There is no doubt that 4 November 2008 will go down in history as one of the most remarkable US presidential elections and the culmination of an extraordinary campaign.

Fought against the background of crisis in the financial markets, the final month of the contest saw the candidates, senators Barack Obama and John McCain, call a temporary truce to work on a cross-party rescue plan for Wall Street. During the first half of the year, the campaign witnessed the close and protracted Democratic Party battle between senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton – the first time such a contest had been fought between a black candidate and a woman. Then global oil prices surged to unprecedented levels, Obama delivered an acceptance speech to 80,000 Democrats in a stadium and Republican presidential hopeful senator John McCain selected the little-known Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Meanwhile, the US financial markets were rocked by a collapsing housing market leading to the government bail-out.