 Incumbent President George W. Bush was ineligible for re-election per the 22nd Amendment, which limits a president to two terms, and incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney declined to run for the office.The 2008 presidential election was the first since 1952 in which neither an incumbent president nor an incumbent vice president was a candidate.Senator Obama won the number of electors necessary to be elected president and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.