most notably the early recognition by the powers-the-be (the money, that is) that the next president was going to be a democrat. we simply weren't going to get a republican after the shrub debacle.

as a result, a ton of money flowed into the democratic primary process, including from people and companies that would normally have played in the republican primary process, or at least given a far larger share of their money to republicans.

combine that with obama's exceptional charisma as a campaigner, someone exciting and new and different at a time when the country was eager to get away from business as usual, plus some brilliant political strategy, and viola, obama's president.


i don't see much similarity in the case of sanders 2016. that's not to say he can't win, but i think it's grasping at straws to look to 2008 for comfort.

and I see more similarity with Jerry Brown in the 1992 campaign. I hope 2016 isn't a repeat.