A Series of Campaigns (President Forever 2K8 + Primaries)

[Izulde]

Time to get into a new type of game, that of politics. I finally pulled the trigger on President Forever 2K8 + Primaries, and picked up the other three games in the series (Canada, Germany, Australia) since they were each 50% off. In the demo game I played, I was steamrolling through the primaries as Mark Warner, but the governor of Virginia wasn't a great fit for a lot of my personal beliefs in game.

Enter General Wesley Clark, who was a great fit for me in-game, and as I recall, he was initially my favorite for President before it became a two horse race with Obama and Hilary, and I supported Hilary.

So here we are, the 2008 campaign, and I'm guiding Wesley Clark's campaign. We have $2 million in the bank and are a long shot to win the nomination. It's a full field in the primaries, with every available candidate's hat thrown into the ring, not only for the Democrats, but the Republicans, Libertarians, and the lone Constitution Party candidate as well.

The initial national polls:

Barack Obama: 9.7%
Hillary Clinton: 17.6%
John Edwards: 5.8%
Bill Richardson: 2.1%
Joe Biden: 2.2%
Chris Dodd: 1%
Dennis Kucinich: 0.5%
Al Gore: 6.5%
John Kerry: 4.6%
Wesley Clark: 2.9%
Tom Vilsack: 1.5%
Evan Bayh: 1.9%
Mark Warner: 7.4%

So as of the election season opening, it's Clinton with a sizeable lead, followed by Obama, Warner, Gore, Edwards, Kerry, and us. 7th out of 13 candidates, making us the midpack.

In general, the first turn strategy in Pres. Forever goes like this:

1. Pick the three issues that will be your main theme. Issue importance is color-coded in the following order from most to least: purple, red, orange and yellow.

2. Select a Crusader. In general, you should select the most powerful, although be aware of spending Political Influence Points (PIP) as you only have a limited number of them in the game, and I don't know if they can be replenished or not.

3. Pick one or two states to start building foot soldiers in.

4. Start producing an ad, probably a positive one. Your ad should have 4 or higher power when it's done. If it doesn't, then scrap it.

5. If state-level endorsers are available at the beginning, use Command Points (CPs) to try and sway them. Again, I would avoid using PIP to lock up an endorsement. You can also spend CPs to try and sway national endorsers.

Essentially, there seem to be two basic ways to go about trying to win the nomination:

1) Become the early hot candidate by racking up victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, etc. and building on momentum.

2) Go for the delegate rich states, which in 2008 means try to rack up big wins on Super Tuesday.

I used the first option to great success in my Warner run in the demo before the turn limit ran out. I'd won Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, but sacrificed Michigan because it only had 1 delegate because of the whole early 2008 punishment thing. Although I had the huge momentum on my side and the pendulum had swung from Clinton having a fair lead to my having a big lead, there was still a long way to go, particularly as I had no chance of winning Florida and didn't look in good shape in Arizona, either. OTOH, I had massive leads in California and Texas and was probably cruising my way to the nomination.

I'm going to try that first option again with Wesley Clark, focusing primarily on Iowa and New Hampshire to start out. Since this is my first full game, I'm also going to start off on the Easy level.



The opening map, with each candidate in their home state. Clark is #2 in Arkansas with 11.5% to Hillary's 16.8%. Obama, as you can see here, currently has the lead in Ohio. Warner's in red and currently leads Virginia. All that blue you see is Hillary-leaning.



One of the important things to do when deciding your Theme is to look at you candidate attributes. They're based on a 1-5 scale as near as I can tell, so Clark's Leadership of 4 is definitely something we want to highlight as one of our three issues.

The Electability score is pretty good, all things considered. Here's how they break down candidate-wise among the Dems:

Obama: 84
Clinton: 74
Edwards: 75
Richardson: 87
Biden: 76
Dodd: 82
Kuchinech: 17!
Gore: 94
Kerry: 83
Clark: 87
Visack: 88
Bayh: 87
Warner: 95

For the Republicans:

McCain: 78
Giuliani: 77
Fred Thompson: 65
Romney: 92
Gingrich: 69
Huckabee: 80
Brownback: 65
Paul: 35
Tancredo: 55
Hunter: 43
Frist: 55
George Allen: 53

And for the fun of it, the Libertarians and Constitution. Note: The Libertarian goal in this election is to win 10% of the vote nationally, the Constitution, 3%. Neither party has electoral vote ambitions, although I'd like to try a game where the Libertarians win a state or two.

Barr: 51
Ruwart: 23
Allyn Root: 29

Baldwin: 27

Heh. Poor Dennis K. Even less electable than the Constitution Party candidate. Of course, the fact that he starts off with $325,00 might have something to do with it.

Anyway, on to the theme:



Leadership, Integrity, and Experience are default issues, but as we saw in the candidate profile, Leadership is the only one we want with Clark. Note: You can either be positive and focus on your candidate's quality, or you can be negative and attack your opponent on an issue. This is true for Theme and Advertising, both. So for example, I could make one of the issues in my Theme be attack Obama on experience.

But I hate negative campaigns, so I won't do that.

Instead, we'll go with Leadership, Education, and Iraq. Incidentally, if elected, Clark would become the first General President since Eisenhower, as the game mentions. Kind of cool.

...Interesting. Michael Moore and Madonna are both listed as potential Crusaders for Wesley Clark. But they require valuable PIPs, and Gert Clark, the General's wife, has the same Base Power as Moore and Madonna and is 0 PIPs, so she's the choice for now.

Building a Crusader costs us 7 CPs, so we have 7 left, enough to build a Foot Soldier in one state (5 CPs) before going off on actions. Since our percentage in Iowa and New Hampshire are about the same, 0.9% and 1% respectively, we'll go with Iowa because it's double the delegates in addition to being the first primary.

We'll start producing an Ad based on Clark's Leadership.



You can also select what states will be part of your primary and when you get there, your general election strategy. For now, we'll pick the early states and those Clark is listed as having a Fair or better chance in, although the probability of winning a state obviously fluctuates.

That gives us an initial list of:

Iowa
New Hampshire
Nevada
South Carolina
Alabama*
Idaho*
Alaska*
North Dakota*
Kansas*
Louisiana
Nebraska
Montana (June)
South Dakota (June)

* = Super Tuesday State

Obviously we don't have enough big states in the Super Tuesday column and even if we won all these states, that only gives us 443 delegates of the 1919 needed to win the nomination. But it's a starting point.

Candidates can handle 3-5 events per week, depending on their stamina. Clark's is 4, so he can handle 4.

So we'll barnstorm two days in Iowa, take a rest day, barnstorm two days in New Hampshire, and rest two days.

Turn 1 Notes
-Clinton and Warner tied in Kentucky
-Dodd, Gore, and Kerry all gang up Clinton
-Successful Barnstorming twice in Iowa
-Barnstorming failed both times in New Hampshire
-New footsoldier in Iowa

I should note I'm not listing every single news story and event - only the most relevant ones. Dodd, Gore, and Kerry attacking Clinton are actually three separate stories.

We've got +3 Momentum in Iowa along with our Footsoldier and we're up to 1.3% Momentum is the big factor in this game, so we're improving there. Edwards has momentum though as well, and he's slightly ahead of Clinton, who along with Obama is losing momentum in the state.

