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June 3, 2008 The Democratic primary season ends with contests in South Dakota, which Clinton wins, and Montana, where Obama is victorious. A surge of more than 50 new superdelegate endorsements, combined with pledged delegates from that day's primaries, give Obama enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination. May 20, 2008 Obama loses the Kentucky primary by 250,000 votes but wins big in Oregon's contest the same day. May 18, 2008 More than 75,000 people – including kayakers and boaters in the water -- gather at an Obama rally at the Waterfront Park in Portland ahead of Oregon's primary. More May 14, 2008 John Edwards, former Democratic candidate, endorses Obama. May 13, 2008 Obama loses the West Virginia primary by 41 points, but Clinton fails to make a serious dent in Obama’s delegate lead. More May 11, 2008 Obama takes the lead in the superdelegate count, which Clinton once led by nearly 100. May 6, 2008 Following Obama’s landslide victory in the North Carolina primary and his narrow defeat in Indiana, the media all but declare him the Democratic nominee -- even though he hasn’t won the necessary majority of delegates. More April 29, 2008 Obama opposes as a "political gimmick" a plan to suspend the federal gas tax during the summer. Both Clinton and John McCain strongly support the proposal. More April 28, 2008 Wright concludes a media blitz at the National Press Club, defending his sermons and criticizing the media storm as an “attack on the black church by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition.” More April 16, 2008 The ABC Democratic debate, moderated by George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson, is criticized for dwelling on “gotcha” questions for the first of two hours. Obama is questioned about flag lapel pins, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and, his relationship with Bill Ayers, a member of the '60s radical group the Weather Underground. More April 6, 2008 At a private fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama talks about job losses for the working class under the last two administrations, saying, “It’s not surprising that they get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment.” The Clinton campaign seizes on the comments as evidence that Obama is “elitist” and out of touch with working-class voters. More March 31, 2008 Obama bowls a 37 (in seven frames) in Altoona, Pa. March 21, 2008 New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who served in Bill Clinton's administration, endorses Obama. Richardson informs the crowd that he broke the news to Hillary Clinton the night before. “Let me tell you,” he adds, “we’ve had better conversations.” James Carville, an adviser to the Clinton campaign, calls Richardson a “Judas” for his disloyalty. More March 18, 2008 In what is later called his speech on race in America, “A More Perfect Union,” Obama condemns the Wright sermons as “not only wrong but divisive” at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. More March 14, 2008 Obama calls the Wright clips unacceptable and says he wasn’t present for those particular sermons. March 13, 2008 ABC News airs clips from the politically charged sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor of 20 years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The controversial videos – of Wright talking about the Sept. 11 attacks, saying “God damn America” -- circulate widely on the Internet and play on the evening news. More March 7, 2008 After calling Hillary Clinton “a monster” in what she later claimed was an off-the-record conversation with a reporter, Samantha Power resigns from her position as a foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign. March 3, 2008 Tony Rezko, a former fundraiser for Obama, goes on trial for corruption. He is accused of trying to extort millions of dollars in payoffs and campaign cash from companies aiming to do business with the state of Illinois. Though Obama was not named in the indictment, he sought to distance himself from his early patron by giving away Rezko-related campaign contributions to charity in a series of installments that continued into January 2008. More March 2008 The Obama campaign reports raising more than $40 million, from more than 400,000 donors, in March. February 2008 The Obama campaign reports raising $55 million in February -- $20 million more than Clinton and a new record for political fundraising in a single month. His success is widely attributed to small donations gathered on the Internet. More Feb. 27, 2008 Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and civil rights-era hero, formally reverses his endorsement – from Clinton to Obama. The New York Times had reported Lewis’ switch almost two weeks earlier. Feb. 23, 2008 Saturday Night Live returns from the writers' strike with a spoof of the Democratic debate in Austin that highlights the media’s supposed preferential treatment of Obama. More Feb. 19, 2008 The Clinton campaign accuses Obama of plagiarizing portions of speeches by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Feb. 18, 2008 At a rally in Wisconsin, Michelle Obama says that for the first time in her adult life, “I am really proud of my country.” Her comments are used as ammunition to question her husband’s patriotism. More Feb. 15, 2008 Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona vows to stand by his pledge to use public financing in the general election. The McCain campaign asks the Obama campaign to reaffirm its year-old commitment to do the same. The Obama campaign declines. More Feb. 5, 2008 Twenty-two states and America Samoa hold Democratic presidential nominating contests on Super Tuesday. The results are inconclusive: Obama wins more states, but Clinton wins more popular votes and nets a handful more delegates. The race goes on. More Feb. 2, 2008 More than 15,000 people attend a morning rally for Obama in Boise, Idaho. January 2008 The Obama campaign reports raising $32 million in the month of January alone. Jan. 26, 2008 Scoring an overwhelming majority of the African-American vote, Obama wins the South Carolina primary by 30 points. Afterward, Bill Clinton compares Obama’s victory with that of Jesse Jackson in ’84 and ’88. The former president’s comments damage the Clintons’ relationship with the black community. More Jan. 5, 2008 At the New Hampshire ABC/WMUR debate, moderator Scott Spradling asks Clinton why voters seem to like Obama more. She responds, “Well, that hurts my feelings.” Obama chimes in, “You’re likable enough, Hillary,” a response widely criticized as condescending. More Jan. 3, 2008 Obama wins the Democratic Iowa caucuses. Edwards comes in second and Clinton a surprising third. Obama tells his audience, “You have done what the cynics said you couldn’t do. You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days.” Five days later, Obama loses New Hampshire’s Democratic primary. More Dec. 8, 2007 Oprah Winfrey joins Obama on the campaign trail for a series of rallies starting in Des Moines, Iowa. Nearly 30,000 people come to see the pair in Columbia, S.C. More Sept. 18, 2007 In an economic speech, Obama proposes $80 billion in tax cuts “to relieve the burden of the middle class.” He aims to pay for this by rolling back part of the Bush tax cuts on the upper class. Sept. 12, 2007 Obama outlines a plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq by the end of 2008. Some of his Democratic rivals – Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson – complain that his withdrawal plan is not firm or fast enough. More June 30, 2007 End of the second quarter of 2007. Obama outraises New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- then the presumed front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president -- with a $31 million haul. He stays ahead of her in fundraising for the remainder of the campaign. June, 2007 "I Got a Crush on Obama," a music video, hits YouTube and makes its scantily clad star, "Obama Girl" (also known as Amber Lee Ettinger), an Internet celebrity. More May 3, 2007 The Secret Service begins guarding Obama -- the earliest a presidential candidate has ever been provided protection. March 29, 2007 Jesse Jackson endorses Obama. Feb. 10, 2007 Obama formally announces his candidacy on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where Abraham Lincoln once declared that a house divided against itself cannot stand. More Jan. 16, 2007 In a Web video, Obama announces he has filed papers to form a presidential exploratory committee. Oct. 22, 2006 Illinois Sen. Barack Obama tells NBC’s Tim Russert that he has reconsidered the possibility of running for president. Nine months earlier on the same show, Obama had ruled out a 2008 presidential run.Top |
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