Is this the most fascinating election you've ever lived through?

[Bicoastal]

It is for me. I'm 26, and I can't remember any other election raising as many identity issues as this one: race, gender, age, religion, experience, economic class, social class, regional identity, intellectualism, patriotism, party loyalty, mental acuity, child development...it's the main reason why so many are switching sides, and electoral maps are being redrawn, and everything seems akimbo.

Wasn't 2004 mostly about National Security? Wasn't 2000 essentially all about intellectual leadership vs. populist rhetoric? 2008, on the other hand, cannot be summed up in a single sentence. This election really is a study in what it really means to be a leader, and moreover, what it means to be an American. I truly can't really remember a time in my experience when a political contest had people thinking about all of these issues at once. This is an election that scholars will be studying and writing about for years to come...and it isn't even over yet.

But then, maybe I'm showing my age. Does anyone here remember 1960? 1968? 1980? 1992? How does this one compare?

[Left Is Write]

1. 1976 wasn't especially fascinating.

:D

I began voting at age 18, in 1984. There has been no presidential election in these last 24 years that compares to this one, in my opinion.

[WeDidIt]

2. I rememebr all presidential elections starting with '68

So far, this is the best one ever.

[Marsala]

3. It's only exciting because of Obama

Aside from that, it's pretty much a standard "Throw the bums out!" election due to the economy imploding at the worst possible time for the Repukes. Well, McCain is trying his best to break all incompetence records, but there have been campaigns as feckless as his before. Obama is the biggest factor here in making this election truly historic.

[Bicoastal]

5. I disagree. Hillary Clinton's performance in the primaries and Sarah Palin's baffling popularity

both add a few more complexities to an already crazy year.

[Cosmocat]

9. Yep, and I would add the "revolution" word ...

Frankly, it looks as though BO has been the embodiement of what would by AMERICAN standards a revolution. A large portion of the country rising up to donate money/work for and believe in him.

He has run an EXCEPTIONAL campaign both from a competence and strategic standpoint, as well as being steady as heck and likley getting past the fact that he is black - I don't remember the media person, but someone said BO had to be the most LEAST victimized/militant african american politician we have seen by a LONG stretch to pull it off.

McCain has been a feckless opponent on many levels, and irregardless of who BOTH parties candidates were, the D was going to be favored to win most likely, but BO beat Hillary and by extension BILL Clinton in the DEMOCRATIC primary, as well as breaking the color barrier.

[treestar]

4. 1992 was pretty interesting

There was the Perot factor.

[liberalpragmatist]

6. It depends on how you define interesting

In the end, if this does become an Obama landslide, I'd say Kerry-Bush is the most "interesting" in terms of intensity -- b/c it was a nailbiter that people were really passionate about. Gore-Bush was closer but people weren't particularly engaged that year.

In terms of excitement and history-making, though, this one is definitely more exciting.

That said, it can be pretty hard to compare election to election.

[endarkenment]

7. 2004 was about How To Change The Narrative

It was the most infuriating election campaign - Kerry ought to have won on the national security issue as Bush had screwed up massively in Iraq, but instead the election was about Kerry himself, about his windsurfing in nantucket, about his voting for the war before he voted against it or whatever it was he was supposed to have done, about how he didn't really earn his medals in vietnam while bush was busy snorting coke in alabama. Unlike Obama, Kerry is just not that likeable, doesn't have a huge charisma factor. Their attempt to make this election 'all about Obama' isn't working because Obama gets on TV (in the debates for example) and he his calm and cool and commanding and telegenic and the audience just can't help feeling at ease with him. And then there is the pathetic clown next to him - the one paris hilton fatally labeled the wrinkly white-haired guy. It is no contest.

[KT2000]

8. Yes because

just taking the symbolism of it marks a rise in consciousness that I did not think would occur in my lifetime.
The turmoil of the 60s-70s bore fruit. The civil rights movement worked, integration worked and we now have proof that young people who were not brought up with racial bigotry do not have it. Of course it is still out there but - this is a milestone I did not think I would live to see.

Besides that, we have a candidate who has one of the most well rounded perspectives and fully developed ideas of leadership of any candidate I have ever seen.

My first was 1968 - position on the Viet Nam War was the issue. Not much enthusiasm.

[scheming daemons]

10. Nope.... 2000 will always be more amazing......

Anybody who says differently isn't thinking from a historical perspective.


2000 changed the world in so many ways...... and all because several hundred old jews in Palm Beach couldn't understand their ballot.

[Larry in KC]

11. My first vote was in '76. This one's way up there.

Any time we've lost has been painful, running on a scale from terribly irritating ('88, for instance) to mind-numbingly horrible (2000 comes to mind). So, setting those aside because they left a bad taste that spoiled the memories, I've only gotten to experience campaigns with happy endings three times in all those years (and none in my childhood, come to think of it, except Johnson when I was in grade school).

'92 was probably the best, with a bit of a Camelot feeling that we were going to get two young, intelligent, energetic men with good priorities in office. Already, though, from early primary days (and I'm not intending to stir up trouble), Bill was such a personally flawed candidate that you just knew respect and bipartisanship weren't going to be achieved if we got him into office, that the nation wasn't going to really pull together behind him. It was quite interesting and entertaining, too, though, with the weird show that Ross Perot put on. One of the best pieces of low-comedy in presidential politics, on a par with Palin's interview answers, was Perot's running mate Stockdale at the vice-presidential debate. It was one of the few times that a debate provided the dramatic or entertainment value that I keep telling myself the next one just might.

This campaign has been fascinating, I agree. It's set to be one of the truly transformational events in domestic political history, I hope. I believe it has a high likelihood, at this point, to be the best of my lifetime. I'd love for there to be some head-to-head high drama, but about the only chance of that happening is Wednesday's debate. Here's hoping!

[RichGirl]

12. I was born a political junkie...so my first election I was too young to vote.

But it was exciting. McGovern/Nixon. I was so young and naive that I actually thought that even though the polls said the contrary, that McGovern would, somehow, miraculously pull it out! You know, the way the freepers think that now.

[occe]

13. Haven't lived through much

Just 5.

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. 1968 was very painful and dramatic

you couldn't vote until you were 21 but you could die easily
in a war you couldn't vote against.

This election reminds me a lot of 68 but hopefully it will turn out better.

[ElboRuum]

15. I'm glad you used the word "fascinating"...

Because it has been unequivocally that.

If I had to compare it to any other election, I'd have to say that the 1980 election was fascinating, too, in a very notorious way. Of course, you are too young to remember that, but I was about 10 at the time, and I remember Reagan dipping fully into the wayward and listless feelings of people who hadn't had a lot to feel particularly good about by the time 1979 rolled around. The shameless exploitation was too surreal. But there we were, lapping it up.

[THUNDER HANDS]

16. how can anything top the 2000 election????

seriously, 300 votes decides an election?