3 Power Ad everywhere, so we scrap it and start producing a different one.

We also made $196k and change last turn, so at least we're not losing money. Let's build a foot soldier in New Hampshire and Nevada this turn. We're going to hit the Silver State because we're at 7.1% there, one of our stronger areas.

Barnstorming twice in South Carolina and in Nevada. We'll follow that pattern a lot, with the occasional speech. There'll be other things that come up, but we'll get to that.

Turn 2 Notes
-New endorsers available
-Kansas now tied Clinton/Warner
-Obama ahead in Indiana
-Kerry Stumbles on the O'Reilly Factor
-Romney wins Republican debate
-Successful Barnstorming twice in South Carolina
-Successful Barnstorming in Nevada once with Insight Gained to Healthcare Issue
-Successful Barnstorming for Crusader Gert Clark in New Hampshire.
-Clark is becoming out of touch with Issues.

Note: A successful barnstorming gives you +1 Momentum or more in that state, as well as some % of Undecideds swayed to your side. I'm noticing a lot smaller percentages being swayed with Clark than Warner had in the demo game.

Out of touch with issues means I have to spend time brushing up on Issue Knowledge.

Our percentage is gradually climbing in Iowa, now 2.4% with +6 Momentum, but we've dropped to 6.3% in Nevada. Bayh has +3 Momentum in the Silver State and Obama's running a 4 Power ad there and in South Carolina, where he also has +3 Momentum.

We'll build another foot soldier in Iowa and one in South Carolina. We really need to keep that pressure going in Iowa.

Oh yes, the Endorsers. Basically, all the governors are now available to endorse someone. +1 Momentum for a governor's endorsement. You can either spend CPs or PIPs or both to get it. I'm holding on to PIPs still, so after the two foot soldiers are built, we'll drop 2 CPs on Gov. Chet Culver of Iowa to try and influence him to our side.

Also worth noting: the Democratic-leaning governors will endorse Democratic candidates, the Republican-leaning ones Republican candidates.

Practice Issue Knowledge, Speech in Iowa on Health Care using the Insight we gained, Rest, Barnstorm in Iowa and Nevada. Another thing to observe - it seems you can only give one policy speech in each issue for each primary season, so it's something to keep an eye on.

And *BAM!* We have a Highly Successful Ad, with 5 Power everywhere! Finances are still tight, so we'll run in it Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina only. That's $178k and change per turn, within our budget.

Turn 3 Notes
-Alaska tie between Clinton/Warner
-Georgia tie between Clinton/Warner
-Kentucky tie between Clinton/Warner
-Missouri tie between Clinton/Warner
-Warner attack ad backfires
-Clinton campaign criticized as too negative
-McCain wins Republican Debate
-Issue Familiarity increased by 30.
-Successful Barnstorming thrice in Iowa (Speech, Crusader, Barnstorming)
-Democratic debates in 9 days

We leapfrog to 7.7% in Iowa, which sets up the following current scenario:

Obama - 7.7% -4 Momentum, 4 Power Ad
Clinton - 9.6% -1 Momentum, 3 Power Ad
Edwards - 7.8% 1 Power Ad
Richardson - 4.8% +1 Momentum, 5 Power Ad, 1 Foot Soldier
Biden - 2% 1 Power Ad
Dodd - 0.7% +1 Momentum 6 Power Ad
Kucinich - 0.4% +1 Momentum 1 Footsoldier
Gore - 2.9% +2 Momentum 2 Power Ad 1 Footsoldier
Kerry - 3.8% +1 Momentum 5 Power Ad 2 Footsoldiers
Clark - 7.7% +9 Momentum 4 Power Ad 2 Footsoldiers
Vilsack - 4.6% 2 Power Ad
Bayh - 1.1% 4 Power Ad
Warner - 9.5% +3 Momentum 4 Power Ad

What a few weeks ago (Each turn is a week) looked like a Clinton-Obama race for Iowa is now shaping up to be a real dogfight. Warner could take this or we could continue our surge and pass him up. Very exciting news!

We're also #2 in Nevada and gaining steam in South Carolina as well. New Hampshire currently looks like a lost cause.

Although a bunch of our target Super Tuesday states are now listed as Very Poor to win, we also now have a Fair chance in Arkansas and Tennessee for Super Tuesday states, and for later states, Mississippi, Wyoming, and Kentucky, so they're all added to the list for now.

South Carolina and Nevada will get new footsoldiers built in them. We should also be concentrating on some Super Tuesday states, but we'll worry about that once we establish ourselves in the early ones.

We have a 35/32 Influence edge on Clinton for Gov. Culver's endorsement, so we drop a couple more CPs in. First one to 100 gets the endorsement.

Because a Debate is coming soon, we'll Debate Prep twice and Barnstorm once each in South Carolina and Iowa.

Turn Four Notes
-Nevada now tied between Clinton/Clark/Obama
-Clinton Attack Ad backfires and Negative Campaign criticisms again
-Four successful Barnstorms in Iowa thanks mostly to Crusader Gert Clark
-Successful Barnstorm in South Carolina
-Warner now leads Georgia

Nevermind the three way tie notice. It's now a virtual dead heat between us and Hillary in Nevada (11.6% for us, 12.5% for her). We're also now leading Warner by 2% in Iowa - 11.3% to 9.3%, but it's still considered a tie because of all the Undecideds. It's even up to 3.9% in New Hampshire.

Needless to say, things are going very well right now. We're starting to become a hot early flavor, just as I wanted.

5 days left until a footsoldier expires in Iowa, so I order another one. I also add 104 delegate Georgia to our strategy list and decide to start hunting down Warner, who I see as our biggest threat with Hillary's campaign looking pretty bad early on. Footsoldier built and the Peach State gets to see our Leadership ad.

Since the Democratic debate is in two days, I have Wesley work on Issue Knowledge and Debate Prep before barnstorming twice in Georgia.

Turn 5 Notes
-Georgia now tied between Warner-Clinton-Gore
-Clark ahead in Nevada
-Oklahoma tied between Clinton-Warner
-Clark wins debate
-Warner releases attack ad on Clinton
-Edwards calls Clark an extremist
-Pop artists have concert for Clark
-One successful barnstorming in Georgia with Insight gained on Personal Tax issue.
-Democratic debate in 11 days

A perfect 10 in the debate, just beating out Obama's 9 rated performance.

We're up to 21.8% in Nevada, and our momentum is through the roof. Our efforts in Georgia didn't work out too hot, as we gained just 0.1%, going from 6.6 to 6.7%, but we've now given Warner trouble there and he'll have to focus resources if he wants to keep that state.

Iowa is still a dogfight between us and Warner, and we actually lost 2% of our vote, going down to 9.3%. Warner's at 10.3% right now, so it's all still in flux and may not be accurate because I turned Fog of War on in the beginning options. No fun in knowing for sure what's going to happen.

So let's cap this long, initial post with a national update:

Obama: 9.3% (-0.4%)
Clinton: 18.9% (+1.3%)
Edwards: 5.4% (-0.4%)
Richardson: 2% (-0.1%)
Biden: 2.2% (NC)
Dodd: 1% (NC)
Kucinich: 0.5% (NC)
Gore: 6.3% (-0.2%)
Kerry: 4.3% (-0.3%)
Clark: 3.3% (+0.4%)
Vilsack: 1.4% (-0.1%)
Bayh: 1.9% (NC)
Warner: 7.3% (-0.1%)

So everyone's all within the margin of error. Shocking to see Hilary actually improved nationally, however. She and Guiliani, whose 14.9% leads a packed Republican field behind Fred Thompson's 9.2% and John McCain's 8.6% keep pulling dead even in the "Who would you vote for in a head to head" poll, or so I'm guessing from the news headlines.

