Presidential elections Obama vs McCain 2008
ELECTION COVERAGE IN THE AMERICAN MIDWEST
"Freelance journalists Christian Juel Jørgensen and Henrik Pryser Libell covered the presidential elections in the US. For three weeks, they travelled from Washington DC to North Dakota to form an impression of how the Americans vote. What started out as a regular road trip with a solid rental car and cheap American petrol turned into a political journey through a historic election."
We covered the "Obama Elections" in 2008, from America's "McCain land", commissioned by Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land and Finnish Wasa-bladet. Our election coverage concept was to settle down in a randomly chosen town in Minnesota – a "smallville". The goal was to find the sort of place where we imagined Superman could have grown up.
We chose Parkers Prairie, Minnesota. Population: 1030. We stayed for a week, and interviewed ca. 50 people.
Every day for a week, we provided a story including a mini portrait of a voter; a campaign issue (eg. weapon control or education) and its relevance in Parkers Prairie; facts about McCain and Obama's positions on the issue and comments from four Parkersonians.
The travel blog you can read here: www.parkersprairie.no
This is a sum-up of our stories:
ROADTRIP IN OBAMANIA
A journey in the United States during the weeks before the 2008 Presidential elections was like a journey through two different countries. One voting for Obama, and another for McCain.
Christian Juel Jørgensen and Henrik Pryser Libell (in ZINE, January 2009)
– People fear that Obama will impose restrictions on guns, so they are stocking up on their weapons now, say weapon store owners Bernie Shea and Tom House of Shooting Sports Outlet in Parkers Prairie. Parkers Praire counts 1030 inhabitants, and is situated on the prairie of western Minnesota, in the corner bordering on North Dakota. The average Parkersonian owns eight guns, and Shooting Sports sells about 1300 new ones every year.
The figures include pistols, rifles and guns, - mainly for hunting, and some for collecting.
Parkers is the kind of place we crossed half of America – two thousand kilometres from Washington DC – to find. The kind of place where McCain is guaranteed to win. In Washington, 92% of the population drinks latte and votes Obama, while in the small town of Parkers Prairie, there is hardly a sign of any Obama sympathy. The Palin and McCain posters, on the other hand, are lining the streets, and so are the churches. McCain land is the countryside. Obama land is the city. McCain was the one of the two that made us more curious, so we settled for an election week in Parkers Prairie.
Bushlands
In the 2004 elections, Bush won 61% of the votes in Parkers Prairie. The town has voted for the conservatives since the government land surveyor Parker arrived in 1867 and gave his name to the place. "Parkers", as the locals call it, is the kind of place where the coffee is black, and the refill free. A place that looks as if Superman and Bruce Springsteen might have grown up there, along with Lois Lane and Homecoming Queen. The corn fields stretch into the horizons, there is a barn dance every Saturday night, and the gas prices dictate people's lives.
These places appear after road signs pointing to towns with names like Parkers Prairie, Fargo, Berta or Mesopothamia. Places where everyone goes to church on Sunday, or at least has to come up with a good excuse for not going.
Fly-over land
Driving through Midwestern countryside on Route 80, we have counted more churches than petrol stations. And we have seen a lot of petrol stations.
"Fly-over land" is what coastal Americans call this area. USA's mysterious midlands are covered by flat landscapes, wide highways and numbered junctions leading either to a town, or to one of the many "mega rest stops" of the road – with Starbucks, Wendy Burger and Holiday Inn. Sometimes we take a break in one of these to have a chat with your average fast-food American about war, peace and politics.
There is autumn in the trees along our route, and it is election time in America. In the south, the forests go from green to red and yellow. In the north, the trees shed their leaves. We drive for miles every day, and if this were Europe, we probably would've passed through 15 countries by now.
