Facepalm at the idea that Obama had "one of the best run campaigns ever". One of the worst economic downturns in our history happen right before election and the other party's president had approval ratings in the high 20's, yet Obama won only 52.87% of the vote.
Harry Truman and John Kennedy would make this guy look like an absolute noob.
If somebody told you after the 2004 election than in four years a first-term liberal black senator with a Muslim name would take 53% of the vote, carrying Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina, would you believe him?
After the 2004 election, but after the economic f***fest that took place in October 2008?
If the Democratic candidate was Rainman I wouldn'tve been surprised if he won 55%.
The country is highly polarized. The economic crisis was probably the difference between Obama squeaking out a 50%-49% win and his actual 53%-46% win. There just are not that many persuadable voters anymore.
With the other party's president (at the time) having approval ratings in the 20's yeah I think there would be quite a bit more than 50%-49% of the electorate would want another party in there, especially when the candidate of the hated president's party pretty much campaigns on being a carbon copy of said hated president.
Again I see little reason, even in this so-called "polarized climate" why Obama didn't manage a near 400 electoral vote landslide. If anything it doesn't say that much about how well his campaign was run, but rather how well the McCain campaign did despite having the albatross of George W. Bush over them.
His campaign didn't suck, but I wouldn't call it "one of the greatest run campaigns in history".
If you want to make the argument that his success in the Democratic Primaries over Hillary was predicted to win nomination out of the birth canal Clinton as one of the most successful primary campaigns in history, then yeah I might agree on that one.
