"I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.": A President Forever Dynasty

[Cap Ologist]

Those words haunt the man. We've all had those moments where we lose our train of thought, fortunately they're not being broadcast live. I arrived in Austin, Texas with a formidable chore. I was going to pitch the idea of running for President again to outgoing Governor Rick Perry.

I was told by his chief of staff that I would only have 15 minutes to pitch my idea, and that Mr. Perry was extremely reluctant to consider another run. My plan was simple:

1. Emphasize debate prep and issue knowledge early on at the expense of barnstorming/rallies.

2. Raise funds for a massive war chest capable of saturating the airwaves with our ads promoting our theme.

3. Invest in a grassroots organization in South Carolina, Florida and Nevada, three states with winner take all primaries.

4. Stay more centric, Mr. Perry's last campaign had swung too the far right in an attempt to stop the bleeding, costing him the moderates and undecideds.

5. I was going to ask him the question, "Do you want that horrible moment in the debate be the moment that history remembers you for?"

Mr. Perry sat quietly with his wife, Anita, the entire time I made my presentation. Eerily quiet. He thanked me for coming, and said he would be in touch. As I left, the chief of staff reminded me to not get my hopes up, that he would probably be calling me later that night with a 'no'.

I drove away, and waited for the call to come. It didn't come that night, or the next morning. Finally, late in the afternoon on October 15, 2015 I was summoned back to the Governor's Mansion. The decision was yes, and now it was up to me to lead not only a campaign for America, but a campaign for one man's redemption.



*Author's note: I've made a few edits to the default Perry character to give him a fighting chance. Despite his well publicized gaffes, he is quite the politician and had never lost an election before withdrawing from the 2012 race. Not sure if that would be counted as a loss or not in the grand scheme of things.

[Cap Ologist]

10/15/2015 - 11/15/2015

Our first debate was only three days away. Mr. Perry and I flew to Iowa to be in the state. We didn't schedule any events or fundraisers, we simply worked on issues and debate prep. I gave orders for us to begin operations in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

We finished a respectable 6th in our first debate. Florida senator Marco Rubio won the debate. On the other side of the aisle, Maryland governor Martin O'Malley won the democrat debate.

After successfully targeting our initial three states, we started work on increasing the organizational strength of Iowa and New Hampshire as well as recruiting one foot soldier in each state. Once that is in place, we turned our attention to building up South Carolina and Florida.

We held three fundraisers in California and raised over $1,400,000. In Texas, we raised another $350,000 and in Florida, another $250,000. We're averaging about $8,000 a day in unsolicited donations. Every day, we spend time working on our issue knowledge and debate prep, hopefully this will pay off in the next debate on November 9.

We also enlisted the help of Anita Perry who will be able to help with barnstorming as we get closer to the primaries. We also spend time networking with Americans for Tax Reform, their endorsement will be a huge get in Iowa, not to mention the $500,000 contribution as well. We also reach out to Florida governor, Rick Scott and try to persuade him we're a better option than Marco Rubio. In South Carolina, Nikki Haley seems to be warming up to our campaign on her own. We'll monitor that as we go along.

November 9 arrives and with it, the second Republican Primary Debate. We've spent a lot of time and energy on this aspect of the campaign. I'm fairly certain we should improve from our 6th place finish in the first one. And we do, the gods smile on us and we end up squeaking out a win. While the other candidates focused on attacking each other, we went with the positive route, boasting about our accomplishments as governor. America responded and we get our first positive step in this long race.

The Democrats have their second debate the following day, and Hillary Clinton and Schweitzer debate to a draw. First debate winner O'Malley finishes in third place.

At the end of the first month, we have over $9.3 million in our war chest. We'll have the endorsement of Florida governor Rick Scott locked up in the next day or so. We've managed to become the leader in the race for the Americans for Tax Reform endorsement and will have that locked up soon as well. We've made solid progress in building our organization in South Carolina and Florida as well as starting some work in Nevada. We also have 6 ads ready to run for Iowa and New Hampshire.

[Cap Ologist]

11/15/15 - 12/15/15

We lock down the endorsement of Florida governor Rick Scott. We'll save him for some barnstorming in the 2 weeks leading up to the Florida primary. We're still targeting Americans for Tax Reform, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and we begin working on securing the endorsement of the Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks which will each give us a $1 million donation if we win them.