But as our slight increase shows, we're making moves in the right direction. Let's go, General Clark!

[Izulde]

We now have a Fair chance in New Hampshire, so another Footsoldier goes there, and we break a Footsoldier into Arkansas as well. Might as well try to get something going in the home state. Arkansas also gets added to the Ad. Speaking of ads, we're starting to run out on the max number of 5 turns for the Leadership Ad in some states so we're going to make up another ad, this one focusing on Education.

By the way, although we could be doing radio and newspaper, this is the Internet world. So we're all about the TV, since digital advertising isn't in this game.

51-47 Influence lead over Clinton for Iowa's governor. Another couple CPs there.

Issue Work, Barnstorm in Arkansas and twice in New Hampshire.

Turn 6 Notes
-Arkansas now tied Clinton/Clark
-Clinton leads Idaho
-New Hampshire tied Clinton/Warner
-West Virginia tied Clinton/Warner
-Warner leads Iowa
-Ron Paul Money Success (I'm assuming RP got $$$)
-Obama attacks Clark
-5 Successful Barnstormings in New Hampshire!
-2 Successful Nevada Barnstormings for Crusader
-A couple Footsoldiers expired

...Well shit. That's not good about Iowa. Nevada can be left alone for now - at 25.8%, UNLV's state is solidly in our corner. Footsoldiers for Iowa and New Hampshire, as we really need to get the early Mo in our favor. The usual 2 CP drops to Iowa's govnuh, whose endorsement we need more than ever to combat this Warner surge.

Double barnstorms for Iowa and South Carolina as we're going to have to really focus on these early states now.

Turn 7 Notes
-Alaska now tied Clinton-Clark-Warner
-Clark leads in Arkansas
-Clark leads in South Carolina
-Bayh attack ads Clark
-Clark wins debate
-Durbin slams Clark on experience
-Warner mixes with crowds in Iowa, criticizes Clinton
-Intuition bonus for Iraq despite failed barnstorm

I think there have been some shifts back and forth between undecided and Hillary as well, but since the game doesn't report them all and because the national map still has a lot of Clinton pale blue, I haven't been tracking them - just the distinctive color shifts.

Our leads in Arkansas and South Carolina are pretty slim, but they're there. Warner's 17.6% in Iowa is well ahead of the 6.8% we're posting and the 6.2% from Hillary and Bill Richardson.

I'm determined not to get a bad beat in Iowa and New Hampshire, though, and continue to produce foot soldiers in each state, as well as influence Governor Culver, who is now up to 71% in favor of us.

Terrible Education ad. 4 power in Florida, which has one delegate for breaking the rules, and in West Virginia, where we have nothing going. So time to start over.

South Dakota, Nebraska, Arkansas, and South Carolina all get barnstormings this turn. Hopefully spacing it out will give us better results than the 3 out of 4 failures last turn.

Turn 8 Notes
-Kentucky tied Clinton-Clark-Warner
-West Virginia tied Clinton-Warner
-Clark leads in South Dakota
-Bayh attack ads Clark
-Obama looks uncomfortable on Jay Leno
-Edwards makes gaffe on same-sex marriage
-Clinton mixes in Iowa, slams Clark
-Jeff Bingaman slams Clark in Iowa
-All barnstorms succeed except South Carolina

We're offered an appearance on David Letterman. Easy Criticism, High Profile, 87% chance of success? Yes please!

The home state of Arkansas is now solidly in our corner along with Nevada. The irony of my two graduate school states being the first to strongly back Clark is incredible. Now if the place where my third grad school dreams reside does it too, I'll start being mildly freaked out.

With all these people attacking us in Iowa, it's no wonder we can't get something going. Instead, we'll build foot soldiers in South Dakota and Nebraska to get things going there. 3 CPs instead of the usual 2 for the Iowa gov. We want that endorsement.

Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota get the Leadership ad. We need a new one for Iowa and New Hampshire, but the Education thing just isn't coming out right.

Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Georgia barnstorms.

Turn 9 Notes
-Idaho tie Clinton-Warner
-Ohio tie Obama-Clinton
-Clark leads in Montana
-Warner attack ads Clark
-Clark shines in Letterman appearance
-Georgia only barnstorm success.

Devastating blow for Obama to be now in a fight for his life in Ohio. He's been strong in Indiana and Ohio for quite a while now and to lose it at this juncture is going to hurt his campaign.

We're now running third in Iowa with 5.9%. I hate it but we may have to concede Iowa to Warner and concentrate on other states. Still going to try and get the governor's endorsement though so we can at least fight back up to second.

Foot soldiers for Iowa and Georgia, the latter of which lost its only one this past turn.

*Finally* an Education ad we can run in our key states. Between the remainder of the Leadership ad and the new Education Ad, we're running a little over $375,000 a week in advertising. It's not nearly as much as we need to do, and we don't have the resources to advertise in the big states, but it's the hand we've been dealt.

A couple days barnstorming Kentucky, one barnstorming Iowa and an Issue Awareness day.

Turn 10 Notes
-Indiana tie Obama-Clinton
-Obama leads Ohio
-Clark leads Nebraska
-Clark leads Kentucky
-Clark leads Georgia
-Warner leads Wyoming
-North Dakota tie Clinton-Clark
-Bayh and Warner attack ad Clark
-Richardson makes gaffe on issue familiarity
-Bayh endorsed by AFL-CIO
-Gingrich endorsed by NRA
-50% success barnstorming Kentucky
-Failed barnstorming Iowa

So to update:

Nevada - "This is Clark Country" - 32.6%
Montana - Clark edge - 17.2%, Warner 11.3%
South Dakota - Clark solid - 24.1%, Warner 10.3%
Nebraska - Clark solid - 22.1%, Warner 9.2%
Arkansas - "This is Clark Country" - 40.9%!
Kentucky - Clark ahead - 17.2%, Clinton 9.7%
Georgia - Clark ahead - 20.8%, Clinton 10.2%
South Carolina - Clark edge - 17.1%, Clinton 12.6%

Leading for 352 delegates

We're making some really great strides from where we started. The problem is, we're now 4th in Iowa in polling, behind Warner, Clinton and Richardson tie. And that's with Chet Culver's endorsement. The attacks have come hard and heavy in Iowa, leaving us at a standstill while all the other candidates are gaining momentum.

Our best shot might be New Hampshire now, where our momentum outstrips everyone else's by a fair bit.

My eyes are burning so it's time to take a break.



Light green is Obama. Dark green is Wesley Clark. Light blue is Hillary Clinton. Red is Mark Warner, who I'm really starting to hate because he keeps going after me.

Nationally, things now look like this:

Obama: 9% (-0.3%)
Clinton: 18.9% (Unch)
Edwards: 5% (-0.4%)
Richardson: 2.1% (+0.1%)
Biden: 2.2% (NC)
Dodd: 1.2% (+0.2%)
Kucinich: 0.5% (NC)
Gore: 5.9% (-0.4%)
Kerry: 4.3% (Unch)
Clark: 4.5% (+1.2%)
Vilsack: 1.3% (-0.1%)
Bayh: 2% (+0.1%)
Warner: 7.3% (Unch)

I suppose I should be happy we're the fastest rising candidate nationally and make our second straight set of gains, while guys like Obama and Gore continue to drop, but I can't shake the feeling it's all a house of cards.

In terms of national momentum, Clinton's first at +0.8%, followed by Dodd at +0.6% and us rounding out the half % positive momentums at +0.5%.

[Izulde]

After a decent night's sleep, I've decided to focus on New Hampshire. Iowa is a sinking money pit right now. Footsoldier in NH and the max 5 CPs on NH's Gov. Jon Lynch, although it might be too little, too late there.

Double barnstorm in Alabama as I'm going to see I can build a base in the South, barnstorm and policy speech on Personal Tax with insight in New Hampshire.

Turn 11 Notes
-Alaska tie Clinton-Warner
-Idaho tie Clinton-Warner
-South Carolina tie Clark-Clinton
-Wyoming tie Warner-Clinton
-Clark ahead in Kentucky
-Warner ahead in New Hampshire
-Warner attack ad backfires
-Edwards attack ads Clark
-Kerry makes gaffe on Same-Sex issue
-Clinton endorsed by League of Conservation Voters
-Ron Paul money success
-Alabama only barnstorm success

ARGH! Mark Warner, you are *really* pissing me off. We're running third in New Hampshire, too, behind Clinton. Kentucky in our column is nice - losing South Carolina is not. Max CPs on NH's governor as we're very close to Clinton right now in terms of that endorsement. Footsoldier built there as well.

Let's produce a Leadership newspaper ad for Clark as well.

Barnstop double in South Carolina, one each in North Carolina and New Hampshire.

Turn 12 Notes
-Indiana tie Clinton/Obama
-Ohio tie Clinton/Obama
-Tennessee tie Clinton/Warner
-Vilsack attack ad on Clark
-Clinton Scandal (3 Profile, 3 Power)
-Warner Rollin' On in New Hampshire
-Clark endorsed by Gov. Jon Lynch of NH
-Democratic debate tied

We're offered appearance on Oprah with the same stats as Letterman, so we take it.

11 days, which means a turn and a half, until Iowa. We've stupidly let all our footsoldiers there expire, so we build one there and and in New Hampshire.

Money has slowly been declining the last couple of turns, which is worrisome., but we need to make the splash. Oh yeah, I missed it, but Kucinich at least got the Teamsters endorsement. Probably the only thing he'll win this whole election cycle.

Double barnstorms for Iowa and New Hampshire

Turn 12 Notes
-Florida tie Clinton/Warner
-Obama leads Ohio
-Warner attack ads Clinton

4 days to Iowa, 9 to New Hampshire. We're running second in Iowa, 7.7% to Warner's 16.7%. Still third in New Hampshire - 6% behind Warner's 15.2% and Clinton's 9.2%.

Very good Newspaper ad, so we drop a ton of money into a print blitz in key states to see if that can give us more momentum as well.

Same thing with foot soldiers and barnstorming as last time. Let's make our Iowa push!!!!

Turn 13 Notes
-Warner wins in Iowa (45 delegates) Huckabee wins on R side (45 delegates)
-Alaska tie Clinton-Warner
-Idaho tie Clinton-Warner
-Michigan tie Clinton-Bayh
-Montana tie Clark-Clinton
-West Virginia tie Clinton-Warner
-Clinton hits Clark on campaign trail

2 days to New Hampshire, 9 to Michigan, 13 to Nevada.

Final Iowa results:
Warner - 21.5%
Bayh - 12.2%
Clark - 11.1%
Richardson - 8.2%
Obama - 8%
Edwards - 6.9%
Kuchinich - 6.3%
Clinton - 5.5%
Biden - 5.2%
Gore - 5.1%
Kerry - 3.9%
Dodd - 3.2%
Vilsack - 2.9%

..Damn. All that effort only to finish third. New Hampshire's not looking good either after that result, as we're running about fourth or fifth.

Two NH barnstorms, one in Texas and another one of the Southern states, I forget which just now.

Foot soldiers in South Carolina and Texas, as we need to start getting presence in a fat state like the Lonestar. It may be a case of too little, too late, however.

Turn 14 Notes
-Warner wins New Hampshire (22 Delegates) Paul wins New Hampshire (12 Delegates)
-Missouri tie Warner-Clinton
-Clinton leads Montana
-Clinton leads North Dakota
-Ohio tie Obama-Clinton

New Hampshire results:
Warner - 26.6%
Clinton - 12%
Clark - 9.5%
Gore - 8.4%
Kucinich - 7.3%
Obama - 6.9%
Richardson - 6.7%
Biden - 6.2%
Vilsack - 4.6%
Edwards - 3.8%
Kerry - 3.8%
Bayh - 2.8%
Dodd - 1.2%

Bayh's great showing in Iowa fizzles out in New Hampshire. We finish another solid third place. Warner's the hot pick right now, but our lock of Nevada is due up in 6 days and South Carolina is in 13 days. Michigan's in 2 days and we've got just 0.5% there, the worst of any candidate.

Foot soldiers for South Carolina and Texas, as I really need to get a couple delegate wins to seize the momentum from Warner.

Barnstorm in Michigan for the hell of it, Issue Knowledge, then a Policy Speech on Education using Insight in South Carolina and barnstorming in Nevada.

Turn 15 Notes
-Clinton wins Michigan (1 Delegate), Paul wins Michigan (30 Delegates)
-Clark Wins Nevada (25 Delegates) Romney wins Nevada (34 delegates)
-Paul wins South Carolina (24 Delegates)
-Clinton Scandal

6 days to South Carolina, 9 days to Florida. Debate tomorrow and in 11 days.

I decline the Hardball show appearance as there's only slightly good chance of success.

Michigan results:
Clinton - 15.3%
Bayh - 13.1%
Biden - 12.7%
Warner - 10.7%
Richardson - 9.6%
Obama - 8.7%
Kerry - 7.2%
Gore - 5.9%
Dodd - 5.5%
Edwards - 4.8%
Kuchinich - 3.2%
Vilsack - 2.9%
Clark - 0.5%

Our first last place finish, but considering we put zero effort into Michigan, I'm not surprised.

Now for the big one!

Nevada:
Clark - 31.6%
Clinton - 13.6%
Warner - 12%
Obama -10.1%
Biden - 7%
Richardson - 6.7%
Bayh - 6%
Gore - 5.2%
Edwards - 3.2%
Kerry - 2.4%
Dodd - 0.9%
Kuchinich - 0.6%
Vilsack - 0.5%

Current Delegate Totals
Warner: 67
Clark: 25
Clinton: 1

Current National Polling
Obama: 8.5% (-0.5%)
Clinton: 19.1% (+0.2%)
Edwards: 4.6% (-0.4%)
Richardson: 2.3% (+0.2%)
Biden: 2.6% (+0.4%)
Dodd: 1.4% (+0.2%)
Kucinich: 0.7% (+0.2%)
Gore: 5.2% (-0.7%)
Kerry: 3.9% (0.4%)
Clark: 5.7% (+1.2%)
Vilsack: 1.3% (NC)
Bayh: 2.4% (+0.4%)
Warner: 8.9% (+1.6%)

Huge gains for us and Warner. As it's looked like for some time, Warner has emerged as the main challenger to Clinton in the early going, although I wouldn't totally count Obama out. Right now, this race is still Hillary's to lose, although she's got a couple of challengers, one rising in Warner and one falling in Obama.

