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Front Page Talking Points

FOR THE WEEK OF NOV. 03, 2008

Election '08: Voters write historic chapter by electing African American president

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1.gifVoters also decided about school board members, municipal officials and local ballot questions. Find advance coverage or results involving an election in your community or county.

2.gif"Every vote counts" is a valid expression. In results tables printed or posted Wednesday, see if you can spot an election decided by about 100 votes or less.

3.gifLots of opinions about results, polls, turnout and coverage are printed. Look for a column, editorial or reader comment that you agree with or admire. Share an excerpt.

The two-year presidential campaign may have seemed as though it never would end, but it's now over. Barack Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, beat John McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona. Obama will be inaugurated Jan. 20 as our nation's 44th president -- and its first black chief executive.
The president-elect's party has an overwhelming majority of seats in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House -- giving Democrats control of Congress and the White House for the first time since 1995, when Bill Clinton was president.

Results appear at newspaper web sites and all major TV networks. For the first time, The Associated Press provides live video coverage of results through an online network that includes the Web sites of 2,000 news partners.
Perhaps the most entertaining coverage was televised on cable's Comedy Channel, where Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert hosted a live installment of "Indecision 2008: America's Choice."

Turnout reached an estimated 64 percent of eligible voters, making 2008 the highest percentage turnout in generations. Millions of young voters registered this year, pushing their age group's participation to a new high. The percentage of eligible voters under 30 who cast ballots also rose in 2004 and 2006 after two decades of decline.
An AP-Yahoo News Poll conducted last month found that among likely voters aged 18-29, 60 percent supported Obama, 33 percent John McCain and 5 percent Ralph Nader. Obama received rock star-level receptions on college campuses across the country, drawing huge crowds that sometimes exceeded 15,000.

Historic impact: "Many Americans rolled into the streets to celebrate what many described, with perhaps overstated if understandable exhilaration, a new era in a country where just 143 years ago, Mr. Obama, as a black man, could have been owned as a slave." -- New York Times front-page article, Nov. 5, 2008

Student says: "You can't turn your head [on campus] without seeing something about the election. I think the youth are going to come out in incredible numbers." -- Hannah Lieberman, University of Michigan junior

Journalist says: "As politics has expanded to more platforms -- blogs, YouTube, comedy shows -- the old press has followed, raising its metabolism and sharpening its tone to compete." -- James Poniewozik, Time magazine columnist

Front Page Talking Points is written by Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2024

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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support.

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