The 2008 United States presidential election was November 4, 2008. The debates, campaigns, primaries, and conventions occurred several months before Election Day. The new president and vice president were sworn on January 20, 2009. It was the first presidential election lacking an incumbent president or vice president since 1952, and was projected to be the largest and most expensive election in U.S. history.
Already, eight Democrats had formally filed papers with the Federal Election Commission, making them formal candidates for the Democratic Nomination and the Presidency. The candidates who attracted the most media attention included Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. Other candidates included Dennis Kucinich, who withdrew, and Mike Gravel, before he defected to the Libertarian Party. Tom Vilsack, one of the earliest candidates to announce a campaign for president, withdrew before participating in any debates. Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden dropped out of the race following the Iowa caucuses, and Bill Richardson dropped out after the New Hampshire primary.
Key:P denotes candidate participated in debate; N denotes candidate was not invited; A denotes candidate absent but was invited; O denotes candidate was out of the race.
Debates among candidates for the 2008 Democratic Party U.S. presidential nomination
Key:P denotes candidate participated in debate; N denotes candidate was not invited; A denotes candidate absent but was invited; O denotes candidate was out of the race.
Debates
April 26, 2007 – Orangeburg, South Carolina, South Carolina State University
The Iraq War was the major topic of the discussion, and all of the candidates strongly criticized President George W. Bush.[10] Although, some public fanfare occurred initially,[12] pundits considered the debate unspectacular, and no single "breakout" candidate was identified.[12][13]
A poll of 403 South Carolinians who watched the debate indicated a belief that Obama won the debate, with support of 31% compared to Clinton's 24%.[14] However, journalists Tom Baldwin, of The Times, and Ewen MacAskill, of The Guardian, both reported that Clinton appeared to retain her frontrunner status.[15] Political pundits such as Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough declared Clinton the most "presidential", stating that her appearance and answers were: succinct, within the time limit, unambiguous and thorough.[16]
The opinions of pundits varied in regard to the third-polled candidate, Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC), with some asserting that his performance was weak and not akin to the energetic performance that he portrayed during his first election campaign in 2003.[citation needed]
The first half of the debate was a directed question-and-answer session, with candidates questioned while standing at the podiums, as in the first debate, responding to questions from Fahey and Spradling. Participating candidates were Obama, Edwards, Clinton, Kucinich, Gravel, Dodd, Richardson and R. Biden, Jr.[18][19][20]
For the second half of the debate, the candidates sat in chairs while New Hampshire live audience members—mostly undecided Democratic and independent voters—asked questions that were then deflected by Blitzer to specific candidates.[citation needed]
Clinton, Obama, and Richardson after the June 3, 2007 debate
Clinton speaks to supporters following the debate
John Edwards at the debate
June 28, 2007 – PBS – Washington, D.C., Howard University
Candidates at the All American Presidential Forum on PBS. (From left to right) Clinton, Biden, Richardson, Edwards, Obama, Kucinich, Gravel, and Dodd
PBS held and televised a debate at Howard University, a historically black college. The moderator was Tavis Smiley and all eight candidates discussed a range of topics, including education, poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and health in the black community.[21][22]
July 12, 2007 – Detroit, Michigan
Attended by all eight candidates, this candidate forum was held during the NAACP convention. An on-stage conversation between Edwards and Clinton was overheard—due to activated microphones—in which they talked about eventually ceasing the participation of non-frontrunner candidates in future debates.[23]
July 23, 2007 – CNN – Charleston, South Carolina, The Citadel military college
CNN and YouTube held this debate on the campus of The Citadel. All questions were selected from, and posed as videos submitted via, YouTube by members of the public; the debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper of Anderson Cooper 360. YouTube and Google streamed the event live.[24] It was also simulcast on CNN en Español.
The Yearly Kos Presidential Leadership Forum was an informal discussion attended by seven of the eight presidential candidates, with Biden not attending due to votes in Congress. New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai, DailyKos Contributing Editor /Fellow Joan McCarter and author and blogger Jeffrey Feldman moderated. The debate was broken down into Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, and Philosophy and Leadership. Candidates were allotted 90 seconds for each question with 45 second rebuttals, although the time limits were not strictly enforced. After the debate, breakout sessions were held where convention goers could question each candidate individually.
