If there was any kind of a Bradley Effect in the 2008 Presidential election, it only prevented Barack Obama from capturing all 538 electoral votes. Sure, solidly Republican states in the deep south and the plains sided with John McCain, but in all toss-up and Democratic-leaning states, Obama proved that McCain’s age was more of a factor than Obama’s race.

The majority of voters didn’t want another old Washington politician to carry on the philosophies that have prevailed over the last eight years. Experience meant closer ties to the White House, and any agreement with George Bush meant a politician who just didn’t get it.

Although McCain gave a gracious, honorable,concession speech, he and Sarah Palin spent most of the campaign divvying up the areas of our country into Pro-American places and Anti-American ones, a strategy that rather united us against the cynical perception of America.

Obama said it best: “There are no blue states or red states but the United States of America.” This message resonated in all of the “anti-American” areas of the country, where people wanted to see the destruction of old tactics and a rekindling of bipartisan feelings in Washington. No country for old ideas anymore.