The New Campaign Trail

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

This site is all sorts of messed up for me. I can't find 1992, I tried playing their GA-GOV game and ended up with 2016-PRES, and when I tried to play 1996, I ended up with 1960.

I suck at these, though. I've never won a game above easy level. President Infinity is a lot more winnable for me, but their games also take way too much time.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I just finished a pretty interesting 1972 mod race as Birch Bayh/Reubin Askew. I guessed right on most of the questions and all but one of the "random choices" turned out in my favor.



But I did play this on easy mode. It may or may not count.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

2000: NY Governor Patrick Bateman defeats George W. Bush. Bob Graham was my running mate.



Closest states were Colorado and West Virginia - both within .2%

Chapter 102: Election Night

I'm wearing a wool suit by Armani, shoes by Allen-Edmonds, pocket square by Brooks Brothers. A group of us have left the campaign office early, finding ourselves at some kind of victory party before reporters line up to ask questions. These questions themselves are punctuated by one question I ask only myself, simply, not in relation to anything, 'Why?' The smell of cologne and the sound of music cloud up the room until I don't notice it anymore. I think it's me who says, 'I have to return some videotapes.'

And later (I think during dinner) my macabre joy sours and I stop, choke back a sob, my throat tightens. 'I just want to...' Nobody notices what I'm doing. Later still, facing the skyline through my hotel window, alone for the first time in days, I can't find comfort in anything that I've been doing. I'm weeping for myself now, unable to find solace in any of this, crying out to nobody who can hear me, cursing this country and everything I have been taught. Any and all of it was wrong, without any purpose. I imagine my own vacant face, the disembodied voice coming from its mouth, giving speeches and making deals before retiring to do it again the next day. There is no catharsis. This means nothing.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

1980: Ted Kennedy narrowly defeats Carter in the primary, and goes on to defeat Reagan by a comfortable margin



For some reason, the NCT map is telling me I got 346 EVs. I checked the map and compared it to the one on Atlas and couldn't figure it out. Perhaps Nebraska's and Maine's CD votes are still in play here? Just something worth looking into.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

1968: RFK lives!



Closest states: Texas, Ohio, Maine, Wisconsin, Oregon

1972: RFK rides again!



Closest states: Kentucky (655 vote diff), Nevada, Florida, Oregon, Texas

I ran with Terry Sanford both times.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

2008 repeat with Biden:

Obviously very close to the real result. Misery was the closest state (29,484 vote difference), followed by North Carolina, Montana, and Indiana.

Then I wanted to see if I could get more out of the South, so I picked Kaine as my veep with quite a shocking result:

Not really, as it turned out.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

The best VP choice for Obama in 2008 is easily Biden. Sebelius won't carry Kansas or any Plains state nor will Kaine help you outside Virginia, for the most part. Biden locks up the Midwest and gives you more time to campaign in North Carolina and Indiana. But those states are very hard to win on Normal as a Democrat.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Alternate History: A Tale of Two Nut Maps

1964: Viva Kennedy


1968: A Time For Choosing


Both on Normal. Kennedy repeats his 1960 debate performance and Reagan (with VP Romney) trounces Humphrey in their debate and sabotages Vietnam peace talks without incident.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

1988: Reagan and Bush both resign because of the Iran-Contra scandal, elevating Speaker Jim Wright to the presidency. He selects Paul Sarbanes as his running mate, hammering hard on Thompson, and rescinds the Bork nomination with a liberal judge.



Wright actually got 374 EVs and I have no idea why there's a discrepancy, although I did remove the faithless elector in West Virginia.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

1988: Reagan and Bush both resign because of the Iran-Contra scandal, elevating Speaker Jim Wright to the presidency. He selects Paul Sarbanes as his running mate, hammering hard on Thompson, and rescinds the Bork nomination with a liberal judge.



Wright actually got 374 EVs and I have no idea why there's a discrepancy, although I did remove the faithless elector in West Virginia.

Maine is the discrepancy

Fixed. Thanks!

Next up is an AH scenario where Nixon won the 1960 election and went on to lose to Johnson pretty handily, at least electorally:

It's funny how this map has so much in common with 1976. I gambled on getting Wallace to endorse me and give me most of the South with Ross Barnett jumping in and only winning his homestate.

This scenario is pretty unrealistic. Most states are within 3% or so. Nixon gets 48% of the vote in DC. So it's a fun scenario, but not exactly one based in reality.

Popular Vote
Johnson: 49.7%
Nixon: 48.1%
Barnett: 2.2%                                                            

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

The highly anticipated 2016 primary scenario came out not long ago, and it's probably the most advanced mod that currently exists. I gave it my best as Sanders many times, came close on several, and then threw up my hands and looked up a guide to see if it was even winnable...

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

Total delegates: 2428-2335 Sanders
Superdelegates: 368-344 Sanders
PV: 50.3%-49.4% Sanders

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

2016 - Arnold Amendment

This is what the map looked like after both successfully convincing Huckabee to leave the race and winning the debate [veep: Lindsey Graham]:



And this somehow is the map if Arnold wins the debate but doesn't convince Huckabee to drop out:



This is the best win I had playing as Granholm despite the attack ads at the end of the campaign backfiring [veep: Bill Nelson]: