CHICAGO — “You don’t need to boo, you just need to vote,â€Â Barack Obama told his crowds in the final days of the race when they reacted to his opponent’s name.

That line embodied two premises of Obama̢۪s presidential campaign, from its unlikely inception in February 2007 to victory Tuesday night.

First: That a backlash against President Bush would be sufficient to drive white swing voters into the arms of a first-term, biracial senator with liberal Chicago roots who promised change, bipartisanship, an end to the Iraq war and an outside-Washington ethic.

Second: That the conventional wisdom that young, minority and poor people can̢۪t be counted on to vote was a symptom of previous candidates who didn̢۪t try hard enough.

“You don’t win presidential elections because you pick the time,â€Â Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod said in a wide-ranging interview on the campaign plane three days before election night. “The times pick you,â€Â Axelrod said. “He seemed to match the times.â€Â

How̢۪d Obama do it?

Charisma, message, organization and timing were crucial. But nothing was more telling than the 90 percent of Americans who told pollsters all year that they thought the country was on the “wrong track.â€Â Voters wanted change. Obama made himself an image of change that people thought they could trust.

Obama’s kickoff in Springfield, Ill., drew inevitable comparisons to Abraham Lincoln. Ted and Caroline Kennedy’s endorsements set him up as successor to JFK—young, charismatic and different. Arguably, Obama’s mixed racial background as the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas also helped him win. While it doubtless cost him some white votes, it appealed to others and energized minority voters as no white nominee could.

In addition, Obama benefited enormously from an innovative and meticulously managed campaign organization led by David Plouffe. It attracted millions of volunteers and may have raised close to $700 million. Plouffe emphasized winning caucuses as well as primaries, and in the general election, he had the resources to run a 50-state campaign.

The campaign even enlisted help from recording artists and a fashion industry that made Obama a pop-culture brand. It drew from new-media gurus who put their careers on hold to help out. They lured millions to an innovative Web site that helped them find their polling places, or campaign events, or buy merchandise, then stored their contact information and barraged them with personalized solicitations for money and help.

They used this network to send volunteers from safe states to Republican areas to build support. They preprinted cards with the telephone numbers of registered voters and asked people who came to Obama rallies to make calls from the stadium while they awaited his arrival.

In the end, McCain̢۪s fumbling during the panic on Wall Street in September may have been his most damaging moment.

“I think the most critical juncture of the general election campaign was between Sept. 15 and Sept. 27, from the beginning of the financial controversy through the first debate,â€Â Axelrod said. “I think the campaign changed there in a way that fundamentally altered the dynamic, and I think that dynamic held from that point forward.â€Â

“Obama looked like someone who was grounded, who was focused on the issue, who was thinking about it,â€Â Axelrod said. “McCain looked flighty and fickle, and jumping from one position to another. One guy looked like the president and the other guy didn’t.â€Â

Dante Scala, a University of New Hampshire political scientist, said he saw a pattern to Obama’s style that helped him win. Scala called it Obama’s “coolness under pressure.â€Â

When Obama̢۪s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who raised him for much of his childhood, died on the last day of the campaign, his coolness was tested anew. His announcement of her passing at a rally in Charlotte, N.C., was tender, but he turned on a dime to critique McCain as too close to President Bush. It was only after the event that most reporters in his traveling press corps learned that, as he was speaking, tears were streaming down his face.

By Margaret Taley, McClatchy Tribune