Campaigning for President 2008: Strategy and Tactics, New Voices and New Techniques

In this important and timely volume, Dennis W. Johnson has assembled an outstanding team of political science and political journalism scholars and veteran campaign consultants to examine the most exciting presidential campaign in memory. Campaigning for President 2008 focuses on the strategies and tactics used by the presidential candidates, the new voices and new techniques used to generate support and persuade voters, and the activities of outside interests trying to influence the outcome. The experienced team of contributors explain how Obama triumphed in the primaries and how Clinton fell short; and how McCain came back from the politically dead. In this fascinating account, the authors examine the brilliant moves, the mistakes and miscalculations, and the tug of forces over which neither campaign had control.

Dennis W. Johnson is professor of political management at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. He is author of No Place for Amateurs: How Political Consultants Are Reshaping American Democracy, 2d. ed. (2007), Congress Online: Bridging the Gap Between Citizens and Their Representatives (2004), and The Laws that Shaped America: Fifteen Acts of Congress and Their Lasting Impact (2009); and editor of the Routledge Handbook of Political Management (2008). For ten years he had his own political research consulting firm.

1. An Election Like No Other? Dennis W. Johnson Part 1: The Primaries 2. Obama Wins the Nomination: How He Did It Tad Devine 3. Why Clinton Lost Ronald A. Faucheux 4. McCain: From Frontrunner to Dead-in-the-Water to Nominee Tony Fabrizio 5. The Preacher and the Press: How the Jeremiah Wright Story Became the First Feeding Frenzy in the Digital Age Albert L. May Part 2: New Voices and New Techniques 6. A Perfect Storm: The 2008 Youth Vote Kathleen Barr 7. Rewriting the Playbook on Presidential Campaign Financing Anthony Corrado and Molly Corbett 8. The Online Revolution Julie Barko Germany Part 3: The General Election 9. McCain: Strategies and Tactics in the General Election William Greener and Christopher Arterton 10. Obama: Strategies and Tactics in the General Election Christopher Arterton and William Greener 11. Outside Voices: 527s, Political Parties and other Non-Candidate Groups Stephen K. Medvic 12. Communication Wars: Television and New Media Peter Fenn 13. Ten Plays that Won (and Lost) the Presidency Dennis W. Johnson