| Election 2008 and Obama: In the Iowa primaries on January 3, 2008 Obama was declared a winner: he gained 37.6% of votes leaving behind Edwards (29.7%) and Clinton (29.5%). According to opinion of sociologists, after this victory it was impossible to speak about the sole leadership of Clinton. Iowa's victory had given a powerful impetus to Obama's campaign. Further, the tussle between Obama and Clinton (Edwards withdrew from race on January 30) unfolded with variable success but by March, Obama had more delegates, who were ready to support him in the forth coming national party convention. In spring, he managed to get the trust of the majority of candidates of the primaries in Vermont, Wyoming, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, Oregon and Idaho. By the beginning of June, the senator from Illinois got support of no less than 394 super delegates. On the evening of June 3, after the announcement of the results of the primary elections, which were conducted on that day in South Dakota and Montana, Obama participated in a meeting of his supporters in St. Paul. There, he was informally declared to be only candidate for the highest state post of USA from Democratic party. On June 7, Clinton withfrew from the election campaign and urged her supporters to support Obama. Actually, after this, Obama's campaign unfolded as a single candidate from the democrats, contesting against the Republican candidate John McCain.
Obama's election campaign had a series of features. In particular, he principally refused to take donations from lobbyists and also use the budgetary funds, provided by American legislation for the election campaign.
Despite of this, by the middle of 2008, Obama's pre-election funds reached 340 million US dollars (at the same time, McCain's fund was 132 million dollars). Massive financial support was supplemented due to the support of many famous cultural personalities of the USA, including Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen.
In his addresses on economic issues, Obama focused mainly on the middle class, for whom he intended to decrease taxes considerably. Along with a decrease in taxes, Obama called for cancellation of tax benefits for people with annual income of more than 250 000 US dollars and also for more strict control over taxation of major corporations.
In official biographies, it was mentioned that Obama and his wife visited Trinity United Church of Christ, one of the Protestant churches in Chicago, which was frequented predominantly by African Americans. Jeremiah Wright was Obama's pastor in this church. In March 2008, American TV channels showed extracts from Wright's sermons: in them, he had in particular, accused US authorities in spreading AIDS and attempts to hide the racism issue in American society. In his sermons after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, he mentioned US foreign policy to be the reason and even used the phrase "God damn America". Obama quickly dissociated himself from the activities and words of the scandalous pastor: in the end of May 2008, the Presidential candidate stated his intentions to leave the church. He explained his move by saying that he was apprehensive that his election campaign could cause damage to the church. Nevertheless, another scandal came after one of the sermons by another Chicago pastor, Michael Pfleger, who made racist statements against Hillary Clinton.
In July 2008, the foreign policy program of Obama was more or less set. Obama stated about his plans on the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq - within 16 months from the time he takes over the post of US President (i.e. by end of May, 2010) the majority of troops should leave that country. At the same time, Obama's plan had foreseen to retain a few American troops for tracking the terrorists, for the safety of US citizens and providing training to Iraq's security forces. Obama emphasized that, by abandoning its operations in Iraq, the USA can focus on the situation in Afghanistan, where American troops were sent in 2007. At the same time, Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime minister of Iraq, too expressed a similar idea, which undoubtedly facilitated the rise of Obama's authority in international circles. On July 15, Obama repeated the main points of his Iraq plan in an address, dedicated to a "new strategy in new world" and laying the foundation and the planning of US world policy. Obama devoted a significant part of this speech for issues, relating to nuclear parity and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. If Obama stated that he will support the armed invasion of Iran only as a last resort during his Senate elections in 2004, he called Iran as the main threat to peace in the Middle East during the election campaign to the post of President.
In July 2008, the magazine "The New Yorker" published an article, in which Obama's ability was noted, and who can simultaneously reform the political process and "play according to its rules". |
