American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

216 CHAPTER 7|ELECTIONS

from defi cit reduction to social issues. The 2012 elections also illustrate the idea

that process matters. For example, one reason that Republican losses in the House

were small was that Republican legislators in many states drew voting districts

that favored their Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives. Finally,

the 2012 returns also confi rm our argument that focusing on the general election

campaign ignores many important factors outside this narrow window of time.

Accordingly, we begin our discussion of the 2012 elections by reviewing what hap-

pened in the 2008 and 2010 elections.

The Path to 2012: The 2008 and 2010 Elections

The 2008 and 2010 elections were very diff erent contests. In 2008, Barack Obama

defeated John McCain with 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popu-

lar vote. Democrats gained 8 seats in the Senate and 21 in the House. In contrast,

Republicans dominated the 2010 midterms, gaining 63 House seats and control of

the chamber, and they narrowed the Democrats’ advantage in the Senate. In the

end, the two elections illustrate the fi ndings that Americans are sharply divided

on many issues and that short-term factors such as the state of the economy or

international confl icts can produce large changes from election to election.

THE 2008 ELECTION

Some characteristics of the 2008 contest distinguished it from all previous Amer-

ican elections. For the fi rst time, an African American was elected president. The

election also included the fi rst female candidate to have a signifi cant chance of

winning a major party’s nomination, Democrat Hillary Clinton, and only the sec-

ond female vice-presidential nominee, Alaska governor Sarah Palin. For the fi rst

time since 2001, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not central issues. And

ALTHOUGH THE 2012 ELECTIONS
confi rmed the status quo, with
President Obama re-elected and
control of the House and Senate
remaining the same, Americans
and the major parties were sharply
divided on many issues. In his
2012 acceptance speech, Obama
alluded to these confl icts and
the need for compromise in the
coming months and years.