On January 3, 2008: Iowa Rewards Obama

Then Senator Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucus on January 3, 2008.

While many urged him to go on the attack against Hillary Clinton, he did not. Iowa rewarded him, and with a record turnout. Mr. Obama took 37.6% of the delegates' votes, While Mrs. Clinton had 27.5%. Compared to 2004, nearly twice as many Democrats turned out and they outnumbered Republican caucus voters by more than two to one.

After his win, Mr. Obama spoke at a packed Des Moines, Iowa rally:

"They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do."

Mike Huckabee scored Iowa's GOP victory, carried largely by evangelical voters.

After receiving only very small percentages of the Iowa votes, Senators Biden and Dodd dropped out of the presidential race.

"Embarracuda"

"... what a desperate empty embarrassment the McCain campaign has become."

Time Magazine's Joe Klein echoed the sentiments of much of the news media on October 6, 2008, about one month before the election.

As had many, Klein referenced the 'palling around with terrorists' and ever-handy Rev. Jeremiah Wright 'God damn America' memes. He related stories about Sarah Palin and Jews for Jesus, and Todd Palin's Alaskan Independence Party.

He also mentioned Fox News show host Hannity's complicity with a lesser known "Jew-hater" who'd been publicly "exposing" Sen. Obama as a Muslim. Klein cited this piece from the Washington Times:

In 1986, when Mr. Martin ran as a Democrat for Connecticut's 3rd Congressional
District seat under the name "Anthony R. Martin-Trigona," his campaign
committee filed papers saying its purpose was to "exterminate Jew power in
America and impeach U.S. District Court of Appeals judges in New York City."

 In January 2011, Pew Research listed these religious affiliations in the 112th U.S. Congress:

304 Protestant
156 Catholic
39 Jew
16 Other or No Declaration
15 Mormon
3 Buddhist
2 Muslim

Throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks doesn't seem to have subsided in the 2012 presidential race. Conservative meme topics describing President Obama include foreign born, Muslim, felonious, lazy, welfare President, to name a few.

Respectful Suspension

The morning after a brief blackout during Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, news media covered the story. 

On September 24, 2008, Stephen Colbert had purposefully suspended his show, casting the set into darkness for a few seconds to display his respect for the financial crisis.

Mr. Colbert, referring to John McCain's surprising announcement, opined during the show's segment: "There is nothing more presidential than suspending your presidential campaign.''

Check out the website, King's Dream: Barack Obama Becomes President of the United States of America, for info on where to purchase the book, the Writers' list, Endnotes, the editors' personal election photo diary, and more.

Rocky Mountain Vie

Political analysts tagged Colorado as one of the big five swing states in the 2008 presidential election and a predictor of how the nation would vote. An Obama win in the state could denote a shift in the Electoral College count seismic enough to deny McCain the presidency.

Polls through September 11 showed the Illinois Senator up by 3 points. Besting Senator McCain's national trend, Mr. Obama was winning men 49 to 46. His appeal to upscale whites, Hispanics, Boulder liberals, and swing suburbanites was considered a threat to the one-time Republican state.


After revealing a 5 point lead in early August 2012, polls conducted September 11-17, 2012 showed Republican challenger Mitt Romney trailing President Barack Obama in Colorado by one point, 47 to 46.

The President gained ground on Mr. Romney on the issue of the economy.

King's Dream

King's Dream: Barack Obama Becomes President of the United States of America is a new book, edited by Sherry Hutson and Lynn Lyons.

Click on the button at right to purchase the book.

The book is an election year news diary of the 2008 Democratic primary and general election told through accounts accessed entirely from electronic media. The editors reveal a unique, dynamic story told by over 500 writers from nearly 200 sources.

Over 1,200 entries are included in this month by month chronology featuring journalists, candidates, pollsters, pundits, bloggers, comedians, celebrities, musicians, artists, politicians, and the people.

Entries include hard news, speeches, commentary, humor, statistics, and facts surrounding the 2008 election of Barack Obama.

A companion website is also available at kingsdream.com