohles. 2009. The Enduring Allure of Charisma: How Barack
Obama won the Historic 2008 Presidential Election. The Leadership Quarterly 20 (3): 483-92.
Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio. 2015. Fear of Obama: An Empirical Study of the Demand for Guns
and the U.S. 2008 Presidential Election. Journal of Public Economics 130: 66-79.
Fisher, Patrick. 2010. The age gap in the 2008 presidential election. Society 47 (4): 295-300.
Kellner, Douglas. 2009. Media spectacle and the 2008 presidential election. Cultural Studies:
Critical Methodologies 9 (6): 707-16.
Peters, Gerhard, John T. Woolley. "2008 Presidential Election." The American Presidency
Project. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?
year=2008.
Pew Research Center. "Character and the Primaries of 2008." Pew Research Center's Journalism
Project. May 29, 2008. Accessed October 20, 2020.
http://www.journalism.org/2008/05/29/character-and-the-primaries-of-2008/.
Rowland, Robert C. 2010. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Barack Obama and the 2008 Presidential
Election. American Behavioral Scientist 54 (3): 203-21.
