The White House: A Fantasy Election

[George W. Hobbes]

TIME Magazine: Progressive.  Conservative.  American.
The aftermath of the 2006 Republican convention.

When all was said and done in Chicago, Republican nominee Congressman Henry "Hal" Frazier of California emerged as his slogan has always promised him to be, "Progressive.  Conservative.  American."

After a series of inspiring speeches by outgoing President Roy Hennigan, outgoing Vice-President Jonas Randolph, and Democratic Governor Mitchell Callahan of Nebraska, and Vice-Presidential nominee Senator Mike Bruno of Missouri, it was the big test for the 62-year old native of Sunset Beach.

Frazier's smashing upset in the Iowa caucuses was primarially due to the fact that Vice-President Randolph talked about the civil liberties of child pornographers in a nationally televised debate.  Despite having an impressive record as a centrist bastion from a state worth its weight in electoral votes, Mr. Frazier was placed on the national stage without being quite ready for it.

In New Hampshire, for example, Frazier's campaign seemed to fizzle after he publicly called for a two percent national sales tax to pay off the national debt.  Balanced budgets play just fine in New Hampshire, but mention any word of a tax hike and you'll be lucky if you aren't shot dead.

It wasn't any spectacular post-New Hampshire moves that enabled Frazier to win the next five primaries, it was the Vice-President's near fatal heart attack.  No one else really had been given the stones to challenge Roy Hennigan's fair-haired (or in this case, fair-balded) candidate save Frazier, so with Randolph's withdrawal, the GOP was left with an enigma.

Last night, the American people finally heard Hal Frazier's message...and what a message it was.

In an effort to protray the Republican Party as a "big tent", Frazier decided to call for "an end to this ideal that some American adult citizens are not qualified to seek the Presidency.  These Americans pay taxes, live and work among us, and even can vote...but we seem to think they aren't American enough to be President.  Well, no more."

The congressman went on to call for a constitutional amendment allowing anyone over 18 to run for office and allowing non-native Americans to seek the White House.  A rather surprising move, but judging from the reaction from the California delegation (where popular governor Adonis Katzenbaum is barred from running because he's Polish), it just might be a winning issue.

Hal Frazier's handlers often describe him as a man of "big ideas"...well he certainly proved that was true elsewhere in his address, calling for another constitutional amendment to establish initiative and referenda laws in the United States, and to "give me a Congress that will give me a line-item veto.  I've had it with wasteful spending, and if Congress won't cut the fat, then I'll make sure that congressional pork is off the federal menu."

The chances that Frazier could manage to get two-thirds of Congress around those ideas may be slim, but his tagline for the referendum "empowering the people, not the powerful" may well have successfully swiped a line from the Democratic hymnal.

The candidate also played up his rather liberal views that enabled him to serve for fifteen years as a California legislator, calling for strengthening of the EPA, three-day federal background checks and subsidizing research and development for so-called "smart guns" that unlock at the touch of the owners' thumbprint, and endorsing a ban on the federal death penalty.

Yes, that's right, a Republican went up before a conservative convention and said the death penalty should be abolished.  Normally, he'd be lucky if he wasn't lynched, but Frazier managed to escape mob violence by framing the argument his way.

"It's just too damned easy for them.  I want to make sure a violent murderer spends the rest of his days in a four-by-six cell with no human contact and nothing to do but weep.  I don't mind treating prisoners like they're sub-human, I don't mind at all.  Let them suffer.  Let them be punished.  Let's not let these monsters get out of this easily."

Naturally, Frazier also threw out a lot of red meat to conservatives, promising to get rid of the Department of Education, fund vouchers at the state level, and eliminate tenure.  ("The teacher's unions only care about making money.  So they let our children recieve a bad education from bad teachers who can't be fired for being horrible educators.  I want to pay teachers who teach, so under my Presidency, we're saying "No" to tenure, "Yes" to merit pay, and "Yes" to better schools, better teachers, and a better future!")

He also called to defund NASA and the U.S. Postal Service ("agencies who have outlived their use and deserve to go") and to put the money saved towards giving $10,000 Family Health Vouchers to the poorest of America's uninsured.  ("It's not going to solve the problem overnight, but's a start.")  For the rest of America, they'll get the tax-deductible Health Savings Accounts that President Hennigan battled with the Democratic Senate over with last fall.

In another surprise, Mr. Frazier mentioned that America "has over $12 trillion worth of federal lands that we don't all need.  As President, I'll head a commission to oversee what land that we can sell in order to put that money aside to pay down the debt."  While this overlooks the fact that most of this land is National Parks, Frazier may well be able to sell this if he can tapdance his way around questions from the environmentalists he's currently courting.

In essence, Congressman Frazier left the United Center with his candidacy intact, and a new approach to solving America's problems that we'll have to see how to play in the heartland.  With the Democratic convention just around the corner, Frazier currently leads Governor Alyssa Potter of Pennsylvania by seven points, having gotten a six-point bounce from the convention according to the latest CNN/TIME poll.

[George W. Hobbes]

Previous Election History in The White House

Current Incumbent: President Roy Hennigan (R-Florida)

President Hennigan won his first election narrowly in 1998, defeating Vice-President Bob Warren (D-Alabama) with 51 percent of the popular vote and 296 electoral votes.  During his first term, Hennigan succeded in passing a large across the board tax cut of 15 percent, but achieved little else domestically. 

A sinking approval rating was rejuvenated by Hennigan's tough response to the terrorist attacks of July 4th, 2001, when Mahmoud al-Moudi's Allah's Hand terrorist network hijacked three planes, crashing them into Independence Hall, the Capitol Rotunda (vacated for the Fourth of July holiday), and the presidential retreat of Camp David.  The fourth plane was re-taken over by the crew and crashed in upstate New Jersey.

The July 4th attacks were met with a heavy response by President Hennigan, who ordered operation Eternal Liberty in the nation of Goyzostan, which provided cover for the Allah's Hand network.  Working with southern Christian rebels, the Goyzostani government fell and several key leaders of Allah's Hand were captured or killed although al-Moudi remains at large.

Riding the wave of popularity following the attacks and the Goyzostan War, Hennigan was re-elected with 500 electoral votes and 62 percent of the popular vote over sacrificial lamb Governor Markus Terwillinger of New Hampshire.  (Terwillinger's concession speech is mostly remembered for his loud screaming of "Yeeeargh!" after it had concluded.)

In 2003, shortly after being inaugerated, President Hennigan made overt tones to declare a police action in Ekairan, which bordered the nations of Iran and Kuwait and had recently fought a war with America in 1991.  The threat was that Ekairanian dictator Umar bin Zarka may well have been researching sarin gas and nuclear weapons.  Congress passed a use of force resolution in March, and the President worked with the UN for the next year in attempts to get weapons inspections and UN troops.

After all else had failed, on March 11, 2004, the President ordered the war, (Operation American Justice) to begin, and the war ended in five weeks and bin Zarka was apphrehended within the year.  Unfortunately, no WMD were discovered, leading to criticism of the administration and a Democratic victory in the Senate (and coming within three votes of controlling the House).

Since then, there has been nothing but legislative deadlock.

In 2006, Vice-President Randolph lost the Republican nomination to Congressman Hal Frazier over concerns of his health and views on civil liberties and gay rights (a bit too libertine for the Bible Belt).

[George W. Hobbes]

Newsweek: Our Lady of Iron and Steel
Going into the Democratic convention, Governor Alyssa Potter is ready to roll.

Pennsylvania Governor Alyssa Potter is no stranger to Democratic presidential politics...and why should she be?

After all, it was her husband, Senator "Big Ben" Potter, the 310-pound behemoth who gave Governor Micheal Duke of Rhode Island a run for his money in the 1986 Democratic primaries. 

And after Potter's heart attack shortly before the 1988 mid-terms, it was Alyssa who stepped in to fill the gap, winning the Senate seat by twenty-two points off a wave of sympathy.

While Ben Potter liked to do little work on the Senate floor and fill his time with campaigning and lots of bravado about his "new ideas for a new democracy", his more left-wing wife quickly got into the game of compromising, brokering, and yes, backstabbing her way into winning on Democratic issues.

By 1990, Senator Potter's polite version of her nickname was the Iron Lady of the Senate, and she was deemed worthy enough to deliver the keynote address for the victorious Memphis convention that cornonated Louisiana Governor Clint Blythe.  After Blythe finished off the GOP nominee, she was selected to head up the Department of Education, where she supervised the use of President Blythe's middle-class tax hike to bring new technology to elementary and middle schools across the nation.

Potter resigned in 1991 to seek the Pennsylvania governorship, which she narrowly lost to conservative Republican Patrick Mantornum.  She then spent the next four years crisscrossing the state, preaching of a "New Pennsylvania" with a better environment for small businesses, minorities, and women.  In the 1996 mid-terms, she defeated Mantornum by eight percent and began tackling the problems of Harrisburg.

In 1997, Governor Potter passed a perscription drug benefit for Pennsylvania's seniors (MediPenn), and managed to submit a balanced budget in 1999 and 2000, allowing her to defeat Mantornum's insurgent comeback bid by eleven points.

In 2002, Potter signed legislation creating the first state-wide gun registry, and immediately came under attack for her efforts by the National Rifle League (NRL).  The NRL sued in federal court and won, but in late 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of National Rifle League v. Potter that the registry was constitutional under the "clear and present danger" rule.

Ineligible to run for a third term in 2004, Governor Potter assumed the chairmanship of the Real Democratic Network, an association for socially progressive, fiscally moderate Democrats to champion their causes.  This move came a surprise to many, who remembered Potter as a fire-eating liberal in the Senate, but during her two terms as governor managed to stealthily drift towards the center, even going so far as to run for re-election with a pro-life Democrat as her running mate.

