Nov. 4 2008 is Election Day. Whether it was men in their tricorn hats and knee length boots women in their rayon stockings and low-heeled pumps or even teenagers in their jeans and flip-flops American citizens have flocked to the polls for more than 200 years to vote for the next president of the United States.
Over the years America has seen more of an evolution of voters than an evolution of candidates – until the 2008 presidential election that is.
The question is though which campaign will make history? Will it be Barack Obama as the first black president? Or will the president be John McCain who will work alongside the first female vice-president?
The McCain-Palin ticket is diverse and well-built combining the older “maverick” of the Senate with the young female governor from Alaska appealing to a wide-range of constituencies. The Obama-Biden ticket is also strategically diverse winning over votes from minorities and young voters.
Obama and Biden are clearly ahead in the campaign. According to a Gallup poll based on voters’ current voting intention taken between Oct. 23 and 25 Obama is leading McCain by nine points. Another Gallup poll that took into account both the voters’ current voting intentions and past voting behavior indicate that Obama is leading McCain by five points.
These poll results indicate that Obama is gaining votes outside the usual Democratic constituency. Senior citizens for example habitually vote conservatively yet are now split evenly between the two candidates respective to another Gallup poll.
The margin between the two candidates however is not so wide that McCain could not make a comeback. A large part of Obama’s constituency consists of the generally younger and minority voters who do not have as strong a voter turnout as the generally older and white voters in McCain’s constituency.
This trend could dramatically alter results come Nov. 4. After all Harry Truman overcame all odds in the 1948 election by winning the battleground states by less than 1 percent of the vote with a surprising influx of support in the last weeks of the election.
Granted the likelihood of McCain’s victory is slight. During the Bush presidency the economy has taken a turn for the worse the Iraqi War has become among the most unpopular in history and the national debt has increased exponentially. All these factors are working against John McCain a Republican endorsed by Bush.
The president’s approval ratings are among the worst in history and McCain will inevitably suffer from party alignment with the president; history has repeatedly shown disapproval with one party will boost the approval of the other.
McCain is also the victim of endless media bias. Major newspapers across the nation endorse presidential candidates during elections; Obama has nearly a three to one margin over McCain receiving 170 endorsements to McCain’s 69.
Newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times have endorsed Barack Obama and all three newspapers reach a surplus of a half million daily circulations.
Impacting more than 15 million readers each day Obama-endorsed newspapers can easily present a liberal bias that will supplement Obama’s campaign while greatly impairing McCain’s campaign whose endorsing circulations only reach about five million readers.
As of Oct. 24 the New York Times has also predicted a victory for Obama who solidly has 196 electoral points in place compared to McCain’s 155. Of the other 187 points 90 are “leaning Obama eight are leaning McCain” and 89 are a “tossup.”
Florida and Ohio are currently the big swing states worth 27 and 20 electoral votes respectively. Winning these states could either give Obama an unsurpassable lead or allow McCain a fighting chance. Either way Obama will be extremely difficult to defeat even if McCain wins every battleground state.
For months both candidates have relentlessly fought for their platforms arguing for “Change” and “Country First campaigning in all parts of the nation. Pepperdine, too, has seen its fair share of McCain-Palin” posters and “Barack the Vote” T-shirts.
Whatever your opinion Nov. 4 is the day to exercise your right. Vote for “Change vote Country First but, most importantly, vote.