Right now, we have held only two barnstorming events, one in Iowa and one in South Carolina. In Iowa, we're currently in 3rd place with 10.5% of the vote, in New Hampshire, we sit in 7th place at 5.9%. The goal for me is not necessarily to win, but to get in the 10% threshold so I can claim a couple of seats. If it looks like we can win, we'll make a late push, but I'm more focused on the winner take all races right now.

In South Carolina, we sit in 6th place with 9.7% of the vote and in Florida, we're in 4th place with 10.2%. We'll be starting work on our ads for these three states soon so we can have them ready when we begin holding rallies.

We're not in a bad position considering we haven't run any ads or made any real effort at holding events. Nationally, we're polling at 5%, not great by any means but will definitely go up, especially if we can pull out another debate win on December 10.

We host another fundraiser in California and gain $470,000, one in Texas that raised $390,000, New York raised $350,000 and another in Florida netting $525,000.

Schweitzer won the third Democrat Debate, O'Malley with 3rd, Clinton in 4th. We win the third debate, I really thought we might lose it due to the other candidates attacking us this time.

We begin courting the Tea Party Express and receive their endorsement and their check for $500,000 as well as targeting Minnesota.

South Carolina and Florida have maxed out organization and foot soldiers. We have ads ready in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. In Nevada, Minnesota and Colorado, they are under production. We have $13.75 million on hand as we enter into the final stretch before Iowa and New Hampshire.

Edited to add:
Iowa - 1st place, 23.7%
New Hampshire - 6th place, 9.8%
South Carolina - 1st place, 25.2%
Florida - 2nd place 17.1%

[Izulde]

Interesting to see your different approach to it, which is probably smarter than mine overall.

[Cap Ologist]

12/15/15 - 1/15/16

We quickly secure the endorsement of governors in upcoming primary states: Arizona, Michigan, Georgia

We launch our ad campaign in Iowa on 12/20/15. Right now, we're solidly in the lead for the state, and though a win isn't decisive, the publicity will be, plus it might force a few candidates to use their CPs to spin it.

We raise $700,000 on a fundraising trip that we'll use to pay for our ad campaign in New Hampshire that we launch on 12/28/15.

We get the unsolicited endorsements of Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter two days before the Iowa caucus, propelling us to extra CP. I use them to start targeting Super Tuesday states to give me a leg up after the first wave.

Mr. Perry had numerous requests to appear on various t.v. shows and had a great showing on all but one. Mrs. Perry spent the four days leading up to the Iowa caucuses barnstorming across the state. Mr. Perry currently has a 10 point lead for first and has +15 momentum there, so he flies ahead to New Hampshire for his first set of rallies. All we're really looking for in New Hampshire is to be above the 10% threshold so we get some delegates. We'll be heading south to cement our hold on South Carolina and then lead a late charge to surpass Christie in Florida. We have both governors on board ready to be used if needed for barnstorming.

We win Iowa and pick up 7 delegates, Rubio and Paul each pick up 4. On the Democrat side, Biden wins and picks up 23 delegates. The win propels us to the lead in Florida and surprisingly, Kansas, a state we've done nothing with so far.

O'Malley wins the third Democrat debate, while Biden finishes in second, holding on to some of the momentum of his caucus win. We win another debate, and I breathe deeply. The debates were a weakness for Mr. Perry in 2012 and we've spent lots of time and energy on shoring up that part of the campaign.

We're three days out to New Hampshire and are currently polling at 10% with +18 momentum. We fly Mrs. Perry in to help build some momentum in the state. Rubio wins New Hampshire, but all candidates pick up 2 seats. O'Malley wins for the Dems, but gets the same number of delegates as Biden.

After New Hampshire, we vault to the front in Texas, North Dakota, Oregon, New Mexico, Hawaii, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Delaware and Florida while maintaining first place in Kansas and South Carolina.

On 1/15/16, we have a war chest of $12.9 million. We are leading in the important states of South Carolina by 12 points and Florida by 2 points without stepping foot in the state to hold rallies or anything. I think we've been there a few times for fundraising.

Mrs. Perry and Governor Haley will be barnstorming South Carolina up until the primary to maintain our lead. Then Mr. Perry will head to Florida to hold rallies while Mrs. Perry and Florida governor Rick Scott will barnstorm for a final push to victory.

All in all, we're right where I hoped we'd be heading into South Carolina.

[Cap Ologist]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Interesting to see your different approach to it, which is probably smarter than mine overall.

Thanks, we'll see how it works out in the long run. I'm hoping if we can win S.C. and Florida, the momentum will push us out in front in Nevada, Minnesota, Colorado and start the tidal wave.