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Winning the Democratic primaries and the presidency in 2008 made Barack Obama not only the President of the United States. It turned the charismatic politician, who had been rated as an outsider from the beginning, into a figure with star status. But above all it meant a revolution of campaigning in America and the rise of a new and unprecedented kind of grassroots mobilization. This book describes the major reasons for the victory over Obama´s main opponent in the primaries, Hillary Clinton. Which strategies and campaign methods enabled the Senator of Illinois to defeat established members of the Democratic Party? In how far were gender and race of significance? Ultimately the book also strives to analyze the development of the primaries from the early stages up to Super Tuesday and the end of the pimary phase at the beginning of June.

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Barbara Fluckinger, Mag. Phil.: Finished her studies of English and Political Science at the University of Innsbruck in 2010.

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