Having smashed former Vice-President Bob Warren in the 2006 presidential primaries, as well as South Carolina Senator Clark Dugan, her presumptive running mate and former Internet Service Provider CEO, the real question now is if the Iron Lady can manage to present a bright and shining Democratic agenda from the podium in Milwaukee.

If she can....Hal Frazier had better watch his back.

[George W. Hobbes]

The New York Times
Veepstakes: A Look At Who's Number Two.

Senator Mike Bruno (R-MO)
When Congressman Hal Frazier sat down with his advisers to discuss the Republican Party's nominee for the Vice-Presidency, forty-two year old Senator Mike Bruno was the first name called out.  Frazier, who was deferred from participating in Vietnam and served on generally social and domestic committees in the House of Representatives, needed a strong foreign policy man to appeal to GOP hard-liners and staunch advocates of the War on Terror.

Senator Bruno, who lost the use of his left arm in the Gulf War and picked up a Congressional Medal of Honor for leading the so-called "Lost Patrol" back from Ekairani soil to a U.S. base in Kuwait after forty-eight hours AWOL in the field, was an obvious choice.  Bruno has also served with distinction on the International Relations and Armed Services committees during his two terms in the Senate, giving him up-close experience to the bureaucracy of war as well as the military side.

There's also the factor that Bruno is much more conservative than the "progressive conservatism" of Mr. Frazier, which will allow the Republicans to unite their warring factions of moderates and conservatives, so they can compete in the South and the Midwest. 

Senator Clark Dugan (D-SC)
Governor Alyssa Potter's main concern is that she's seen as too liberal.  Despite having spent her post-gubernatorial career by aligning herself with moderate Democrats in an effort to pull her party away from the leftism of Markus Terwillinger and back to the steady center of Clint Blythe; her positions on issues like gun control and even same-sex marriage have infringed upon this "moderate" image.

The solution?  Select a moderate senator from the South who has heavy ties to Corporate America.  Dugan, a former CEO of Netser Communications, with a net worth of approximately $150 million, just happened to fit the bill.

During the primaries, a three-way affair between former Vice-President Bob Warren, Governor Potter, and Senator Dugan, the South Carolinan was criticized as being "too soft on the Republicans and big business" because of his support for the Hennigan tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of the country. 

His support for tax cuts probably lost him the election, but coupled with Dugan's A-plus rating from the National Rifle League, it just might be enough to swing the center into the camp of Governor Potter.

[Beet]

Wow, I have no idea who any of these characters might be modelled after

[Akno21]

I love these types of things that you do, Hobbes

They always inspire me, and of course, I never act on it.

[George W. Hobbes]

TIME Magazine: Live From Wisconsin
Governor Alyssa Potter's acceptance speech offers Democrats a new road to victory.

The Democratic convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin got off to a solid start, with a brilliant keynote address from the party's last President, Clint Blythe (D-LA) calling for the Democrats to rally around "the working class, the middle class, and the upper class.  We cannot allow our party to be confined to one level of the social echelon."

Four years ago, at Governor Markus Terwillinger's convention in Atlantic City, the country was stunned to see the far left of the Democratic Party had absolutely taken over.  Terwillinger was rewarded by winning on 38 electoral votes in November.

With this lesson in mind, the Democrats offered themselves up as a party firmly entrenched in the center, but willing to stray from the moderate reservation in the interest of "freedom for all."

This message was expounded upon by other speakers, including Clint Blythe's old Vice-President and the 1998 Democratic Party nominate Bob Warren, freshman Senator Ulysses Grant Watson, House Minority Whip Nicole Avery, and the Democratic VP nominee, Clark Dugan.

Nonetheless, it was the acceptance speech of Governor Alyssa Potter that stole the show.  After reminding the delegates of her late husband's quest for the nomination in 1986, she announced that she was dedicating the rest of this campaign to Ben Potter's memory.  Not an unexpected move, naturally, but Potter managed to make the tribute genuinely touching...there probably wasn't a dry eye left on the convention floor when she stoically finished.

After that, she launched into detailing a "platform for change" and began with discussing education.  After a swift denouncement of Congressman Hal Frazier's dismissal of the teacher's unions and the tenure system, the former secretary of education called for a national lottery to finance building new schools and equipping students "with the materials necessary to succeed."

The line got a standing ovation, and to many political observors, it seemed as if Mr. Frazier had crossed the line with his abject dismissial of the current system at the GOP gathering in Chicago.

Potter also called for several left-wing planks meant to satisfy the base of the Democratic Party, particularly demanding amnesty for all illegal immigrants in the country, and heartily endorsing the "inalienable human right of all Americans to pursue happiness regardless of sexual orientation."

Okay, so she didn't quite say it out loud, but it's pretty obvious that a President Alyssa Potter is going to be supportive of the gay community's plea for same-sex marriages.