Obama-land
The only "Obama-lands" we encounter are Cleveland and Chicago, two cities with skyscraper skylines. Chicago is Obama's hometown. We find his Baptist church is an African-American neighbourhood, on 95th street. A service is taking place, and we step inside. They sing loudly and hold hands, and form a circle around the church floor. We are the only white people there. And they help us praise the Lord and bless our onward journey. One hour later, a semi-truck presses us out of the road and nearly smashes our car, leaving the back doors torn off.
The missisonaries
In a new rental car, we keep going from Chicago and onto more "fly-over land"; there are semi-detached houses and farms, highways and petrol stations. And churches.
On the dashboard, there is an Obama figurine and a GPS. When the GPS reaches two hundred European miles, it says: "You are arriving at your destination". Parkers Prairie.
But before we can locate the town centre, we find Esther Lutheran Church. It is empty, and towers over a desolate prairie. The gates to the church are closed. On the inside, it is written: "You are now entering your mission field".
The Swedish Church
The graveyard is full of –sons. The tombstones are named Parrson, Hansson, Pearson, Ohlson, Arvidsson and so on. This is where the Swedes of Parkers Prairie come to die. The Germans have their own place, and so do the Catholics. There are no such people as Muslims, Buddhists or Hindus here, and everyone goes to church on Sunday. We arrive on a Saturday, but there is a Saturday service as well.
The "German" church, Immanuel Lutheran Church, has unusually high ceilings, but no singing, like in Obama's church. But we are prayed for in this congregation as well, and are glad we aren't driving anywhere any time soon. Instead, we are given church coffee and meet Mark Holz, first time voter. He says he is going to vote for Obama, even though, he believes, Obama is a Muslim. (Obama is a Christian Baptist, ed.)
Slavery revenge
Mary Jane Blazely in Breckenrigde, two hours north of Parkers, knows well that Obama is not a Muslim, but she is worried that he might try to avenge slavery. She is Filipino.
Car mechanic Joel Wilke in Dicks Standard Oil is also worried about the candidate's skin colour. He thinks it is time for a change, but is not sure if Americans are ready for a change of this dimension. – Now we'll get to see how racist we really are. I am very unsure of whether USA will vote for a black man. But a lot of things are different now, he ponders.
Cheerleader and part-time burger flipper in SuperBurger, Ashley Rubner, on the other hand, has a crystal clear conclusion, even though she is only 17 and cannot vote: – The USA will never be ready for a black president.
Martin Luther King
Thoughts like these are echoes from the olden days of America in Walter Mondale's ears. 85 years of age, the former vice president greets us in his conference room on the 15th floor, wearing a knitted cardigan and a silk tie. The silver haired man entered the political world in 1949 and remembers Martin Luther King's civil rights movement with great clarity.
– It was brutal, the racial segregation. And it happened in our lifetime. Mondale says that he has spent his life fighting this and other injustices.
That is why he was proud when the first televised debate of this year's presidential battle was opened in September, and one of the candidates was half black. Mondale campaigned against Reagan in 1984, but lost. In spite of having lost that duel, he believes that one of the best things a candidate can do is to get out and talk to people, face to face. – Obama has done a good job at reaching out to people, states Mondale.
Meeting Walter Mondale.
Internet won the elections
But he could not talk to 300 million voters face to face. The solution was the internet. – The power of the internet is something the Republicans were not prepared for, believes political commentator Garrett Graff, author of the book "My first campaign", editor of the magazine Washingtonian, lecturer at Georgetown University, and campaign commentator for the BBC and the New York Times. – The Republicans have been sitting safely in the White House for so long that is has neglected the development of internet campaigning, says Graff. In 2004, SMS was almost science fiction to the average American, and the webpage YouTube did not exist. In 2004, Bush won. Four years later, Barack Obama and his team completely changed the rules for how a candidate plays and wins a presidential battle; through effective use of the web, social tools and mobile phones.
