“Race” For America 2008: Breaking Through on a Different Track

Abstract

Gwen Ifill’s The Breakthrough and Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson’s The Battle for America 2008 are among the most significant of the many journalistic accounts reflecting on the 2008 Presidential campaign. Irrespective of their different approaches to, and framing of, the presidential election, both Balz/Johnson and Ifill provide those critical elements scholars writing in a variety of qualitative traditions seek to provide most: thick description, context, perspective, insight, and ultimately a sense of meaning about the phenomenon being investigated. Balz/Johnson and Ifill organize their narrative accounts of Obama’s rise to prominence and eventual election in ways that differently highlight the complex terrain of today’s racial politics in the U.S. Balz/Johnson frame the election through the traditional eyes of a Washington insider; The “Battle,” accurately reflects this dominant narrative structure. Prior to delving into the book’s “main event”—the Obama campaign and its rise to dominance— the book begins providing an overview of the major players in both the Democratic and Republican Party primaries. In this brief prelude, entitled Take Off, the authors frame each candidate in relation to their respective opponents and to the battle itself. Obama, the calm, cool, observer; and McCain, the warrior, walking with the self-assured swagger of a battletested general. The third player briefly described in the book’s opening scene is, curiously, not Hillary Clinton, but George W. Bush. In Balz/Johnson’s view, Bush and his failed policies were what each of the candidates ran against. After this initial prelude comes a first set of three chapters, titled, “They’re Off.” Each chapter chronicles how the candidates arrived at a position where they were poised to compete for the American Presidency. Obama’s progress is portrayed as quick, influenced by a series of revelations about his presidential potential: an uncompetitive 2004 Senate Qual Sociol (2012) 35:229–235 DOI 10.1007/s11133-012-9221-9