This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "A Promised Land" by Barack Obama. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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When did Barack Obama get the Democratic nomination? Why was this such an important step on his journey to president?
For Barack Obama, the Democratic nomination changed his life. After traveling and campaigning, Obama secured the nomination and was officially declared the Democratic nominee for president.
Read more about Barack Obama, the Democratic nomination, and what it meant.
Barack Obama and the Democratic National Convention
On August 27, 2008, Barack Obama took the stage at the Pepsi Center in Denver to formally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States. In a strikingly symbolic historical coincidence, it was the 45th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
It represented a stunning political rise for Obama, who a mere eight years before, had not even had credentials to get on the floor of the convention. Now, he was addressing it as the nominee. For Barack, the highlight of the convention was Michelle’s electrifying speech, in which she discussed her upbringing on the South Side of Chicago, the sacrifices her parents had made to build a better life for her and her siblings, and what her unlikely journey said about what was truly possible in America.
As he stood on the stage, Barack’s thoughts were on the significance of the moment, especially for the millions of African-Americans who never thought they’d live to see such a day.
The General Election Begins
Barack Obama, a biracial kid from Hawaii and former community organizer from the South Side of Chicago, was now the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.
While the weight of the historic moment wasn’t lost on anyone (least of all Obama himself), the campaign had no time to rest on their laurels—there was a general election campaign to be waged and won against the Republican nominee, famed war hero and U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona.
John McCain: Maverick-Turned-Partisan
Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination, but who was running on the Republican side? The 73-year-old McCain’s biography was the stuff of political legend. During the Vietnam War, he’d been captured by the enemy and tortured for over five years—refusing multiple offers by the Vietnamese to be set free unless the offer was extended to his fellow POWs.
Obama had long been an admirer of McCain. The Arizona senator had repeatedly shown political independence and courage by bucking GOP orthodoxy by voting against George W. Bush’s regressive tax cuts, sponsoring a bipartisan campaign-finance reform package, and speaking out against figures on the Religious Right as “agents of intolerance.”
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Barack Obama's "A Promised Land" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full A Promised Land summary :
- How Barack Obama went from relative obscurity to the first Black president
- What principles guided his political leadership style
- Why Obama retained an unshakable faith in the potential and promise of America
