Why didn't Obama win by a bigger margin in 2008?

[Dancing with Myself]

2008 was such a weird year. It was crap all around except for a few things (ex: The Dark Knight, olympics,) and this election.

Obama had to re-energize  his entire party. The Dems won both Houses but the Presidential side was in rough shape following Kerry's fail in 2004. Hillary helped him a lot by challenging him. Without him he would have had the nomination quite easily and might not have possibly been as ready for the nomination. She helped him to prepare fully for what he needed to do. Plus once she lost her section of the party knew they had to settle down and support him he had all sides of the party at that point sowed up.

The Republicans on the other hand were struggling to get together. Bush was such a drag for them it wasn't even funny no more.  He prob wouldn't have been invited to Minneapolis for the convention unless for that Hurricane where he spoke by video. He was such a cancer for them that they had to find someone else completely different and that's what they got in McCain. He was the heir apparent as he came full circle by getting the nom. After loosing in 2000 it was his time. It just came 8 years too late for him.

Obama had the minority and society edge then but McCain kept it close by being in the race. Without him the Reps would have been dead in the water. Only candidate I see maybe not get killed is Huckabee but that's a iffy maybe. People loved McCain then and he did the best he could given the circumstance. Having the worst economy in a ton of years, most hated incumbent ever at that point, and a total gimp as your VP choice is rough but he manned up and went through it.

Independents hurt Obama too, especially oddly Nader. He only got over 0.50% but that was more than likely a majority of Obama voters. Plus some people just didn't feel motivated to vote. If you weren't young, a minority, or a motivated Republican you just didn't vote.

The PV wasn't what it could have been but the state turnovers and congress results were dramatic as could be.

[porky88]

We're living in an Era of Political Polarization. 20-40 years from now, I think we'll look back to 2008 as a landslide for this era.

With that said, I've always suspected that republicans are more loyal to the banner than democrats are. Moderate democrats seem willing to vote republican if they can find the right one. I think republicans are harder to budge.

[Hydera]

- Economy collapses less than two months before the election, which is widely blamed on the Republicans.

sh**t didn't hit the fan on the economy until 2009.

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/PAYEMS/

The country was bleeding jobs by summer of 2008 but the majority of job losses occurred in 2009.  Had the election somehow occurred a year later then obama probably would of gotten a landslide.