As she went further on in her speech, she raised few eyebrows, defending the Democratic position on supporting the war on terrorism, calling for class-based and not race-based affirmative action as "the key to equality for all in the twenty-first century", and backing the so-called "Blythe plan" for universal health care that was defeated during President Blythe's first term of office.

Potter's speech, although delivered masterfully, seemed to veering too far to left after she got a standing ovation with her command "for every child who is sick to be cured, not a priviledge, but as a right.  For every mother who is having a child to have free pre-natal care, not as a priviledge, but as a right.  For every father to have his surgery paid for by the government, not as a priviledge, but as a right. It's time we stopped worrying only about the priviledged Americans, and started doing what is right!"

The Terwillinger wing of the party was quickly let down, however, when Potter started talking about taxes.  It's no secret that Vice-Presidential nominee Clark Dugan wants to keep the Hennigan tax cuts and make them permenant, but nobody expected Potter to come out in favor of a seventeen percent flat income tax with exemptions for "our poorest Americans."  

Even though she offered up evidence for why the rich skim by on their taxes and that in many cases a 17% tax would raise taxes on the rich, borrowing a plank from the 1994 Republican platform that President Blythe tore to shreds was a daring move.  

The intention, it seems, was to move the focus away from Potter's far-left record in her one term in the U.S. Senate, and on to an unabashedly conservative position in a bid to move the Democrats into the middle of the American center.

What's more, it just might have worked...we're ten weeks from election day, and the polls show a dead heat, with the Potter/Dugan ticket of the Democrats at 43 percent, the Frazier/Bruno ticket of the Republicans at 41 percent, with the rest undecided.

Fasten your seatbelts, folks, it's gonna be a wild ride.

[George W. Hobbes]

Wisconsin Teachers Strike!
Milwaukee Gazette

Today, the Wisconsin Teachers Federation announced a statewide strike until the state school system promises to renew a contract providing for increased health benefits and increased pay.

District officials across the state balked at the prospect of a renewing the contract, which comes at a time when Wisconsin is facing its worst budget crisis in the last fifteen years.

This leaves Wisconsin Governor Vernon Shaw (D-WI) in a bind.  Governor Shaw, a rising star in Democratic circles, campaigned on a promise to be the "education governor" and "renew and reconstruct the Wisconsin school system" with the support of the state's teachers.

Unfortunately, he also promised to deliver a balanced budget...and its going to have to be one or the other.

Further bulletins will come as events warrant.

[George W. Hobbes]

Shaw Delivers Compromise, Crisis Averted
CNN

Good evening.

Tonight our top story comes from Madison, Wisconsin, where Democratic Governor Vernon Shaw has successfully managed to end the strike by the Wisconsin Teachers' Federation after the issue became a political football for both Congressman Hal Frazier and Governor Alyssa Potter.

Frazier, who seized on the strike as a raison d'etre for disempowering the teacher's unions and eliminating tenure, has spent the last week campaigning in Ohio, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Florida; continually pressing his "clarion call for better standards, better teachers, and better schools."

Governor Potter, who has the support of both the American Teacher's Federation and the Wisconsin Teacher's Federation, spent two days in Wisconsin, appearing side-by-side with striking teachers and meeting with Governor Shaw to encourage giving in to the union's demands.

Potter's involvement in the compromise announced today is said to be "moderate" by Shaw staffers, eager to insure that Shaw and only Shaw gets credit for "saving our students." 

The compromise involved hikes on car license fees, lottery tickets, and a decrease in spending on state personnel in the government in exchange for giving into about three-quarters of the amount of benefits and wages demanded by the federation. 

Current polling indicates that Wisconsinites are tepid about the price of compromise, but only forty-two percent of Wisconsin voters would support eliminating tenure and taking matters out of the hands of the union, compared to fifty-four percent who prefer the status quo.

Certainly, not a good sign for Hal Frazier.

Stay tuned to CNN.

[Bunnybrit]

A excellent story and idea, espically with the changing of the elction cycle to our worlds mid-terms dates.
Can we have some maps for the electionsfrom 1986,1990,1994,1998 and 2002.

[Hitchabrut]

Clint Blythe is pretty obvious.

[George W. Hobbes]

Thanks for all the appreciative comments, I hope to continue this through two Presidential debates, a VP debate, several current events, and the actual general election.  I'll see if I can get some polls up later tonight.

Also, I figured it wouldn't hurt to reveal the 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002 election maps.  So here goes:

1986
President Wilson R. Danforth (R-Texas)  376
Governor Micheal Duke (D-Rhode Island)  162



President Danforth, a popular conservative and former teleevangelist, campaigned on continual tax cuts, balancing the budget, closing the gap between "God and the government", and keeping "the forces of liberty strong."  His opponent, left-wing Governor Mike Duke of Rhode Island was pulverized for his opposition to a piece of national legislation requiring that all American schoolchildren recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  (The bill was later ruled as unconstitutional.)

