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In the 2008 presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama was elected President with 69,456,897 (52.9%) votes in his favour. In contrast, his nearest rival, Republican Party candidate John McCain, took 59,934,814 (45.7%) votes - Obama won 9,522,083 (7.2%) more votes than McCain.
However, this is not the margin Obama actually won by. Unlike all other executive presidents around the world, the US President is not elected by the popular vote but rather by an Electoral College, the members of which are chosen using multi-winner plurality voting (first past the post). In order to be elected President, a candidate must win more than half - at least 270 of 538 - the votes in the Electoral College. Each State has a share of these votes, ranging from just 3 votes to 55. In almost every state, the candidate who wins the state-wide popular vote (by plurality) wins all of the votes in the electoral college it has.
As such, Obama did not actually win by 9.5million votes - only votes that won Obama a state counted towards his Electoral College total and thus his victory. Any vote for Obama in a state won by McCain was effectively wasted, and vice-versa. In 2008, Obama won 365 electoral votes from across 28 states, whilst McCain won 173 from 22. The seven most marginal states (those where Obama's margin of victory over McCain was thinnest) are worth 102 electoral votes all-in-all; had Obama not won these states, he would have lost the Presidency to McCain. These states are as follows, with the most marginal by percentage first:
- North Carolina (15 votes): Won by 14,177
- Indiana (11 votes): Won by 28,391
- Florida (27 votes): Won by 236,450
- Ohio (20 votes): Won by 262,224
- Virginia (13 votes): Won by 234,527
- Colorado (9 votes): Won by 214,987
- Iowa (7 votes): Won by 146,561
As such, Obama's true margin of victory can be described as 1,137,317 (0.9%) votes. If McCain had won those 7 states by even just a single vote, he would have been elected President instead, even though Obama would still have won 7.2million more votes across the United States.
It is important to distinguish between popular and effective votes in this fashion when describing the margin of victory in any US Presidential election.
What else can I help you with?
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AnswerStalin was one of the biggest mass murderers in history - killing millions upon millions of people. To compare Barack Obama to him is extremely disgraceful and inappropriate.
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