We're now the best of the second tier of candidates and in 4th place. Considering we started off 7th initially, that's pretty good. We're also fresh off our first primary win and have South Carolina coming up, where we have a Fair chance.

In terms of Super Tuesday, we have an Excellent chance at Arkansas and Georgia and a Fair chance at Alabama. We're also only trailing single digits in Arizona, so we should hit there, too.

[Izulde]

South Carolina and Alabama get foot soldiers as we're going to concentrate on creating a Southern stronghold, I think.

We'll barnstorm a couple days each in Florida and South Carolina.

Turn 16 Notes
-Warner wins South Carolina (Warner 24, Clark 21), Paul takes South Carolina
-Arizona tie Clinton/Warner
-Colorado tie Clinton/Warner
-Kansas tie Clinton/Warner
-Warner leads Missouri, Alaska, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
-Wisconsin tie Clinton/Warner
-Bayh attack ads Clinton
-A bunch of people attack Clinton
-5 Profile Clinton scandal

I misread when Florida went. Oops.

South Carolina results:
Warner: 20.3%
Clark: 20.2%
Obama: 14.1%
Clinton: 13.2%
Biden: 7.1%
Gore: 6.7%
Kuchinich: 4.4%
Dodd: 3.9%
Edwards: 3.8%
Richardson: 3.4%
Kerry: 1.8%
Bayh: 0.7%
Vilsack: 0.4%

Crushing, crushing blow to lose by just 0.1%. The difference may have only been 3 delegates, but in terms of momentum, it's damned decisive. He immediately took the lead in a lot of the South that we're trying to capture on Super Tuesday.

10 days to Super Tuesday. Hello advertising blitz. Alabama and Mississippi foot soldiers. Whole bunch of barnstorms.

Turn 17 Notes
-Kerry Withdraws From Race
-Vilsack Endorses Clinton, Withdraws
-Bayh Endorses Clinton, Withdraws
-Obama wins Florida (1 Delegate) Romney wins Florida (57 Delegates)
-Romney wins Maine (21 Delegates)
-Alabama tie Warner/Clark
-Alaska tie Warner/Obama/Clinton
-Idaho tie Clinton/Warner
-Illinois tie Obama/Clinton
-Minnesota tie Clinton/Warner
-Clark leads Mississippi
-Missouri tie Warner/Clinton
-Oklahoma tie Warner/Clinton
-Warner leads Tennessee
-Clinton 4 Profile Scandal

Florida Results:
Obama: 27.4%
Clinton: 25.4%
Warner: 20.8%
Edwards: 9.1%
Biden: 7%
Gore: 4.3%
Richardson: 2.4%
Kuchinich: 1.7%
Clark: 1%
Dodd: 0.9%

At least it's not last?

I'm stunned to see Bayh drop out so soon. No surprise on Vilsack and Kerry, though.

2 days to Super Tuesday. Foot soldiers for Texas and Louisiana.

Turn 18 Notes
-Biden endorses Clinton, withdraws
-Gore endorses Clinton, withdraws
-Clark wins Alabama (33 delegates, Warner: 27)
-Obama wins Alaska (8 delegates, Warner: 6, Clark: 4)
-Clark wins Arizona (25 delegates Warner: 24, Clinton: 18)
-Clark wins Arkansas (25 delegates, Warner: 11, Clinton: 11)
-Clinton wins California (191 delegates, Obama: 147, Warner:103)
-Warner wins Colorado (19 delegates, Obama:14, Clinton: 10)
-Clinton wins Connecticut (26 delegates, Obama:20, Warner: 15)
-Clinton wins Delaware (6 delegates, also 6 to Obama and Warner, Richardson 5)
-Clark wins Georgia (78 delegates, Clinton: 26)
-Obama wins Idaho (6 delegates, also 6 to Clinton and Richardson, 5 to Warner)
-Obama wins Illinois (98 delegates, Clinton: 44, Warner: 43)
-Warner wins Kansas (14 delegates, Obama and Clinton: 10, Clark: 6)
-Clinton wins Massachusetts (53 delegates, Obama: 40, Warner: 28)
-Warner wins Minnesota (49 delegates, Clinton: 39)
-Warner wins Missouri (49 delegates, Clinton: 39)
-Warner wins New Jersey (43 delegates, Clinton and Obama with 42 each)
-Clinton wins New Mexico (10 delegates, same as Richardson, 9 each for Obama and Warner)
-Warner wins New York (121 delegates, Clinton 93, Obama 66)
-Clinton wins North Dakota (7 delegates each for Clinton, Warner, Obama)
-Warner wins Oklahoma (26 delegates, Clinton: 21)
-Warner wins Tennessee (55 delegates, Clinton 30)
-Clinton wins Utah (Clinton, Obama, Warner 8, Edwards 5)
-Clark wins Louisiana (30 delegates, Warner 23, Clinton 15)
-Clark wins Nebraska (20 delegates,Warner 11)
-Clinton wins Washington (54 delegates, Warner 43)
-Clinton wins Maine (12 each for Clinton and Warner, 5 each for Clark and Obama)
-Indiana tied Clinton-Warner-Obama
-Obama attack ads Warner
-Obama scandal

Maryland, Virginia and D.C. in 2 days, Wisconsin in 9 days.

Here's the map after Super Tuesday:



The locked states are where primaries have already been held.

On the Republican side, Ron Paul won a shit ton of Super Tuesday states, including California, giving him a huge momentum boost:

Delegate Count - Democrats
Warner: 848 (Est. 1160)
Clinton: 772 (Est. 1306)
Obama: 487 (Est. 727)
Clark: 272 (Est. 617)
Richardson: 21 (Est. 21)
Edwards: 5 (Est. 5)
0s for everyone else

1919 delegates are needed to win the nomination, so essentially Warner succeeding better than we did at our own game translates into this is now a very tough four way fight in terms of delegate counts, with Clinton and Warner the clear favorites, Obama and Clark just behind.

Delegate Count - Republicans
Paul: 602 (Est. 602)
Romney: 348 (Est. 348)
Guiliani: 270 (Est. 704)
Frist: 103 (Est. 103)
Huckabee: 83 (Est. 83)
McCain: 53 (Est. 53)
A bunch of 0s
Allen: 0 (Est. 63)

1168 delegates are needed for the Republican nomination, which means Ron Paul is almost halfway there as of the early 2008 primary season. Good luck picking who wins this race.

National Polling Updates For Those Still In Race
Obama: 17.5% (+8%)
Clinton: 21.8% (+2.7%)
Edwards: 7% (+2.4%)
Richardson: 3.7% (+1.4%)
Dodd: 4.3% (+2.9%)
Kucinich: 1% (+0.3%)
Clark: 11.1% (+5.4%)
Warner: 20.7% (+11.8%)

So we're a clear fourth place in polling, too. The good news is, between this and the delegate count, we're still alive in this thing thanks to a satisfactory Super Tuesday to keep us in the hunt.

[DavidCorperial]

This is a pretty cool game and I promise you I'll keep reading this dynasty.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by DavidCorperial

This is a pretty cool game and I promise you I'll keep reading this dynasty.

Thanks. I may just turn this into a multiple-campaign dynasty; otherwise it'll be quite short.

So let's see here. How are we to get this thing turned our way?

Our focus will now shift to Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, and Wisconsin, the next states in the hopper. All of them get the advertising blitz of all three ads, but our best value for visiting and foot soldiers appear to be Maryland and Wisconsin, so we'll do that.