1990
Governor Clint Blythe (D-LA) 335
Vice-President Bob Adams (R-PA) 203

 

Bob Adams first sought the Presidency as a liberal Republican in 1982.  After being defeated by the Rev. Will Danforth in the primaries, he shockingly accepted the reverend's offer of the Vice-Presidential nomination.  As Vice-President, Adams played a key role in the successful foreign policy of the Danforth Administration, but was widely seen across the heartland as being too much of a "wimp."

Coupled with economic woes that began around the time that Governor Clint Blythe's Memphis convention opened with a clarion call for "Putting Americans First!", lead to Adams' defeat at the polls.  Blythe's victory is largely credited with his surprising appeal to middle-class Deep South whites, since the ticket was composed of Democrats from Louisiana and Alabama, that allowed the Democrats to swing Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, and Kentucky.

1994
President Clint Blythe (D-LA)  437
Rep. Glenallen Tomtree (R-NM)  101



The Republicans put up House Minority Leader Glenallen Tomtree, a fire-eating Danforth conservative from the state of New Mexico.  Tomtree, a half-Hispanic, hoped to spread the GOP's message of "A Promise For Our Future" into the Latino community and carry the pivotal state of California.

Unfortunately the Republicans, President Blythe was personally popular, the economy was booming, and Blythe had won a successful war in Ekairan in 1991.  Combined, the President was simply unbeatable.

1998
Governor Roy Hennigan (R-FL)  296
Vice-President Bob Warren (D-AL)  242



After the embarassing loss of the South for the Republicans in the 1994 election, the GOP needed a candidate who could appeal to Christian conservatives as well as middle-class white voters enamored with Blythe.  They decided on Florida Governor Roy Hennigan, who had been re-elected in 1996 despite the Blythe victory in the state just two years earlier.

Hennigan was aided by allegations of record-fudging by the Blythe Administration, including a serious market fraud scandal that sparked the resignation of the President's top financial advisor, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the Under Secretary of Treasury.  When the Democrats nominated the kind-hearted, but terribly boring, Vice-President Bob Warren, the GOP managed to stick these charges to the gregarian Alabaman.

A mild recession also helped the Republicans, who promised tax relief and deregulation as the keys to an economic revival.  In the end, Hennigan carried the day with 296 electoral votes, winning back nearly the entire South except for Alabama, and scoring an upset in New Jersey, which had been heavily hit with job loss under President Blythe.

2002
President Roy Hennigan (R-FL)  500
Governor Markus Terwillinger (D-NH)  38


Governor Terwillinger really didn't have a chance, what with the popular war in Goyzostan and the Fourth of July attacks...but he did try rather hard.  He managed to cobble together 38 electoral votes, carrying New England, D.C., and New Mexico (thanks to the decision of former governor and former 1978 Democratic nomination hopeful Dennis Westerly to accept Terwillinger's offer of the Vice-Presidency.)

Despite mediocre domestic achievements, President Hennigan was re-elected to the White House.

[Ben Meyers]

Very interesting.

[Bunnybrit]

Thanks for all the appreciative comments, I hope to continue this through two Presidential debates, a VP debate, several current events, and the actual general election.  I'll see if I can get some polls up later tonight.

Very good, an America almost like the one we live in, but not quite. Do you have any idea, where the electoral cycle changed in this world? as well as going forward with this election it would be good to go back as well before 1986, for example who did President Danforth beat in 1982 to get elected, and who was in the White House before him.
You have hinted at the elections before 1982 with that
Dennis Westerly ran for the dem nomination in 1978.
Keep up the excellent work.

[M]

Ooh, I wonder if Crenator Dob Bole will make an appearance?

[George W. Hobbes]

MSNBC Right Now

Good evening, you're watching MSNBC.

Our top story this morning is the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former President Ralph Hobbes, who served in the White House from 1979 to 1983, before being defeated by the Reverend Wilson Danforth.  Although his administration has been judged with a rather critical eye by contemporary observors, Mr. Hobbes' recent actions leading the American response to the Asian tsunami disaster, and working with and without the United Nations to prevent conflicts in Ekairan, Liberia, and North Korea earned him the coveted award.

Many conservative commentators have gone so far as to accuse the former President of outright treason for attempting to buy weapons inspectors more time in the run up to the Second Persian Gulf War; but polling indicates that Mr. Hobbes' personal, and not political, approval rating remains rather high with the American people.

At his ceremony, the former President commented "This is just do much for a poor boy from Sandpoint, Idaho.  I have been given the opportunity to serve as a Marine, a governor of Idaho, a U.S. Senator, President of the United States, and now to receive this award...it's just too much.  I'm overwhelmed."

Meanwhile, the Frazier and Potter campaigns traded barbs today over, of all things, Taiwan.  Congressman Frazier said that his first action as President would be to issue an executive order allowing Taiwan the opportunity to hold a referendum for independence, and that he would look to unravel former President Blythe's decision to offer most favored nation trading status with the Chinese until they respect "proper human rights."