(from left to right) Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards and Kucinich during the AFL–CIO Working Families Vote Presidential Forum (Obama and Richardson, whose podiums were to the left of Biden's, are not pictured)Media pass
The AFL–CIO Working Families Vote Presidential Forum was held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois in front of approximately 15,000 union members and their families. The questions in the debate were to be used to determine if and whom the AFL–CIO would endorse in the Democratic primary. MSNBC host Keith Olbermann hosted the debate, which featured seven of the candidates. Mike Gravel was excluded because he failed to submit a written questionnaire by the August 6 deadline. Gravel claimed that the questionnaire "fell through the cracks" and requested to be invited to the debate anyway, which was rejected by the AFL–CIO. Questionnaires were also sent to Republicans but no candidates responded.[25]
LGBT network Logo hosted this debate focusing on LGBT issues, moderated by Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese and singer Melissa Etheridge. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel participated. Mike Gravel was originally to be excluded from this debate, it being cited that his campaign had not raised enough money to qualify for participation. Rallying from Gravel's supporters reversed this decision. Dodd and Biden both stated scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending. Logo invited the Republicans presidential candidates to a similar debate, but all the candidates declined.[26]
John Edwards and wife Elizabeth greet supporters while arriving to the debate in his campaign bus
ABC News in conjunction with the Iowa Democratic Party held a debate streamed on This Week moderated by George Stephanopoulos.[27] ABC has been accused of spinning the results of the debate due to extreme differences in the time allotted to candidates.
Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd objected to the debate being conducted in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish. Both are fluent in Spanish but it was perceived to cause an unfair advantage for the two. The TV audience of 2.2 million was also the debate season's youngest, at an average of 36 years old.
Yahoo!, in partnership with The Huffington Post, produced a "mashup" debate with Charlie Rose interviewing the candidates. Segments were recorded on September 12, with the "mashups" posted on September 13.[30]
PBS held a forum focused on domestic issues, specifically health care and financial security. It was moderated by Judy Woodruff, and was a joint venture between IPTV and AARP.[31] Obama rejected PBS's invitation, and Gravel and Kucinich were excluded from the debate because they did not have at least one paid staff member or office space in Iowa.
The debate was held at Drexel University and was televised by NBC News. All candidates except former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel attended the debate. It was announced on October 19 that Senator Gravel did not meet the polling requirements for the debate, though the DNC did not specifically say what the requirements were; Gravel has suggested that GE, which owns NBC and is a "war-profiteer," conspired to exclude him from the event after, during the previous debate, he questioned Hillary Clinton's signing a resolution that would possibly facilitate entering war with Iran. Instead of attending the debate, Senator Gravel staged an event at the nearby World Cafe Live.[33]
Seven Democratic presidential candidates participated in a two-hour debate starting at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) and telecast on MSNBC and streamed live on msnbc.com.[34] The moderators of the debate were Tim Russert and Brian Williams. Nielson Ratings estimated the debate attracted 2.5 million viewers.[35]
Democratic rivals focused their attacks on Senator Clinton, and were particularly critical of her response to a proposal from New York Governor Eliot L. Spitzer which would allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.[36] After the debate, moderator Tim Russert was criticized for asking a misleading question to Senator Clinton regarding the release of her records as first lady. Tim Russert raised the issue of a letter which Bill Clinton wrote in which the former president ordered "a ban" on the release of his records by the National Archives. Following the exchange, President Clinton's records representative Bruce Lindesey released a statement clarifying the request, saying that "Bill Clinton has not asked that records related to communications with Senator Clinton be withheld," saying the "Archives is in the process of making records available as quickly as they can."[37]
Some commentators have attacked CNN for the debate, calling it biased and poorly handled. Their accusations include claims that the final audience question was planted,[39] that moderator Wolf Blitzer was overly favorable to Hillary Clinton, and that the use of James Carville, a long-time adviser to the Clintons, as a debate commentator was biased.[40][41]
December 4, 2007 – NPR (radio only) – Des Moines, Iowa
National Public Radio, in conjunction with Iowa Public Radio, hosted a "radio-only" Democratic Debate. NPR hosts Steve Inskeep, Michele Norris, and Robert Siegel moderated the debate. The debate was broadcast from the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines to NPR stations around the country and was streamed online. All of the major candidates were present other than New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson who was attending the funeral of a Korean war casualty.
Senators Obama and Edwards were given the most speaking time; Senator Gravel, the least.
The Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television hosted a Democratic debate in Johnston, Iowa. Six of the eight candidates were invited. Dennis Kucinich was excluded because he had not rented office space in the state. The Register determined "that a person working out of his home did not meet our criteria for a campaign office and full-time paid staff in Iowa." Mike Gravel was excluded for presumably the same reason.[42]
This debate was originally scheduled for January 6, 2008, but because the Iowa Caucus was moved up to January 3, 2008, the Des Moines Register moved the debate up to December 13.
