President Forever results thread...

[It's morning again in America]

Using the "New Frontiers - 1960", "Goldwater vs LBJ - II - 1964" and "1968mm" scenarios available on 80soft.com I just played the three U.S. presidential elections of the 1960ies. I always took the role of the Democratic candidate.




1960: Kennedy smashes Nixon.



John F. Kennedy
Popular Vote: 53%
Electoral Vote: 302

Richard Nixon
Popular Vote: 43%
Electoral Vote: 227

Harry Byrd
Popular Vote: 1%
Electoral Vote: 8



1964: Johnson wins... but with a rather "weak" electoral result (I mean, for Johnson).



Lyndon B. Johnson
Popular Vote: 53%
Electoral Vote: 359

Barry Goldwater
Popular Vote: 45%
Electoral Vote: 179




1968: In a rather dirty race for the presidency, both Humphrey and Nixon suffered some major scandals, leading to a suprisingly good result for Wallace and no majority in the Electoral College (Congress picked Hubert Humphrey in the end).



Hubert Humphrey
Popular Vote: 43%
Electoral Vote: 250

Richard Nixon
Popular Vote: 38%
Electoral Vote: 207

George Wallace
Popular Vote: 16%
Electoral Vote: 82

[It's morning again in America]

I´m through with the 70ies.




1972: McGovern loses D.C., but wins Mississippi and some other conservative states.



Richard Nixon
Popular Vote: 49%
Electoral Vote: 309

George McGovern
Popular Vote: 48%
Electoral Vote: 229




1976 with a rather 2000ish result (see Popular & Electoral Vote):



Gerald Ford
Popular Vote: 48%
Electoral Vote: 271

James Carter
Popular Vote: 49%
Electoral Vote: 267

[It's morning again in America]

And now the 80ies...




1980: Carter wins a second term by capturing the South and narrowly winning Reagan´s homestate (California results: Carter 42.9%, Reagan 42.8%, Anderson 7.4%, Clark 6.9%).



James Carter
Popular Vote: 47%
Electoral Vote: 297

Ronald Reagan
Popular Vote: 45%
Electoral Vote: 241

John Anderson
Popular Vote: 5%
Electoral Vote: 0




1984: Mondale gets humiliated by Reagan... but at least not so bad than in real history.



Ronald Reagan
Popular Vote: 53%
Electoral Vote: 405

Walter Mondale
Popular Vote: 44%
Electoral Vote: 133




1988: Dukakis defeats Bush.



Michael Dukakis
Popular Vote: 52%
Electoral Vote: 276

George H.W. Bush
Popular Vote: 46%
Electoral Vote: 262




I think I´ll take a break now...

[It's morning again in America]

After a President Forever marathon I´m finally through with all elections from 1960 to 2004.




1992: Bascially the same problem I had in 1968. Both major candidates leaked so many scandals that the third party candidate scores big, leading to no electoral majority. Elections was decided by Congress (in favor of Clinton).



William Clinton
Popular Vote: 41%
Electoral Vote: 256

George H.W. Bush
Popular Vote: 37%
Electoral Vote: 252

Ross Perot
Popular Vote: 19%
Electoral Vote: 30




1996: Clinton landslide.



Bill Clinton
Popular Vote: 51%
Electoral Vote: 393

Robert Dole
Popular Vote: 38%
Electoral Vote: 145

Ross Perot
Popular Vote: 8%
Electoral Vote: 0




2000: Gore landslide.



Albert Gore
Popular Vote: 54%
Electoral Vote: 396

George W. Bush
Popular Vote: 44%
Electoral Vote: 142




2004: Kerry landslide.



John Kerry
Popular Vote: 52%
Electoral Vote: 408

George W. Bush
Popular Vote: 41%
Electoral Vote: 130

Ralph Nader
Popular Vote: 4%
Electoral Vote: 0

[It's morning again in America]

Am I such a brilliant player or is the 1972 scenario just so easy to win?



George McGovern
Popular Vote: 52%
Electoral Vote: 323

Richard Nixon
Popular Vote: 46%
Electoral Vote: 215

[It's morning again in America]

The 1972 game has a huge flaw, they confused DC with Washington state, so McGovern basically gets an extra 6 EV's.

I noticed this too. It isn´t such a problem when you´re playing with McGovern and both states/districts are yours in the end.

