4.+Hope+for+Change+comes+with+the+Election+of+2008

 In 2008, President George W. Bush finished his second consecutive term as President of the United States. With this, came two new candidates. For the Republican Party, Senator John McCain of Arizona was nominated on October 3, 2008. His Vice Presidential candidate was Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska. For the Democratic Party, the nomination was between Senator of Chicago, Barack Obama, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. For months, a very close campaigns for the Democratic nomination raged on between Obama and Clinton. But on June 3, 2008, Obama acquired enough delegates to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. A few days later on June 7, Clinton announced that she was suspending her campaign to support Obama. In August of 2008, Obama chose Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate. And later that month, Obama officially became the first African American presidential nominee for a major political party. During the campaign process between Obama and McCain, McCain argued that Obama was unprepared to become president while Obama argued that McCain was out of touch with the American people. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President and became the first African American president in American history. Obama won with 53% of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 46% of the popular vote and 173 electoral votes. During his inaugural speech, Obama spoke of change and the nation’s hardships with optimism when he said, “Today I say to you the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America; They will be met.”  media type="youtube" key="EcRA2AZsR2Q?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center"