The 2008 United States presidential election happened on November 4, 2008. During that day the President of the United States and Vice President of the United States were selected. Barack Obama from the Democratic Party defeated John McCain to win the presidency, and became the first African-American president. He was sworn in as President on January 20, 2009. In a United States presidential election, a person must get 270 electoral votes to win.
of the United States Constitution provides that for a person to be elected and serve as President of the United States, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for a period of no less than 14 years.
Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the various political parties of the United States, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf.
President George W. Bush was unable to seek re-election for a third term because of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that a president may only serve up to two terms. His term as president ended at noon eastern standard time on January 20, 2009.
The candidates running for the nomination of the Democratic Party were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson.
The main contest during the Democratic primaries was between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, which was a very close race. Clinton won the popular vote, but ultimately Obama won more unpledged delegates and therefore the nomination.
All candidates except Mike Gravel, who switched to the Libertarian Party during the election, supported Barack Obama.
Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as the vice-presidential candidate on August 23, 2008.
The candidates running for the nomination of the Republican Party were John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, Jim Gilmore, Sam Brownback, and Duncan Hunter.
Republican President George W. Bush was unable to run for re-election since a president is only able to be elected twice. Vice president Dick Cheney chose not to run.
Most of the candidates withdrew early. As a result, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney emerged as the three people most likely to win the nomination. Ron Paul became popular among libertarians.
John McCain was nominated by the Republican Party (by a decisive victory).
He chose Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential candidate.
The biggest issue during the campaign was the bad economy. Other issues included health care, the Iraq War, the war on terrorism, and energy independence.
The president during the election, George W. Bush (who eventually supported John McCain), was very unpopular due to the 2007-09 "great recession", and because of that, the Obama campaign compared McCain to Bush several times.
There were four television debates during the campaign: three of them were between the two presidential candidates, and one of them was between the two vice-presidential candidates.
<nowiki>*</nowiki>NE-02 is Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District.
<nowiki>**</nowiki>Nebraska cast 4 ECVs for McCain and 1 for Obama.
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
The Democratic Party presidential primaries of 2008 was an American political event. In various states, various Democratic candidates asked people and delegates to vote for them in primaries and caucuses. Candidates won delegates based on a percentage of votes (in primaries). There were 4,233 delegates. A candidate would have to get 2,110 delegates to win the nomination. The two front-runners of the campaign were New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Although Clinton led in the beginning, Obama soon gained the lead. Obama went on to become the first African-American presidential candidate in American history.
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann (7 December 1810 – 11 January 1882) was a German scientist who isolated and named the enzyme pepsin. He also played a key role in promoting the idea of the cell as the foundation of living organisms. His work on the cell has recently been re-assessed, because the idea had been discussed before him.
Cells were discovered by Robert Hooke (1635–1703). He used a compound microscope with two lenses to look at the structure of cork, and to look at leaves and some insects. He did this from about 1660, and reported it in his book "Micrographica" in 1665.
Many other naturalists and philosophers tried out the new instrument. The structure of plants was investigated by Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712) and Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694). Grew's major work was "The anatomy of plants" (1682). It is not clear who first saw animal cells, Malpighi, Jan Swammerdam (1637–1680) or Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723).
Leeuwenhoek's discoveries and drawings of 'little animalcules' opened up a whole new world for naturalists. Protozoa, and microorganisms generally were discovered. Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg's book "Die Infusionsthierchen" summarised what was known in 1838. Lorenz Oken (1779–1851) in 1805 wrote that infusoria (microscopic forms) were the basis of all life.
The work of the Czech Jan Purkyně (1787–1869) and his student and collaborator Gabriel Valentin (1810–1883) was "unjustly denigrated by the nationalistic Germans. They have a claim to some priority in the cell theory".
Johannes Müller (1801–1858) also made great contributions. It was, however, his student Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden (1804–1881) who got the credit for the "cell theory", despite the fact that some of their observations were not correct, and their credits to previous workers were "a travesty". "As understood now", the cell theory includes these important ideas:
The key works of Schwann and Schleiden were published in 1838 and 1839.
These ideas still are the basic ideas of cell theory.
Dubbo, New South Wales
Dubbo is a large town in the central west area of New South Wales, Australia. Dubbo has a campus of the Charles Sturt University. A major tourist attraction in Dubbo is the Western Plains Zoo.
Antiwar.com
Antiwar.com is an English language website containing news and opinions related to wars. The site was founded in December of 1995, as a response to the Bosnian War.
Justin Raimondo is a founder and editorial director.
Barium chloride
Barium chloride is a chemical substance. It is among the most important salts of barium. It is soluble in water. It is a poison. When it is heated, it gives a yellow or green color to the flame. It is hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts water from the air. It is mainly used to purify brine but applications include fireworks.
Barium chloride is toxic. Sodium sulfate may be an antidote.
North Atlantic Treaty
The North Atlantic Treaty is the treaty that founded NATO. It was signed in Washington, DC on April 4, 1949. The original twelve nations that signed it and thus became the founding members of NATO were the following:
Later the following nations joined:
When Germany was reunified in 1990, the country as a whole became a member of NATO.
The key section of the treaty was Article V which says that each member state has to consider an armed attack against one state to be an armed attack against all states. The treaty was created with an armed attack by the Soviet Union against Western Europe in mind, but the mutual self-defense clause was never used during the Cold War. It was used for the first time in 2001 when the September 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and The Pentagon had taken place.
In the United States, the treaty was approved by the Senate in a vote of 82 to 13 on July 21, 1949.
Blockade of Germany