How Barack Obama Won: A State-By-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election

by Chuck Todd, Sheldon Gawiser, G. Evans Witt, et al.

This detailed overview and analysis of the results of Barack Obama's historic 2008 presidential win gives us the inside state-by-state guide to how Obama achieved his victory, and allows us to see... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030747366X
• ISBN13: 9780307473660
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Great Book for Political Junkies

This book is a little different than most of the other Obama books out right now. It gives a break down of all the number crunching, polling, demographics, and strategy that surrounds the number of votes. It's not touchy-feely, making it a great book for real information about winning a campaign. This book should be read by anyone who plans to run for office or work on a political campaign.

Why Voters Chose Obama

To discover who voted for Barack Obama and why, a reader could do no better than look at this report by NBC's Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser. Their investigation was based on exit polling, supplemented by telephone interviewing of absentee and early voters. Obama's campaign demonstrated far better organization than McCain's. Of particular interest was Obama's success with those Hispanic voters who had voted for Bush four years earlier. Obama was also quite popular among youths, although rather surprisingly their turnout did not differ significantly from youth turnouts during past elections. Especially noteworthy were the inroads Obama made among suburbanites and moderates. Middle-of-the-road voters moved Democratic in considerable numbers. A major concern of voters was the economy,overshadowing the Iraq War,and Obama and Democrats were more successful than Republicans in convincing voters of competence in handling the economy effectively. The authors concluded that Obama's victory set the stage for Democratic dominance for several years. Only time can prove their view. Unanticipated occurances can easily alter political events. Democrats could be hurt by various situations, such as a further decline in the economy, a major international disaster, a Democratic successor lacking Obama's charisma, and Republican success in appealing to independents. Nevertheless, the authors presented strong evidence that Republicans will face high odds for many years in their quest to regain power. It is hard to see how they could dislodge Obama. Anyone interested in politics will find the book fascinating, and it will be a useful tactical guide for both parties during future elections. Obama's presidency will draw the attention of many people over the years, and all will have to give attention to this study.

The Making of the President 2008

What an enlightening and interesting book. In 1960 Theodore White wrote 'Making of the President' a book that finally allowed the public in on behind the scene in political campaigns. Mr. White followed up with subsequent books 'Making of the President 1964, 68 and 72.' This started a tradition of books on the campaigns by Joe McGinnis; Jules Witcover and Jack Germond; and of course the famous 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail' by Hunter S. Thompson. Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser have followed wonderfully in this tradition with their book 'How Barack Obama Won' which is an analysis with detailed statistics and information on the 2008 primary and general election, which is perhaps the greatest presidentail primary and general election, eclipsing those of Jefferson-Adams and Adams-Jackson. The Todd and Gawiser book has the excitement of the White books; the description of events as the Thompson book; and the drama of the Robert Murray book, 'The 103 Ballot: Democrats and the Disaster in Madison Square Garden.' This book should be recommended to all people who want to know how their political system really works; and the planning and strategy that goes behind a succesful campaign. I hope Libraries, newspapers, magazines and Ophra take up the cause and recommend this book. The only criticism I have is that there is no hardbound edition. Any one out there thinking of running for office should definately read this book. Could the Todd and Gawiser book be turned into a movie much like the Robert Redford, Mike Barnickle movie 'The Candidate?' It would be entertaining for sure!

Concise, Insightful Examination of `08 Presidential Campaign

Todd and Gawiser provide a very insightful examination of the 2008 presidential campaign. The book includes two basic sections: an introduction which has overall analysis of the `08 primaries and general election, and the aforementioned state by state compilation of general election results. More than a post mortem on the historic campaign that just ended, the book includes many lessons for 2012 and the future of U.S. political party alignment. Written by two noted "numbers guys", I expected the book might be a little dry, but was pleasantly surprised by how Todd and Gawiser were able to make the demographic and polling data they provide come alive with shrewd, sometimes even humorous, analysis. I especially enjoyed their tongue-in-cheek captions (such as "Greatest Side Show on Earth", "Georgia: A Battleground on My Mind"). There's also lots of really interesting tidbits of inside information from the campaigns sprinkled throughout. Overall, How Barack Obama Won is a terrific read for anyone interested in politics.

The intriguing details

If you paid attention to Chuck Todd during the primaries and general election, as you well should have, many of the notions in his and Gawiser's book will sound familiar. All of that is gathered here in one well-written, no-nonsense analysis that as usual, doesn't fail to fascinate. Even though we know the end result, you're sure to learn some aspects of the voting that may surprise you and where the conventional wisdom did and did not hold up.