Of course, your EV number is messed up when you lose D.C., er, I mean Washington.

[It's morning again in America]

Kucinich/Dean vs. Bush/Cheney



Kucinich
Popular Vote: 50%
Electoral Vote: 371

Bush
Popular Vote: 43%
Electoral Vote: 167

[It's morning again in America]

YAY!

1976: Carter landslide. Ford got hit by two scandals a week before the election (one of them had a power of 10 or 11, if I recall correctly) and I spun them as long as I could.



Carter
Popular Vote: 56%
Electoral Vote: 434

Ford
Popular Vote: 38%
Electoral Vote: 104

McCarthy
Popular Vote: 3%
Electoral Vote: 0

[It's morning again in America]

And I still need to find a way to win the 1984 election as Mondale. At least I came close this time...



Reagan
Popular Vote: 51%
Electoral Vote: 294

Mondale
Popular Vote: 47%
Electoral Vote: 244

[It's morning again in America]

And I still need to find a way to win the 1984 election as Mondale. At least I came close this time...

Here's what my strategy was to win as Mondale:

1. Fix your horrible platform.  Change absolutely everything to "centrist".  You have such a tiny base that it hardly impacts anything to do so.

2. Immediately start researching a scandal on Reagan on whatever the people care most about.  If you're successful with a reasonable amount of time left in the campaign, do it again on another topic.  You must have at least one power 9 scandal against Reagan by the last week of the campaign.

3. Immediately start making ad after ad, deleting your weakest ads when you've accumulated four, until you have four ads of at least power 5.

4. Put as much effort as you can into getting endorsements from places that give you issue momentum.  Don't let a single one of them endorse Reagan.

5. Once all of this is done, spend the entire time giving policy speeches and barnstorming while keeping your issue knowledge/debating skills level.  Don't bother trying to win the debate against Reagan; just spin it down when he wins.  Put as much spin as you can spare on any and every news event that comes up that has a power level of 3 or more.

6. Two weeks before the election, leak your lower-power scandal if you have one and spin it with a 100% success rate for all it's worth until a week before the election or until it dies.  Stop whatever you're doing and just focus on spinning the scandal.

7. One week before the election, leak your power 9 scandal and spin, spin, spin, spin with a 100% success rate.  Again, stop whatever you're doing and just focus on spinning the power 9 scandal.  It's extremely important that the scandal stay with a high power and at the top of the headlines for the entire remaining duration of the campaign.

8. Three days before the election, set up your four ads to run in all 50 states.

9. Pray to God for mercy on election night.

Okay, thanks. Perhaps I will try it... as soon as I have the time for it.

[It's morning again in America]

Quiz: What election and what kind of scenario is this supposed to be?
Hint: A rather exotic one.

[It's morning again in America]

I actually succeeded in winning a electoral majority in 1992.




Clinton
Popular Vote: 42%
Electoral Vote: 286

Bush
Popular Vote: 37%
Electoral Vote: 237

Perot
Popular Vote: 19%
Electoral Vote: 15

[It's morning again in America]

Dukakis: 60%, 522 EVs
Bush: 37%: 16 EVs

Wow, I´m impressed.



Finally, I have succeeded in building up enough Mondale-mentum to win the 1984 election.



Walter Mondale
Popular Vote: 49%
Electoral Vote: 288

Ronald Reagan
Popular Vote: 49%
Electoral Vote: 250

[It's morning again in America]

No, this has nothing to do with Perot... this was the "The Driver - 2012" scenario, played in the standard configuration with Whitman.





Christine Whitman / Lincoln Chafee (Progressive)
Popular Vote: 36%
Electoral Vote: 311

Lindsey Graham / Bob Taft (Republican)
Popular Vote: 33%
Electoral Vote: 174

Barack Obama / John Edwards (Democratic)
Popular Vote: 26%
Electoral Vote: 53

Bob Jones / Tamara Millay (Independent)
Popular Vote: 3%
Electoral Vote: 0

[It's morning again in America]

I just wanted to post an odd map... this is the "Liberal States of America - 2008" scenario, played with Dean. And don´t ask me why Indiana is part of the Liberal States.

