How Obama won

last updated 8 January 2015

President-elect Barack Obama made history on Tuesday, said John Dickerson in Slate, but “so did his strategists.” Team Obama designed and relentlessly executed a plan that carried him through a “brutal primary and general election” and pulled in “a host of new voters.” Obama out-organized, outspent, and “out-hustled” John McCain in key states like Ohio, where he won over working-class whites. He beat McCain among women by 14 points.

Obama also won a formidable, modern "multiracial coalition” that should make Republicans nervous, said Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin in Politico, including urban and suburban Hispanics, Jews, African Americans, and young whites. That said, racism “turned out to be a footnote.” Obama’s use of cutting-edge technology also swamped McCain.