THE 2008 GENERAL ELECTION

Barack Obama's victory in 2008 was historic as he became the first African American to be elected president. Moreover, his triumph over John McCain was substantial both in terms of the popular vote, which he won by more than 7 percentage points, and the electoral college vote, which he carried by 364 to 174. We think that authoritarianism likely played an important role in this outcome, although data are not available at the time of this writing to test our hypotheses rigorously. Certainly the themes raised in the fall campaign often mirrored those from the primary campaign between Obama and Hillary Clinton. And, as we showed in Chapter 9, that intraparty Democratic campaign made authoritarianism a significant dividing line. Moreover, the electoral map and the pattern of support for the candidates further suggest its importance.

As for the party standard-bearers, John McCain, at first glance, would not seem the best vessel for a campaign organized around issues structured by authoritarianism. Although his voting record is conservative, he has often bucked the party line. He was long associated with moderate positions on immigration, gay rights, and the use of torture. In fact, McCain's credentials among the most conservative elements of his party were suspect enough to have raised serious doubts among elite opinion makers, like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, about his fitness to be the candidate.