Colours:
Red - Dean
Green - Nader
Light Blue (California) - Kerry
Dark Blue - Blue, eh, I mean, Red States ("Conservative States of America")





Howard Dean (Socialist)
Popular Vote: 33%
Electoral Vote: 128

Ralph Nader (Green)
Popular Vote: 26%
Electoral Vote: 107

John Kerry (Democratic)
Popular Vote: 23%
Electoral Vote: 55

Arnold Schwarzenegger (Republican)
Popular Vote: 17%
Electoral Vote: 0

Election was tied, Congress chose John Kerry (and this is now called "democracy"...).

[It's morning again in America]

1912, played with Roosevelt:





Roosevelt
Popular Vote: 30%
Electoral Vote: 280

Wilson
Popular Vote: 29%
Electoral Vote: 223

Taft
Popular Vote: 22%
Electoral Vote: 28

Debs
Popular Vote: 16%
Electoral Vote: 0

[It's morning again in America]

Kucinich/Dean vs. Bush/Cheney again:





Kucinich
PV: 53%
EV: 397

Bush
PV: 41%
EV: 141

[It's morning again in America]

My new personal record with the 1976 scenario:





Carter
Popular Vote: 55%
Electoral Vote: 462

Ford
Popular Vote: 41%
Electoral Vote: 76

[It's morning again in America]

1980 election:





Carter
Popular Vote: 53%
Electoral Vote: 444

Reagan
Popular Vote: 40%
Electoral Vote: 94

Anderson
Popular Vote: 4%
Electoral Vote: 0

Clark
Popular Vote: 1%
Electoral Vote: 0

[It's morning again in America]

And now 1992:





Clinton
Popular Vote: 49%
Electoral Vote: 486

Bush
Popular Vote: 36%
Electoral Vote: 52

Perot
Popular Vote: 12%
Electoral Vote: 0

[It's morning again in America]

Here we have a rather, uh, colorful result. I played the "Rising Stars - 2020" scenario with Gonzalez (Green).





Red = Democratic
Dark Blue = Republican
Light Blue = Libertarian
Green = Well, Green


Michael Badnarik / Diana Devot (Libertarian)
Popular Vote: 25%
Electoral Vote: 224

Matt Gonzalez / John Eder (Green)
Popular Vote: 25%
Electoral Vote: 199

Stephanie Herseth / Harold Ford, Jr. (Democratic)
Popular Vote: 24%
Electoral Vote: 88

George P. Bush / Adam Putnam (Republican)
Popular Vote: 24%
Electoral Vote: 27


The election was tied and decided by Congress in favor of Gonzalez.

[It's morning again in America]

1992 without Perot:





Clinton
Popular Vote: 61%
Electoral Vote: 503

Bush
Popular Vote: 36%
Electoral Vote: 35

[It's morning again in America]

Alternate 1992: Pat Buchanan vs. Paul Tsongas (me) vs. Ross Perot





Tsongas (D)
PV: 41%
EV: 300

Perot (I)
PV: 31%
EV: 238

Buchanan (R)
PV: 25%
EV: 0

[It's morning again in America]

Jesus Christ, I think this is a) the most unrealistic result I´ve ever had and b) the best result I´ve ever had running as a third party candidate.





Ross Perot (Independent)
Popular Vote: 51%
Electoral Vote: 449

William Clinton (Democratic)
Popular Vote: 27%
Electoral Vote: 80

George H.W. Bush (Republican)
Popular Vote: 18%
Electoral Vote: 9

Andre Marrou (Libertarian)
Popular Vote: 2%
Electoral Vote: 0


What happened: Well, in short, both Clinton and Bush were each hit by two major scandals in the week before the election and I spun them as long as I could. As a result, the news in the last seven days basically consisted only of those scandals. In addition, a few days before the election I started to run three very successful attack adds (two against Bush, one against Clinton).

Throughout the entire campaign Perot wasn´t in the lead in a single state, but in the last poll released before the election Perot suddenly took the lead almost everywhere.

[It's morning again in America]

When you´ve learned to win ANY election with a landslide, this game becomes quite boring.


I played the 1912 election with Debs:

Debs
Popular Vote: 50%
Electoral Vote: 478

Roosevelt
Popular Vote: 17%
Electoral Vote: 29

Wilson
Popular Vote: 17%
Electoral Vote: 21

Taft
Popular Vote. 14%
Electoral Vote: 3