Turn 19 Notes
-Edwards withdraws
-Dodd endorses Clinton, withdraws
-Kuchinich withdraws
-Clinton wins Maryland (45 delegates, Clark: 24, Obama and Warner: 15)
-Warner wins Virginia (Warner and Clark 38, Clinton 27)
-Clinton wins D.C. (Clinton 24, Warner 13)
-Paul wins Maryland and Virginia, Guiliani D.C.
-Ohio tie Clinton/Obama
-Wyoming tie Warner/Clinton
-Warner attack ads Obama
-Warner Scandal 3 power
-Clinton ahead of Obama in Polls

Wisconsin in 2 days, Hawaii in 9.

I'm shocked at how well we did in Virginia. That success essentially has us projected to now be third in number of delegate votes behind Clinton and Warner.

With Wisky so close, we put foot soldiers in Hawaii and Ohio. Insight boosted speech on Unions in Wisconsin (rather fitting), two Badger State barnstorms, and a barnstorm in Ohio, as we're essentially sacrificing Hawaii.

Turn 20 Notes
-Richardson endorses Clinton, withdraws
-Thompson endorses Guiliani, withdraws
-Tancredo endorses Guiliani, withdraws
-Hunter withdraws
-Clark wins Wisconsin (52 delegates, Clinton 24, Warner 16)
-Hawaii tied Clinton/Warner
-Clinton ahead of Guiliani
-Clinton rollin on in Ohio

Massive win in Wisky. 2 days to Hawaii, 9 to Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont.

Foot soldiers in Texas and Ohio and advertising blitzes in Hawaii, Texas, and Ohio. We're intent on the big delegate states now.

Two barnstorming days in Hawaii and one each in Texas and Ohio.

Turn 21 Notes
-Brownback endorses Guiliani, withdraws
-Clinton wins Hawaii (9 delegates, Clark and Obama with 7, Warner 6)
-Wyoming tie Clinton-Warner
-Clinton ahead of Giuliani in polls
-James Carville slams Clark in Ohio

2 days to the group of four, 9 to Mississippi.

Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Vermont get added to the advertising blitzkrieg. Mississippi and Pennsylvania get foot soldiers. Since we have 49% of the vote in Texas and a +10 Momentum, Ohio gets an Insightful speech on Iran and a barnstorming, while Pennsylvania and Mississippi each take a barnstorming.

Turn 22 Notes
-Gingrich endorses Guiliani, withdraws
-Warner wins Ohio (41 delegates, 40 each for the rest of the remaining three)
-Obama wins Rhode Island (12 delegates each for Obama and Clinton, 8 for Warner)
-Clark wins Texas (171 delegates, 57 for Clinton)
-Clinton wins Vermont (13 delegates, 6 Clark, 4 Obama)
-Kentucky tie Clark-Clinton
-Clinton leads Wyoming
-Warner Scandal 3 Profile
-Clinton ahead of Giuliani in polls

2 days to Mississippi, 11 to Wyoming.

Delegates Update - Dems
Clinton: 1049
Warner: 985
Clark: 610
Obama: 565

With 627 delegates remaining, it is now mathematically impossible for the nominee to be decided before the convention.

Delegates Update - Repubs
Paul: 722
Romney: 508
Giuliani: 417
Frist: 120
Huckabee: 83
McCain: 53

With 432 delegates remaining, it is in fact mathematically possible for Ron Paul to win the nomination before the convention.

The way I and the national polls see it, it's a three way fight between Giuliani, Paul, and Romney for the Republican nomination, with Giuliani holding the popular vote lead right now with 19.2% to Paul's 16.8% and Romney's 15.8%.

As for the Dems?

National Polling Updates
Obama: 21.6% (+4.1%)
Clinton: 28.9% (+7.1%)
Clark: 18.2% (+7.1%)
Warner: 25.7% (+5%)

National Momentum:
Obama: +2
Clinton: +5.9
Clark: +3
Warner: +1.2

Looks like the bloom might be starting to fall off a little bit on Warner. As far as I'm concerned, though, he's still in second place, with Obama and I fighting it out for third. Hillary appears to clearly have this nomination come convention time, but who knows? I've never gotten that far in this game.

[lcjjdnh]

Fun dynasty. Enjoying reading so far.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by lcjjdnh

Fun dynasty. Enjoying reading so far.

Thanks. I'm enjoying writing so far.

Wyoming and Pennsylvania get foot soldiers. Full ad blitz for Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and Kentucky. This turn's barnstorms go to 2x Ole Miss, one each Wyoming and Pennsylvania.

Turn 23 Notes
-McCain endorses Paul, withdraws (first endorsement for Paul)
-Huckabee endorses Paul, withdraws
-Clark wins Mississippi (30 delegates, Clinton: 10)
-Clark leads Pennsylvania, Kentucky
-Obama makes Daily Show appearance
-Clinton leads Guiliani in polls

Full court ad blitz for Indiana now too. 4 days to Wyoming. Foot soldiers in Indiana and Pennsylvania, and we're hitting the Keystone State hard because that's one of the last big prizes out there.

Double hit Wyoming, also go to Kentucky and Indiana

Turn 24 Notes
-Allen withdraws
-Clark wins Wyoming (8 delegates, Clinton: 7, Warner 3)

An unexpected win, buoyed by barnstorming successes. For those playing along, we've managed to win Wisconsin, Arkansas, Wyoming, and Nevada. The only state I've lived in we didn't win was Minnesota. Nor did we win my new target grad school's region after UNLV.

Pennsylvania and Indiana get foot soldiers. We've got 29 long days before the next primary (Pennsylvania) and although we pretty much own the state right now, I want to make sure we keep a strong presence there.

The Daily Show invites us again next turn and I take it because of its great chance of success. I've turned down some others, including Jay Leno, in past turns.

We're also starting to bank some nice cash now, allowing me to advertise full court in North Carolina with no issues. We're at $4.4 million in cash - not enough for a big time run nationally, but well over double our initial war chest.

Turn 26 Notes
-Obama withdraws from race
-Clark lackluster on Daily Show

Obama's withdrawal, which was expected, throws the race into minor chaos, as his delegates are now up for debate. The way I see it though, none of the three candidates has enough yet for the 1919 required and the fight is still ongoing.

Turn 27 Notes
-Warner stumbles on O'Reilly Factor

For now, let's just say we're rotating our attentions between Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina. Penn is definitely ours, but we're in third in Indiana and North Carolina.

Turn 28 Notes
-Frist endorses Giuliani, withdraws
-Clinton calls Clark an extremist
-Warner Scandal 3 profile
-Paul Scandal
-Warner Scandal 6 Profile (We drop 2 CPs to try and spin this)

2 days to Pennsylvania

Foot soldiers for Indiana and North Carolina. We're now second in the Hoosier State behind Clinton and closing the gap from our third place spot in North Carolina. That was a huge scandal for Warner, one so big it might just be enough to cost him the nomination. Hope we spun it.

Turn 29 Notes
-Clark wins Pennsylvania (96 delegates, Clinton: 43, Warner: 42)
-Indiana tied Clinton-Warner-Clark
-North Carolina tied Clinton-Warner
-Clinton Ahead of Giuliani in polls

9 days to Indiana and North Carolina.

Turn 30 Notes
-Clinton makes gaffe
-Warner scandal 3 profile
-Warner makes Energy gaffe
-Warner says Clark bad for country

2 days to Indiana/North Carolina and 9 to West Virginia.

