Nov 04 2008
After Nearly Two Years, The Most Expensive Presidential Campaign in US History is Over
It’s taken awhile, but we have finally reached the end of the record-setting 2008 presidential campaign.
After the longest, most expensive, most-watched presidential election, the epic battle between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain shifts Tuesday to the nation’s true deciders – the voters.
The candidates battled to the finish, the end of a sales job that spanned some 670 days, 45 debates, $2.5 billion spent and untold millions of YouTube video hits, all of them record-setters.
$2.5 billion. Let’s try that differently. $2,500,000,000. That is a lot of zeros. It would take someone making $50,000 a year 5,000 years to make that kind of money. Why was this one so different? Our current President, George W. Bush, was prevented from running again by the Constitution and the current Vice President, Dick Chaney, was not interested. This was the first “open” race in since 1952 when Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson.
The 2008 campaign began like this:
Jan 20, 2007 – Senator Hillary Clinton, 59, the former first lady, announces a widely-favored bid for the Democratic nomination.
February 10 – Barack Obama, 45, the young Democratic black senator from Illinois, declares his candidacy before 18,000 supporters in the historic state capital of Springfield, Illinois.
April – Republican war hero and senator John McCain, 70, declares his bid, but is seen as an outsider with few chances after he lost his 2000 bid against current president, George W. Bush. Later in the year, there are reports he must lay off staff due to money problems.
Now, here we are on Election Day and the finish line is in sight. I, for one, am glad we are finally here. I feel like we have been living on a reality game show for the past two years and the contestants are everywhere. Call it, “Political Survivor” or “Extreme Makeover White House Edition” or “So You Think You Can Lead” or “Are You Smarter that a George Bush?” I’m just glad we are finally at the end of this one and ready to get someone in the oval office who can get the country running again.
Tonight, I’m looking forward to a late night of watching returns and the beginning of all the post-election legal maneuvering. Here comes the next round of fun, but at least the political ads will stop running.
