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How Barack Obama Won: A State-by-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election (Vintage) [Paperback]

Chuck Todd , Sheldon Gawiser
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 6, 2009 Vintage

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 where the country stood four years ago.
 
 Although much has changed in the nearly four years since, How Barack Obama Won remains the essential guide to Obama’s electoral strengths and offers important perspective on his 2012 bid.

The votes in each state for Obama and McCain are broken down by percentage according to gender, age, race, party, religious affiliation, education, household income, size of city, and according to views about the most important issues (the economy, terrorism, Iraq, energy, healthcare), the future of the economy (worried, not worried) and the war in Iraq (approve, disapprove). 


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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

From NBC's political director and elections director. Readers who pick this up for, say, a quick check of McCain's margin of victory in Montana will find themselves tempted to embark on a full cross-country trip through these pages. States here are divided into four categories: "Battleground States," "Receding Battleground States," "Emerging Battleground States," and "Red and Blue States" (not clear why that wasn't two separate lists). Entries are from two to five pages long, more for states in flux than the true Blue or Red ones, with a clear format of both textual and tabular information on the state's 2008 presidential choice, its party support in the past, and what to keep an eye on in future elections. A final section of tables analyzing the 2008 electorate is fascinating. For all interested readers.—MH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Chuck Todd is NBC News political director, chief White House correspondent for NBC, and a contributing editor to "Meet the Press". He also serves as NBC News' on-air political analyst for "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Today," "Meet the Press," and such MSNBC programs as "Morning Joe," and "Hardball with Chris Matthews." Before joining NBC News, Todd was editor-in-chief of National Journal's "The Hotline," Washington's premier daily briefing on America politics. He has also written Op-Ed pieces for The New York Times and the Washington Post and for the Atlantic Monthly, where he is a contributing editor. He teaches a graduate political communications course at Johns Hopkins University.Sheldon Gawiser is NBC director of elections; he heads the NBC News election decision team in charge of making projections and overseeing news analysis of the exit polls. He was a founder of the NBC/Associated Press Poll and is a trustee of the National Council on Public Polls. Dr. Gawiser, in addition to being a pollster extraordinaire, is an Emmy nominated producer and winner of a special Emmy for his work on September 11th. He is author of five books and numerous articles on public opinion polling and elections, including A Journalist's Guide to Public Opinion Polls (Praeger, 1994).

Product Details

  • Paperback: 258 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; 1ST edition (January 6, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 030747366X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307473660
  • Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.2 x 7.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Great For Political Numbers Junkies January 17, 2009
By Aaron
Format:Paperback
If you're interested in the voting characteristics of the states, then you'll really like this book. Todd and Geiser give a pretty objective re-cap of the primary and general election campaigns in the introduction, and then go state-by-state, grouping them into "battlegrounds," "receding battlegrounds," "emerging battlegrounds," and "red/blue" states. Democrats will enjoy this more than Republicans, since the authors continually point out the demographic and ideological trends that are moving in the democrats favor. To their credit, though, they point out how this movement may be unique to this election or ultimately unsustainable, and does point out republican advantages in certain areas.

Mostly, the analysis is spot on, and they reveal some interesting characteristics and patterns that even a junkie like me didn't catch. Still, I have a couple issues with their analysis.

First, the youth vote. The authors say it was "overrated" for the most part and only made the difference in 2 states. They say this due to the fact that their turnout rate only increased by 1%, which didn't meet the inflated expectations of some. However, Obama won this vote by 66-32. No prior candidate, in the history of exit polling, EVER won any age cohort by such a large margin. The closest was Reagan in 1984, but by 20, not 34 points. Clearly, this indicates that republicans have some extremely serious problems with younger people that have only gotten worse since 2000. George W. Bush may have turned an entire generation away from his party.

Second, the 5 "emerging" battleground states. Georgia, Nebraska, and Texas don't belong here. If Obama couldn't win GA in this environment, there is little chance for democrats down the road. GA has been trending red the last decade.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By K.G.
Format:Paperback
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.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The intriguing details January 10, 2009
By LK
Format:Paperback
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars How Barack Obama Won April 22, 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have always been interested in everything that Chuck Todd has spoken about,especially since the time the elections started heating up(was that about three yrs ago,lol),anyway I found it amazing that a book about one election could be such an interesting read,Chuck needs to keep writing books.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Why Voters Chose Obama April 8, 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars His views are as neutral as a electron
Chuck Todd can't be considerd as a journalist or even a book author. He has no investigative skills or motivation to do so. Mr. Todd is a slave to MSNBC and it's owner GE. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Chris Saxer
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect book for the wonky type (like me!)
This book is like one really long term paper and/or Harvard Business School case study. There's a couple of pages of text followed by pages and pages of stats. Read more
Published on May 22, 2010 by Amod A. Vaze
3.0 out of 5 stars Great Addition to Other 2008 Campaign Books
Really this is just a helpful compilation of exit polls by state that helps explain what happened from a purely statistical point of view. Read more
Published on January 17, 2010 by Eric Frenchman
1.0 out of 5 stars Chuck Todd is a weasel
Todd's condescending responses illustrate the same point as the above episodes with Klein and Ambinder: in the eyes of Beltway mavens, those who warned about and worked against... Read more
Published on August 23, 2009 by Book buyer
2.0 out of 5 stars Mistakes
There is at least one obvious mistake. The book suggests that Woodrow Wilson won in 1912 without carrying West Virginia. Not so. I wonder what else may be wrong?
Published on July 8, 2009 by Stephen W. Pogson
5.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published on April 7, 2009 by Book Reviewer
5.0 out of 5 stars How Barack Obama Won
This book by Chuck Todd of NBC news gives us a very detailed understanding of the statistics from each state. Read more
Published on February 27, 2009 by Margie A. Tomlinson
4.0 out of 5 stars a must have for political junkies
This is like a primer on how elections work, how demographics break down and what the future political landscape looks like. Read more
Published on February 24, 2009 by Elana Z. Pate
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon.com ... The Best!!!
Book was received quickly and in excellent shape, as usual. Amazon.com is absolutely the BEST!!!
Published on February 18, 2009 by Linda S. Coates
4.0 out of 5 stars Could have been more detailed
I do like to read a good statistical analysis, which is what this book is. But it could have been better. Read more
Published on January 27, 2009 by Mochyn
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