Foot soldiers in West Virginia and Oregon.

We'll pick North Carolina as our central focus state.

Turn 31 Notes
-Clinton wins Indiana (34 delegates, Clark: 26, Warner 19)
-Clark wins North Carolina (41 delegates, Warner 40 Clinton 29)
-9 Profile Giuliani Scandal
-9 Profile Clinton Scandal

2 days West Virginia
9 days Kentucky and Oregon

We've now all got over 1,000 delegate votes so this is very much a three-way race.

Oregon and Kentucky footsoldiers.

Turn 32 Notes
-Clinton wins West Virginia (16 delegates, Warner 12 Clark 9)

Let's play the thread out.

Turn 33 Notes
-Clark wins Kentucky (41 delegates, Clinton: 14)
-Clinton wins Oregon (26 delegates, Clark 21, Warner 15)
-3 Profile Clinton Scandal

Only 45 delegates left - 23 in Montana, 22 in South Dakota.

We start researching a scandal on Clinton.

Turn 34 Notes
-No majority on first vote of Libertarian convention.
-Ruwart and Barr are the two left standing...
-Wayne Root withdraws, Ruwart gains 377 delegates, Barr 98.
-Current Delegate Count: Ruwart - 855, Barr 595, which means...
-Mary Ruwart is the Libertarian Party nominee!
-3 Profile Warner Scandal
-Clark leads Montana

Turn 35 Notes
-Clark wins Montana (9 delegates, Clinton 8 Warner 6)
-Clark wins South Dakota (17 delegates, Clinton 5)
-Warner makes Same-Sex Marriage Gaffe
-Warner makes Gaffe on Environment Issue



And there's your final primaries map. As you can see, we're third in delegates and the popular polling, but on the other hand, we're the only candidate with positive momentum.

Over on the Republican side, it's even worse - Romney 34.4%, Giuliani 34.3%, Paul 31.2%, but Paul has 896 delegate votes, Romney 798, and Giuliani 641. So who the hell do they go with? My guess is they compromise on Romney, but I have zero clue.

[Izulde]

We release a 3 Profile Scandal on Clinton and now we're just kind of putzing around waiting for the convention. People are still campaigning in states so we'll do that too, hitting our weak areas.

If the general election were held today, we'd win Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and have a fair shot at a number of other states, including Texas. So anyway, we put 153 electoral votes in our column for now.

A Couple Turns Later
-Clinton 3 Profile Scandal and attack Ad from Giuliani
-Charles Baldwin wins the Constitution Party nomination. Of course he was the only guy running, so...

Next Turn
-6 Profile Clinton Scandal
-Romney attack ads Giuliani, Clinton

Next Turn
-Paul attack ads Clinton
-Numerous Clinton scandals

I don't know if all these scandals are having an effect on Clinton's nomination chances, because I'm not sure how the game works.

In fact I'm now completely lost. I have no idea what I'm doing and there's no mention of a convention.

Some Turns Later
-Guiliani Endorses Paul, Withdraws

Wow! Thanks to Giuliani's decision, Ron Paul will be the 2008 Republican nominee! But there's no announcement of it. Weird.

Next Turn
-Clark Shines in Oprah Winfrey Show appearance

10 Weeks, 1 Day Before The Election - Democratic Convention
-Romney Endorses Paul, Withdraws
-No one has absolute majority in first Democratic vote...
-Wesley Clark voted out in first round.
-Clinton gets the majority of Clark's delegates and wins the nomination.

Game Over

I know, I know. Anticlimactic ending. I could have continued as Hillary, but that would've felt like cheating. So the General's run ends here.

[Izulde]

Campaign Results
2008 - General Wesley Clark - 3rd (forced run-off at convention)

I've decided, rather than make this a single campaign dynasty, to make it a series of campaigns, simply because the way I play and post this game so far, it doesn't lend itself to a lengthy single dynasty. Prime Minister, Chancellor, etc. Forever, will be their own separate threads if I ever get tired of this one.

The most recent version of President Forever 2008 + Primaries comes with a few election year scenarios, but a guy named Patine created a ton of other year scenarios, including:

1789
1824
1828
1832
1848

I'm terribly disappointed that the 1860 scenario download link by another user doesn't work.

Other available scenarios whose download links work:

1936

All the rest are giving me errors when I try to download them, which is grr-worthy.

There's a number of gubernatorial scenarios available for download as well, but for now, I'll just take Wisconsin 2010. There's one mayoral scenario - NYC 2009, and a handful of senatorial scenarios, but I'm not interested in any of those right now.

A fascinating Italy scenario errors the link too

After scanning the actual forums for P4E scenarios, it appears Patine is working on an 1860 scenario that he's almost done with. Since he's evidently the godfather of P4E scenarios, this is great news.

I'll probably stick with the defaults for now, but this is just to give you a taste of what might be coming.

[DaddyTorgo]

Is this game on Steam? Was it on sale somewhere?

[Izulde]

So the default scenarios are: 1980, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2008-Wonk Edition, 2012.

We've done 2008 and I'm in the mood to do an earlier campaign, so might as well go with the earliest of all, 1980. Unlike 2008, when neither party had an incumbent president, for the first time in like 50 years or something, 1980 has President Jimmy Carter, but at the scenario start, he's trailing to Ted Kennedy. Then there's a man named Ronald Reagan on the Elephants' side.

Not quite so packed an all-candidates field this time as in 2008.

Republicans
Ronald Reagan
George Bush Sr.
John Connally
Gerald Ford
Howard Baker
Bob Dole
Phil Crane
Ben Fernandez

Democrats
Jimmy Carter
Ted Kennedy
Jerry Brown
Hugh Carey
William Proxmire

Independent
John Anderson*

* - Anderson actually appears in the Republican primaries list as well, but because I like to disrupt the two-party system as much as possible, I'm having him run as an independent.

Since I played the Dems last time, I'll go with the Republicans this go round and Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker. ..Or maybe not. The scenario says he doesn't have much time for campaigning because of his Senate duties.. which means 7 CP/turn. I already had a moderately difficult challenge last time. Eh, screw it. He's the only true centrist in the lot.

Initial Polls
Reagan: 18.5%
Bush: 10%
Connally: 10.7%
Ford: 18.1%
Baker: 10.7%
Dole: 5.4%
Crane: 5.6%
Fernandez: 2%

So tied for third, but with a huge CP handicap. Fortunately there's no Super Tuesday to worry about in 1980. 987 delegates are needed to win the nomination before the convention. 32 delegate Tennessee is essentially ours right now and we've a Fair shot at Wyoming.

Things I think I learned from my Clark game
1. Scandals don't help you after the primary season is over.
2. Advertising blitzes matter.
3. Negative advertising and critical speeches, although backfiring, can help impede opponents considerably.

It's October 2nd, 1979. Iowa is January 21st, Arkansas is February 16th, New Hampshire February 26th.

The big multi-state day in 1980 is March 11th, with the following states and delegates up:

Georgia - 36
Alabama - 27
Florida - 51
Washington - 37

The states with the most delegates in this 1980 scenario

California - 168
New York - 123
Illinois - 102
Pennsylvania - 83
Michigan - 82
Texas - 80

...I just now saw that I could have asked Hillary for a vice presidential position as Wesley Clark last game and had reason to go on to the general election. Oh well.

