After a sizeable victory for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Tuesday night, thousands of pundits nationwide poured over the results searching for trends and patterns that led to Obama’s decisive capture of the presidency.
Utah pollster Dan Jones said many people claim this was Obama’s time to shine, and that he would have won regardless of his opponent or Bush’s approval rating.
Jones, a U professor who co-owns the polling firm Dan Jones & Associates, voiced in on the election at the Hinckley Institute of Politics along with the Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute, and J. Quin Monson, assistant director for Brigham Young University’s Study of Elections and Democracy Center.
All three agreed that the nation has witnessed one of the most well-run campaigns with one of the most capable and eloquent candidates at the helm. Reminiscing back to the 1960s, Jones said he has rarely seen a more likeable candidate.
“I saw the same enthusiasm in young voters as I did in 1960 with President John F. Kennedy,” Jones said. “He gave people hope and excitement about the electoral process.”
Besides influencing people through his words, Jowers remarked that Obama was able to invoke a sense of security in voters, despite his somewhat limited experience on Capitol Hill.
“Between Democrats and Republicans, he was the most confident candidate on the economy,” said Jowers, who supported McCain.
Freshman engineering student Brendan Willis hopes Obama can reverse the economic downturn but thinks there are higher priorities to address.
“I first hope that he improves our relationship with the other nations in the world,” Willis said. “The economy kind of comes a tad-bit second.”
One of the reasons the Obama campaign was able to spread its economic messages, as well as others, so well was the record amount of funding it received, reporting $150 million raised in September alone.
In addition to an astoundingly well-run campaign, Monson, said the McCain campaign had a tough opponent to overtake but stumbled too many times along the way to win the election.
Monson said Republicans were turned off by the numerous attack ads that came from the McCain campaign because they didn’t coincide with what Republicans consider a respectable campaign.
The lapse in campaign management might have stemmed from the staff members McCain lost earlier in the year, Jowers said. In May 2008, McCain’s campaign issued a new rule that barred staffers from having connections with lobbying or political action groups. The campaign lost five senior staffers, including Regional Campaign Manager Doug Davenport and Republican National Convention Chief Doug Goodyear.
Despite the cause, the Democrats are more energized than ever with Obama winning the election, Jones said.
“If Obama keeps up (a moderate) political career and doesn’t get too liberal, he could have a great presidency,” Jowers said.
Kate KellyDan Jones, professor of political science, and Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinkey Institute of Politics, analyze the outcome of the 2008 election.