Election Choices

A convention is a very big meeting. Many organizations have conventions. Every four years there is a national election in the United States. The summer before the election, there are two conventions. One convention is for the Democrats. The other is for the Republicans. They choose leaders for the next four years. They hope the people they choose will win the election.

At the 2008 Democratic convention, there was a big change. Never before had the Democrats chosen an African-American as their candidate for President. They did. It was not a surprise, though. Barack Obama had been running for President all year. He had won primaries. A primary is an election in a state. The people of the state vote for the person they want to be President. Then at the convention their representatives vote for that person.

At the convention, there was a problem. Many people had voted in primaries for Hillary Clinton. They wanted her to be the first woman President. It was not because she was a woman that people voted for her. They thought she would do a good job. She was a Senator. She had met many world leaders. She was a leader, herself. More Democrats thought that Barack Obama would be a great President. So they chose him. She was disappointed, but Hillary Clinton helped him. She gave many speeches telling people why they should vote for him. She said, “He is the person who can change our country. ” “Yes, we can” was their slogan. It meant that people could change what was happening in the United States.

At the Republican convention, they had to make a choice. They chose John McCain. Then they surprised everyone. They chose a woman as Vice President. People wondered if they did this to get more votes. The woman was Sarah Palin. She made many speeches. She got some people to vote for the Republican party. Some people thought she was the opposite of Barack Obama. Some people thought it was a good idea for the Republicans to choose her. Other people thought it wasn’t. They said that she would only get votes from one group of people.

Barack Obama won the national election. He got votes from many different groups. More people voted than in the last election. It was important to them. After the election, he met with Hillary Clinton. He asked her to be Secretary of State. That is a very important job. The Secretary of State meets with world leaders. The Secretary of State helps solve problems with other countries.