Governor Potter dismissed the idea, calling it "an idea more likely to raise tensions in the South China Sea, at a time when we need Chinese support to contain North Korea."

That's all for tonight, I'm Karl Rove, thank you for bringing
us into your homes.

[George W. Hobbes]

CNN/TIME Tracking Polls

National

Potter  44%
Frazier 42%
Undecided  14%

Selected States

Florida

Potter  39%
Frazier  44%
Undecided  17%

Pennsylvania

Potter  49%
Frazier 40%
Undecided  11%

California

Potter  41%
Frazier 41%
Undecided  18%

New Jersey

Potter  45%
Frazier 41%
Undecided 14%

Wisconsin

Potter 45%
Frazier 42%
Undecided  13%

Michigan

Potter 40%
Frazier 44%
Undecided  16%

Oregon

Potter 40%
Frazier 40%
Undecided 20%

Ohio

Potter 42%
Frazier 41%
Undecided 17%

New York

Potter 50%
Frazier 36%
Undecided 14%

North Carolina

Potter 32%
Frazier 53%
Undecided 15%

[George W. Hobbes]

CNN

Good evening,

Tonight's top story takes up to Detroit, Michigan where Vice-Presidential candidate Mike Bruno made headlines today by referring to Ekairanis that he battled with during his forty-eight hour trek with the famous "Lost Patrol" as "Mohammedan Jihadist ragheads."

Senator Bruno, the Republican junior senator from Missouri, made the comment during a question and answer session at a town hall in downtown Detroit.  The questioner repeatedly asked Bruno if he felt sorry for the Ekairani troops he killed, and went so far as to insinuate that Bruno was a "butcher of men."

The senator finally stared down the questioner had said, quote "If you saw what I saw, if you saw what those bastards did to my men, if you saw what they did to Shawn and Paul and the men who didn't come back, you'd see those soldiers as I did...damned Mohammedan Jihadist ragheads.  They had it coming." Endquote.

The American Muslim community is in an uproar with certain elements of the United States Arab Tolerance League demanding that Senator Bruno resign from the Republican ticket.

For his part, Senator Bruno commented that the slur was not intended at all Muslims in general, but the specific Ekairani troops that ambushed the "Lost Patrol" back in August of 1991.

[George W. Hobbes]

Frazier for President TV Ad: Better Schools

Images fade in and out of schoolchildren, young and old, taking standardized tests and bubbling in answers on Scantron sheets, boringly listening to lecturers, and teachers passing back papers with C's, D's and F's on them.

Female Voice Over: What's happened to our school system?  Aren't American kids supposed to be learning something besides how to beat the SAT?  Why isn't my child receiving instruction from a teacher who even bothers to teach?  My son's math teacher gives each class an hour of time to "do their homework"...but nobody even bothers.  Why isn't somebody doing something to give us better schools?

Image of President Roy Hennigan signing the No Child Left Behind Act at a Rose Garden press event.

Male Voice Over: President Hennigan signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 in order to hold teachers accountable.  Unfortunately, thanks to the strength of the teacher's unions...it hasn't made much of a dent.  Teachers in America get paid on how long they've taught, and once they have tenure bad teachers cannot be fired for anything short of a felony.

Positive images Congressman Hal Frazier reading to schoolchildren, helping children with their work, and even teaching fade in and out.

Male Voice Over: Republican Hal Frazier wants to eliminate tenure in all American public schools and institute merit pay, so that teachers are paid according to how well they teach.  It's common sense...and that's something America's school system really needs.

Image of Hal Frazier out on a playground with elementary school kids.

Hal Frazier: I'm Hal Frazier, and I approved this message.

[George W. Hobbes]

Potter for President Ad: "American Values"

Image of Governor Alyssa Potter addressing the jubilent 2006 Democratic convention.

GOV. ALYSSA POTTER: We commit this election to the restoration of American values, of restoring the Constitution and our freedoms..for a President who respects the First Amendment to the Constitution as assuredly as he might respect the Second!

Image of President Roy Hennigan at an unflattering moment of an Oval Office address.

FEMALE VOICE OVER: President Roy Hennigan has called for a constitutional amendment to discriminate and close freedoms to Americans of different sexual orientation. And Hal Frazier agrees.

Negative image of Hal Frazier

FEMALE VOICE OVER: And Hal Frazier doesn't just want to take away the reproductive rights of women protected by the Constitution, he also wants to ban the death penalty for murderers...even those who kill a child.

Image of Hal Frazier speaking at a PTSA meeting.

FEMALE VOICE OVER: If Hal Frazier doesn't respect the Constitution, doesn't respect liberty, and won't allow the death penalty for child murderers...how can we expect him to teach our children American values?

Image of Alyssa Potter in her office in Harrisburg.

ALYSSA POTTER: I'm Alyssa Potter, and I approved this message.