ABC News, WMUR-TV and Facebook jointly hosted back-to-back Democratic and Republican debates from Saint Anselm College on Saturday, January 5—three days before the official first-in-the-nation primary the following Tuesday, January 8—with Charles Gibson acting as moderator.[43] According to Nielsen Media Research, the debate drew the largest televised audience of the primary season with an estimated 9.36 million viewers.[44]
At 8:47p.m. EST, between the two debates, Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson joined the Republican candidates on the stage at St. Anselm College in greater Manchester.[citation needed] This was the first time all of the major candidates from both parties had been together on stage, as defined by ABC News.[citation needed] ABC News eliminated Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from the debate because they did not place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys.[citation needed]
Major topics were introduced with a short news-clip-style video produced by ABC and the candidates were encouraged to interact with each other. One question, "...how much you would spend with the programs you've proposed and the promises you've made.", was inexplicably withdrawn by Gibson at the last second after its introductory video had been shown. Aside from that, the debate ran smoothly. There were commercial breaks before and after each debate. The candidates were seated during the debates.
During the debate, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards all battled over who best exemplified the buzzword of the campaign, "change".[45][46] In one noted exchange, Edwards said that Clinton could not bring change, while he and Obama can. "Any time you speak out powerfully for change, the forces for status quo attack." He made clear that he was referring to Clinton, adding, "I didn't hear these kind of attacks from Senator Clinton while she was ahead. Now that she's not we hear them."[46] Clinton passionately retorted: "Making change is not about what you believe; it's not about a speech you make. It's about working hard. I'm not just running on a promise for change. I'm running on 35 years of change. What we need is somebody who can deliver change. We don't need to be raising false hopes."[46] Obama replied that "The truth is, actually, words do inspire. Words do help people get involved."[47]
At another point in the debate, when one moderator asked Clinton why polls showed she was less "likeable" than other candidates, particularly Obama, she jokingly replied, "Well that hurts my feelings ... but I'll try to go on."[45]
January 15, 2008 – MSNBC 6 pm PST – Las Vegas, Nevada, College of Southern Nevada
The Nevada Democratic Party partnered with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and IMPACTO, 100 Black Men of America, and the College of Southern Nevada to hold the second Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. The debate was telecast live by MSNBC and held at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 from 6–8 pm Pacific Standard Time.[48][49]
Clinton, Edwards and Obama participated in the debate. Kucinich was originally invited to the debate after meeting publicly announced criteria, but the invitation was retracted after NBC changed its criteria shortly before the event. Kucinich sued for the right to participate in the debate, but after lower courts sided with Kucinich, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in favor of MSNBC.[50][51]
The Congressional Black Caucus and CNN hosted a debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at 8 pm EST. This debate set another record for a Cable TV audience with an estimated 4.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals Ratings. The participants were Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. The debate, chaired by Wolf Blitzer, had an unusual format; for the last forty minutes the candidates sat down and the debate took a much more casual tone.
This was the final Democratic party-specific debate before Super Tuesday on February 5, 2008. This debate included two candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and started at 5 pm Pacific, ending at 6:30 pm. Topics in this cordial debate included health care, the Iraq War, and immigration.[55]
CNN, Univision and the Texas Democratic Party jointly hosted a debate between Obama and Clinton on February 21 at 7 pm CST on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The debate was rebroadcast at 10:30 in Spanish. Questions focused heavily on illegal immigration and the economy, among other issues.[56]
NBC News held a debate between Clinton and Obama on February 26 at the Wolstein Center on the campus of Cleveland State University. The debate was broadcast live at 9:00 EST on MSNBC. It was moderated by Brian Williams with Tim Russert.[57] CNN had proposed with the Ohio Democratic Party a debate on February 27 which was cancelled.[58]
Clinton and Obama appeared at the Compassion Forum, discussing faith, values, and religion on April 13, 2008 at 8PM EDT at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. The forum was a question-and-answer session in which CNN commentator Campbell Brown and Jon Meacham of Newsweek as well as select members of the audience, posed questions about faith and politics to Clinton and Obama. Both appeared separately.[59] The forum was broadcast live on CNN.[60] The event was organized by the religious organization Faith in Public Life.
Both Clinton and Obama appeared in a debate moderated by ABC News on April 16, 2008, at 8 PM EDT at the National Constitution Center.[61] The debate was nationally televised at 8 PM Eastern and Pacific (tape delayed) and 7 pm Central/Mountain (tape delayed). This was the second debate shown nationally on over-the-air television.[62]
During the debate neither Obama or Clinton would answer whether or not they would name the other as their running mate.[65]
Some of the questions that many viewers said they considered irrelevant when measured against the faltering economy or the Iraq war, like why Senator Barack Obama did not wear an American flag pin on his lapel, the incendiary comments of Obama's former pastor, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertion that she had to duck sniper fire in Bosnia more than a decade ago.[63] The questions from the moderators were considered to be focused on campaign gaffes and training most of their ammunition on Obama,[64] to which Stephanopoulos responded by saying that "Senator Obama [was] the front-runner" and the questions were "not inappropriate or irrelevant at all."[63][64]
From January 3 to June 3, 2008, voters of the Democratic Party chose their nominee for president in the 2008 United States presidential election. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was selected as the nominee, becoming the first African American to secure the presidential nomination of any major political party in the United States. However, due to a close race between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, the contest remained competitive for longer than expected; neither candidate received enough pledged delegates from state primaries and caucuses to achieve a majority, without endorsements from unpledged delegates (superdelegates).