You Tube
www.barackobama.com made it possible to create a "direct channel" to three million voters and activists. When Obama announced his candidate for vice president, Joe Biden, the news flash did not first appear on CNN or in the New York Times. First of all, it was broadcasted by SMS to 3 million Obama sympathizers.
As other examples of internet campaigning, Garrett Graff mentions blogs and YouTube comedy clips, such as the Obama Girl song, as well as spreading of rumours via email, like the rumour of Obama's alleged Muslim faith. A lot of people followed the election debates on the internet, many wrote micro-blogs (Twitter was among the pages that experienced a user explosion), and millions watched commercials and campaign clips online. Even though there were online videos supporting both McCain and Obama, the latter was the one who gained the most from the internet exposure. And it was not only short and humoristic clips that held onto people's attention.
Mp3 speeches
– Obama's race speech has been downloaded and heard by 8 million people, even though it is 37 minutes long! says Graff. He is supported by other commentators in his claim that the internet won the 2008 elections. Andrew Rasiej, editor of the blog "Techpresident" told the BBC that YouTube has changed the political landscape in the US: - The message is no longer controlled by the parties alone. The public can spread a media unit faster in 15 minutes that regular media is capable of in 24 hours.
Collecting change
Another important explanation is the money. Obama declined all government support already in the spring, and gambled on donations. Receiving donations of as little as a few dollars at a time through the internet – a method that had never earlier been used – earned him more than 532 million dollars for publicity. Compared to McCain's 379 million. Obama set up several campaign offices in states that didn't even have one in 2000 and 2004.
New states for the Democrats
The strength and intensity of this campaign, a sitting president who is more unpopular than any president before him, and, on top of that, a financial crisis, all contributed to Obama securing his victory. In 2000, the battle between Bush and Gore was eventually only over Florida. In 2004, the margins were almost as narrow between Kerry and Bush. But in 2008, the Obama campaign competed in states that the Democrats "normally" could never win in, - not since Kennedy.
Republican loss
McCain on the other hand, had to struggle to win the majority in traditionally solid Republican states, and saw himself losing several of them, most disappointingly his own home state Nevada. Even though Obama's success was not the avalanche victory that his camp had been hoping for, the Democrats had reason to celebrate all over America on election night. It started off with 75% in Obama's favour in Dixville Notch, the first town in New Hampshire. As more and more states turned blue, the tendency was clear. Virginia was the final straw. Obama could give his historic winning speech, and declared – accompanied by applause and cries of joy from the hall in Chicago: "There is not a red America and a blue America. There is only one United States of America."
Although that was perhaps not entirely true. In Parkers Prairie, one is still in "red America". The Republicans are as strong as ever. And even though Obama won the country, McCain won the town. With 55% this time.
But the ones who really won in Parkers Prairie, were probably Bernie and Tom, the weapon salesmen. They both voted for McCain, but nothing has been better for their weapon sales than the candidacy of President Obama.
FACTS ABOUT THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
The 2008 American Presidential Election took place on November 4th. At the same time, several American states chose their senators, congress men, and state congress men, as well as local judges and councils.
In the US, the Presidential Election is decided in the states because the voting happens "indirectly", through 538 electors.
The candidate who wins the majority in a given state, receives all the electors of that state. The electors are distributed accordingly to population, and it is therefore important to win highly populated states such as Florida, California, Texas and New York.
The "swing states" decide
The "important" states are often predictable in their political colouring. California and most of the East coast almost always vote Democrat – they are blue states -, whereas Texas and Mississippi and the Southern states nearly always vote Republican, - red states. Among the big, populous states, the balance between red and blue states is generally fairly equal. That is why the focus is on the "purple" states, those who can swing both ways. This year, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia and Pennsylvania among the "purple" states.
Press clipping from the US Election Weekly serie from Minnesota, 2008.
Clip from Neswpapers Vårt Land, Norway and Wasatidningen, Finland.
Fra Wasabladet, Finland. 1 av en serie på 5 dagsartikler.