[Polkergeist]

This is the best ATL on this board because of the depth of work that you put into your original fictional characters and storyline. Also you put the OTL political divide on its head which I'm also a fan of.

Great work !

[George W. Hobbes]

Thanks Polk...hope you enjoy the rest of the scenario.

[George W. Hobbes]

Adonis Amendment Gains Traction

After Congressman Hal Frazier wholeheartedly endorsed the so-called "Adonis Amendment"; so named because it would allow non-native Americans (such as the Polish born Governor Adonis Katzenbaum of California) to seek the White House, the proposed constitutional amendment has been picking up major league sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

On the GOP side, President Hennigan has tentatively come out in support of the change, as has former House Minority Leader and 1994 Republican nominee Glenallen Tomtree; while the Democratic House Minority Whip Nicole Avery has endorsed the amendment, despite Governor Alyssa Potter's steadfast opposition to it. 

And we can't forget the hordes of congressman, Democrats and Republicans, from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California who are seeking to please Hispanic voters in their home districts.

A vote on the House version of the Adonis Amendment may be postponed, however, since GOP heavy-hitters are trying to place in the modifaction proposed by Hal Frazier, stipulating that any American over 18 can run for any political office.  It's unknown if any Democrats will commit to this version, but insiders on the Hill are saying that talks are in earnest over this version.

Even if the amendment isn't brought up to a vote, polling indicates that Frazier's support for the two-tiered amendment has helped him greatly among two constituencies that typically lean Democratic, Latino voters and voters between 18-24.  Frazier has gained five points among Hispanics and eight among younger voters over Roy Hennigan's 1998 bid.

[George W. Hobbes]

First Presidential Debate

JIM LEHRER: Good evening, and welcome to tonight's Presidential debate, the first of three agreed upon by the candidates.  Tonight we are at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.  Before I introduce the candidates, I'd like to go over the rules of the debate.  Each candidate will be allowed ninety seconds to answer the question, followed by a sixty second rebuttal.  If it is deemed necessary by me, an addition thirty seconds will be given to each candidate for final statements on the topic.  Each candidate will also be giving a two minute closing statement, and there are no opening statements.

The audience will remain completely silent throughout the debate, except for right now when we welcome Congressman Hal Frazier of California and Governor Alyssa Potter of Pennsylvania.  

[crowd cheers, Frazier and Potter enter, shake hands and return to their lecterns.]

Now, this debate is focused on foreign policy and homeland security, and I believe my first question is one that is on the minds of millions of Americans.  I'll direct it to Congressman Frazier, who won the coin toss and gets to speak first.

Congressman, will America ever feel as safe as she did on July 3rd, 2001?

HAL FRAZIER: First off, I'd like to thank GW for hosting this debate, and all of you for attending tonight.  To answer your question Jim, yes, we will feel safe again.  

But that's only going to come after we vigilantly pursure terrorism and all threats to our national security to the fullest extent.  Roy Hennigan understood that we could not allow our security to be bound by the forces of the United Nations, an international body that has allowed a nation like Syria...whose support for the Islamist terror group Hezbollah has made it a pariah across the Middle East...as chairman of its human rights commission.  

The UN of 1946 was a dream of getting the world together to fight aggression and preserve the freedoms that men like Hitler and Mussolini swiped from millions.  The UN of 2006 is an appeasing force that would rather have waited for Umar bin Zarka to torture more citizens, pursue his nuclear ambitions and bio/chem restockpiling, and threaten Israel.  

If the UN gets in the way of fighting the war on terror, we'll have to go without the UN, period.  Nothing is more important to me than saving American lives, and I won't kowtow to dictators.

LEHRER: Governor Potter, you have ninety seconds.

ALYSSA POTTER: Thank you Jim.  I too would like to thank GW for hosting this event, and I thank all of the Americans who are home watching and participating in this great democracy of ours.

Yes, Jim, we will be safe again.  Under my administration, we're going to catch Mahmoud al-Moudi, for one, and then we're going to work with the international community and repair the broken relationships that President Hennigan caused by going to war in Ekairan.  

We're also not going to discount the UN.  I believe that the United Nations can be a supreme force for good in this world, and that it can be used to effectively fight the war on terrorism.  Yelling at the UN and saying "Clean yourself up or we'll leave" isn't going to solve the very real problems we have with that body.  It's going to take reconciliation, it's going to take reaching across the chasm and saying "I'm willing to work with you."

The Republicans aren't offering that.  Hal Frazier just discounted the most important international body for securing peace.  This isn't an audition to be the next James T. Kirk or archtypical gunslinger, this is an audition for who we want to be President of the United States.  We need a leader who will build coalitions to preserve our safety, fight for our security, and win the war on terror.

LEHRER: Congressman?

FRAZIER: What the governor isn't telling you is that the United Nations couldn't exist with the support of the United States of America.  The only reason the UN is around still, despite failing to solve the Kashmiri crisis, the Palestinean crisis, and other mattered bequeathed to them half a century ago; is because America still holds a UN membership card.