The following is a timeline of major events leading up to and immediately following the United States presidential election of 2008. The election was the 56th quadrennial United States presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008, but its significant events and background date back to about 2002. The Democratic Party nominee, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, defeated the Republican Party's nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona.
The 2008 Iowa Democratic presidential caucus occurred on January 3, and was the state caucuses of the Iowa Democratic Party. It was the first election for the Democrats of the 2008 presidential election. Also referred to as "the First in the Nation Caucus," it was the first election of the primary season on both the Democratic and Republican sides. Of the eight major Democratic presidential candidates, then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois received the most votes and was ultimately declared the winner of the Iowa Democratic Caucus of 2008, making him the first African American to win the caucus and the first African American to win a primary state since Jesse Jackson in 1988. Former U.S. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina came in second place and then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York finished third, though Clinton received more delegates than Edwards. Campaigning had begun as early as two years before the event.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Mike Gravel, former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives and United States Senator from Alaska, began on April 17, 2006, when he declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 election, in a speech to the National Press Club.
The 2008 presidential campaign of John Edwards, former United States Senator from North Carolina and Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004 began on December 28, 2006 when he announced his entry into the 2008 presidential election in the city of New Orleans near sites devastated by Hurricane Katrina. On January 30, 2008, Edwards returned to New Orleans to announce that he was suspending his campaign for the Presidency. On May 14, 2008, he endorsed Barack Obama at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The first political debate before the 2008 Republican primaries was held on May 3, 2007, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. Other debates have taken place in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida. They were generally broadcast by television networks.
Joe Biden, a longtime U.S. senator from Delaware, began his 2008 presidential campaign when he announced his candidacy for President of the United States on the January 7, 2007, edition of Meet the Press. He officially became a candidate on January 31, 2007, after filing papers with the Federal Election Commission.
The CNN/YouTube presidential debates were a series of televised debates sponsored by CNN and YouTube in which 2008 United States presidential election hopefuls fielded questions submitted through YouTube. The Democratic Party installment took place in Charleston, South Carolina and aired on July 23, 2007. The Republican Party installment took place in St. Petersburg, Florida and aired on November 28, 2007.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich, House Representative of Ohio and former mayor of Cleveland, began on December 12, 2006 when he announced that he would seek the nomination for the Democratic Party to run for President of the United States. Although a Democratic candidate, he was not included in the New Hampshire debates on January 4, 2008 or the South Carolina debates on January 21, 2008 because of his poor showings in the Iowa caucuses and the polls.
The 2008 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 4, 2008, as part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 2008 Michigan Democratic presidential primary took place January 15, 2008. Originally, the state had 156 delegates up for grabs that were to be awarded in the following way: 83 delegates were to be awarded based on the winner in each of Michigan's 15 congressional districts while an additional 45 delegates were to be awarded to the statewide winner. Twenty-eight unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, were initially able to cast their votes at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
The 2008 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary took place on January 26, 2008. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won the primary's popular vote by a 28.9% margin.
The Visible Vote ’08: A Presidential Forum aired live on August 9, 2007 on the TV channel Logo. It was the first-ever live televised forum with U.S. Presidential candidates discussing solely LGBT-related issues. Logo co-sponsored the event, the first live one in its history, with the Human Rights Campaign.
Hillary Clinton won many primaries, but lost the Democratic Party nomination to Barack Obama during the 2008 United States presidential election.
The 2008 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
A total of ten debates occurred among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2016 presidential election.
Since 1983, the Democratic Party of the United States holds a few debates between candidates for the Democratic nomination in presidential elections during the primary election season. Unlike debates between party-nominated candidates, which have been organized by the bi-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates since 1988, debates between candidates for party nomination are organized by mass media outlets.
The Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum is a presidential forum in the state of Iowa. Its stated purpose is for "all candidates [to] have the opportunity to answer essential concerns of African-Americans and Latinos." It is recognized as the oldest continuous minority forum for presidential candidates in America and one of the longest-running presidential forums in the nation.
The 2016 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary took place on February 27 in the U.S. state of South Carolina, marking the Democratic Party's fourth nominating contest in their series of presidential primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Debates and forums took place between candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2004 presidential election. The Democratic National Committee sanctioned 6 debates out of 16 total.
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Clinton, Obama, and Richardson after the June 3, 2007 debate
Clinton speaks to supporters following the debate
John Edwards at the debate
