Title: Barack Obama: How an 'Unknown' Senator Became President of the USA
Headings: Barack Obama: How an ‘Unknown’ Senator Became President of the USA
Barack Obama: How an ‘Unknown’ Senator Became President of the USA
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE: Why Obama?
CHAPTER TWO: The Road to the 2008 Democratic Party Convention
CHAPTER THREE: The Race to the White House
Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Journal Articles
Online Articles & Websites
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Television
Further Reading on E-International Relations

Content: Introduction
In early November 2008, American politics underwent a historic change. A change that will be remembered as the year an African American was first elected President of the United States of America. From a country that revered established political zeitgeists such as the Kennedys and the Clintons, the arrival of Barack Hussein Obama signalled a change in not only American politics but also in American voting patterns. The campaign that Obama ran in 2008, powered by ‘hope’ in the lead up to the Presidential election is to be considered as nothing less than spectacular. Obama was to win the Presidency with the largest margin of victory of any Democratic candidate in history. His victory signalled a cultural and political shift similar to Regan’s landslide victory in 1980, which had been near inconceivable four years before (Nagourney, 2008). In 2004, few Americans had ever heard of Obama, let alone considered voting for him. This was not the first case in US history of a so called ‘outsider’ becoming President, for the young and catholic John F Kennedy had beaten Richard Nixon in the 1960 Presidential election. However Obama’s African American descent in a country that only saw the Civil Rights movement achieve equality in the 1960s and 1970s, paired with his limited experience of national politics made his election more remarkable. The prevalent belief that Hilary Clinton would head the Democrat’s bid for presidency in 2004 further emphasises the unforeseen nature of Obama’s victory, and makes the question of what happened in those four years that transformed Obama from an unknown to President of the United States even more salient.