So of course they'll listen to me, when as President I demand that the United Nations return to its goal of preserving the international security.  I'm not going to deal with an organization that lets nations that sponsor terrorism have leadership roles.  Period.

And that's just what the UN is.  

In the General Assembly, the dictatorships outvote the democracies.  We cannot preserve our democratic heritage and fight dictatorships that support terror when the UN is practically encouraging more Umar bin Zarkas and Mahmoud al-Moudis.

LEHRER: Governor Potter?

POTTER: Congressman Frazier would rather throw the baby out with the bathwater.  You can't point to the faults of the United Nations and say the organization is not a force for good.  I could point our moral flaws in Hal's character, no doubt, but that wouldn't mean he hasn't done good in the past and could possibly do good in the future.

Winning the war on terror and making America safe again will require working with alliances and other nations and other organizations.  And that means working with the UN too.  As President, I'm going to build a coalition to fight terror just like Clint Blythe did to fight the first war in Ekairan, just as FDR did to fight to World War Two, and I'll do it through all avalaible means.  

There's safety in numbers, and when the world unites against terrorism...terrorism will run.

[George W. Hobbes]

LEHRER: Thank you, that concludes our time for that question, which leads me to the next one, one that I received thousands of e-mails asking and one that's certainly an important one that America will face.  China is growing economically at rates that are, simply, unprecedented, it is garnering a larger military, it has rattled sabers at Taiwan, and also is a veto member of the Security Council.  What should America do about China's emerging superpower status?  Governor Potter?

POTTER: The People's Republic of China is a valued friend and a valued ally of the United States.  Ever since President Adaire opened relations with China and Presidents Hobbes moved America into closer trading ties with the Chinese, we have benefited both politically and diplomatically from China. 

Yes, China does have some problems with human rights abuses, but as President Blythe also believed, I am surpremely confident that the open flow of goods and ideas into China that come with free trade will lead to democratization better than simply shutting them off as my opponent seems to desire.

Hal Frazier wants to recognize Taiwan's right to independence.  That's financial suicide for many manufacturing corporations, that will severely damage our relations with China, an ally in the war on terror, and will also handicap our ability to get along with the rest of the world. 

I want to support China, work with them, and protect American business from bankruptcy.  What's Hal stand for?  Depression, devolution, and disaster, perhaps?

LEHRER: Congressman Frazier?

FRAZIER: Let's cut to the chase here, shall we? 

China has more than a "human rights problem."  A "human rights problem" is when a few voters are disenfranchised and the government uses the death penalty on minors.  China is more of a "human rights catastrophe."

You cannot be a Christian in China, or a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Buddhist.  Crackdowns on Christian groups have lead to imprisonments and deaths...all sanctioned by the Red Chinese government.

And let's not forget about democracy either...remember Tianamen Square?  I sure do.  Conservative estimates say the government slaughtered two thousand peaceful protesters who wanted democracy. 

That was 1989, sixteen years after President Adaire opened relations, nine years after President Hobbes pushed for closer trade.  So what did we do?  President Clint Blythe gave China most-favored nation trading status.  Has any of this helped end humanitarian violations or form democracy. 

The answer is simple: No. 

LEHRER: Governor, you have sixty seconds for rebuttal?

POTTER: The United States has a history of doing business with nations that aren't perfect Congressman.  Saudi Arabia is one of the most iron-fisted dictatorships in the world, and yet the Republican Party and its friends in the oil industry don't hesitate to support the Saudis at every twist and turn.  Forget the rhetoric and look at the facts.

Fact: Millions, even billions, of dollars will go to waste if China decides to end trade with America because of your support for Taiwan. 

Fact: Such a trade shutdown will cripple the American economy, throwing Americans out of work.

Fact: China is an ally in the war on terror and you want to antagonize them.  Is division from our allies going to keep us safe from Mahmoud al-Moudi?

LEHRER: Congressman?

FRAZIER: How exactly is China an "ally" in the war on terror?  They voted in favor of the war in Goyzostan and voted in favor of peacekeepers in post-war Ekairan.  Hurrah.

Next, Chinese violation of human rights is something we cannot ignore.  I, for one, don't want to see the Twenty-First Century dominated by an insurgent Chinese empire that has no respect for democracy or basic human rights.  I want American freedom and American liberty to guide the Twenty-First Century, and unless we stand up to the Chinese now, they'll be writing the future history books in Mandarin.

Lastly, it has always been America's responsibility to protect democratic states in danger.  We did it in Greece and Turkey in the 1940's, we did it in Korea in the 1950's, we did it in Ekairan in 1991 and 2004. 

But we did fail to protect Hong Kong from being absorbed by the Chinese, and they've seen fit to dismantle the democratic assembly of Hong Kong that they promised to protect.  I'm not letting the democratic island of Taiwan fall to the Chinese dragon, period.

LEHRER: Thank you Congressman.  We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors.