The numbers people use to describe the election are some times misleading. Certainly the turn out of the registered voters was higher then normal (about 62%.) But this is an election of a President of all of the American people. People under 18 can't have their say, so I took them out. And what you get is an Obama president elected by only 23% of eligible voters. It makes the term "landslide" and "majority" seem hallow. Now I'll show my math:
O= 65,285,166 people voted Obama.
M= 57,317,302 people voted McCain.
V= 227,059,520 people are over the age of 18. (P*.246)
P= 301,139,947 people live in the USA.
R= 122,602,468 people voted on election night 2008 (O+M)
24.6% of the population is under 18. (from the US census)
40.7% of people who could vote, actually voted. (P/V)
That means out of the population that can vote:
21.68% voted Obama (O/V)
19.03% voted McCain (M/V)
(this was done with information from a census done in 2006 and polls from Nov. 7, 2008; all poll results have not come in. Only 99% are in so, these numbers are a bit off, but only a little.)