In any event, our Theme will be Inflation and Energy, the two red issues, and Leadership. I'd like to do Integrity, which is a 5 for Baker, but it's yellow and Leadership is orange.

[i]Starting Iowa Polls[/u]
Bush - 25.7%
Reagan - 19.3%
Ford - 10.7%
Baker - 10.6%
Connally - 7.1%
Crane - 3.5%
Dole - 3.2%
Fernandez - 1.3%

Endorsements are a whole different ballgame in 1980 than 2008. Whereas 2008 had the ho-hum +1 Momentum, consider the following for Iowa's state-level endorses at game start:

Speaker Tip O'Neill: +5 Momentum
Majority Leader Jim Wright: +3 Momentum (2nd in command to Byrd)
Majority Leader Robert Byrd: +3 Momentum

Most of these guys are to the left and so essentially Democratic game-changers, but Wright's a Centrist like Baker, so maybe I can talk Wright into crossing the aisle?

Holy cow, Crusaders are expensive in 1980. 5 PIPs for each of Baker's Crusaders. On the other hand, Baker has 20 PIPs and having a Crusader made a big difference in my Clark game, I think. Hiring John Rhodes as the Crusader also eats all my first turn CPs, putting me at serious risk for energy depletion.

Television is a lot more expensive in 1980. $180,000 to produce vs. $50,000 in 2008. But with Baker limited in his ability to campaign, I feel like TV advertising is what's going to give us a chance.

Turn 1 Notes
-Kennedy Ahead of Carter in Polls
-Ton of Kennedy Campaigning Headlines
-Ford Campaign Considered Too Negative
-2 Successful Iowa barnstorms, only 1 successful Arkansas one

...Uh oh. Baker's down to 30 energy points already. Shit. We're also losing money thanks to the TV ad production. Only two barnstorms this turn, both in NH.

Turn 2 Notes
-Reagan leads New Hampshire
-Dole gives stirring speech on Tax Policy
-Ford blasts Reagan at Arkansas Rally
-Baker hit with pie
-Barnstorming double success in NH, insight to Energy

Let's see. Ads can run for 5 weeks before expiring. Iowa is on January 21st. That's the third week in January, which means Christmas is a safe week to start running the TV ad if it's a good one... and it's not. Back to drawing board.

Foot soldier in Iowa and a policy speech there too for our lone event of the week.

Turn 3 Notes
-Kennedy still cruising over Carter, but getting attacked by multiple opponents
-Energy speech got headlines and we're starting to get momentum going in Iowa.

Foot soldier in Arkansas and two barnstorms in the Natural state.

Turn 4 Notes
-Bush deftly handles Salt II questions on Walter Cronkite
-Kennedy going on offensive against Carter (attack ad)
-Fernandez campaign out of funds!

Great looking TV ad, but we'll hand on to it around Christmas. We'll start producing a newspaper ad on Energy, too.

I decide to make the rash decision to dump 14 PIPs and 5 CPs into getting Wright's endorsement. It's probably stupid to spend all my political capital this early, but my fear is that without it, this campaign ends in a hurry.

That gives me 80 influence and puts me in the lead over Carter for getting Wright's endorsement. It also means a big momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Barnstorms for Iowa, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

Turn 5 Notes
-New Endorsers available. Shit.
-Bush leads Massachusetts
-Baker leads Arkansas
-Carter Stumbles on ABC's Iran Crisis interview
-Crane Looks Uncomfortable on Walter Cronkite
-Kennedy Botches Roger Mudd Interview
-American Hostages Taken in Tehran!
-Iowa barnstorming successful.
-PAC runs ads against Carter in Iowa
-Arkansas Barnstorming Failed
-Tennessee Barnstorming Success.

Effects of Kennedy Botching Roger Mudd Interview - Experience importance raised to Very High, Speeches Replenished.

Effects of American Hostages Taken In Tehran - Tehran Hostages importance to Very High, Speeches Replenished.

I think similar events fired in the Clark game too; I just didn't notice them.

We're currently running second in the Iowa polls - 16.9% to Bush's 23.7%, with Reagan third at 16.3%. Then it's a long drop to Ford's 9.6%.

Arkansas, where we just took the lead with 22%, is ahead of Reagan's 14.2%, Ford's 13.3% and Connally's 11.3%.

We're third to Reagan's insane 35% in New Hampshire and Bush's 11.9%, with 10.2%. Ford is nipping at our heels with 9.7%.

I just realized I forgot to post the initial map. Oops. Here's the current one.



The solid blue is Reagan, the light blue Bush. We're red and Bob Dole is orange. The dark aqua in Ohio and Pennsylvania is Gerald Ford.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Is this game on Steam? Was it on sale somewhere?

Not on Steam and not on sale, although if you bought other games in the series, you got 50% discount on those other games, with the exception of Congress Forever.

http://presidentforever.com is the website, although it will resolve to theoryspark.com and they recently changed their name to 270soft.

$19.95 for President Forever 2008 + Primaries BTW.

[chesapeake]

I enjoyed the first dynasty.

Two things jumped out at me. Warner got to skate without many attacks from his opponents. Given that he was your major competition in the states you were pursuing, I think you should have gone negative on him fairly early. Did you spend anything on CA? Even though you stood no chance of winning there outright, there are so many delegates in that state that you probably needed to try and get slice of that pie.

Interesting that Wright would consider supporting Baker in this game. Even in the less partisan '80's, such a decision would surely have cost him his leadership post in the House.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I enjoyed the first dynasty.

Two things jumped out at me. Warner got to skate without many attacks from his opponents. Given that he was your major competition in the states you were pursuing, I think you should have gone negative on him fairly early. Did you spend anything on CA? Even though you stood no chance of winning there outright, there are so many delegates in that state that you probably needed to try and get slice of that pie.

Good points. I just wanted to see what going all positive would net me. If I did spend in California it wasn't until very late in the game. I'll definitely pay more attention to Cali early in this game.

OTOH, would trying to have knock out Warner early merely have cleared the path for Clinton to win the nomination in primary season? Hard to tell.

Interesting that Wright would consider supporting Baker in this game. Even in the less partisan '80's, such a decision would surely have cost him his leadership post in the House.

I think it's because of the Centrist-Centrist matchup in philosophy. Even so, I needed to spend almost all of my non-replenishable PIPs to sway him to my side. It's not a guarantee yet, I don't think, that he'll endorse me, but I'll keep dropping in a couple CP to be sure to lock him up after all the effort and cost I put into it.

[chesapeake]

According to your dynasty, Clinton was being attacked by several others, much like you'd expect a frontrunner would be. So in that regard, they were doing your dirty work for you. Warner was flying under the radar. And he seemed to be your main competition in the states you were targeting -- certainly in IA and NH -- not HRC.

Still, you did a whole lot better than Clark did in real life, so good job there.

Was there any opportunity to cozy up to Obama and get his endorsement when he was getting ready to bail out?

[Izulde]

True, and it was my first game really.

Yes, there was an opportunity I think re: Obama, but it wasn't an option I discovered until I was in my Baker game. Was a real Doh! moment, but good to know for future games.

Not sure I'll succeed at it in this game. In order to get someone to bow out, you have to use PIP or offer the VP, I *think*. But I don't know, maybe it's possible you can get someone to endorse you without having to pay something. Haven't tried yet.

[Izulde]

Another couple CP for Wright, which should be enough to wrap up the endorsement.

On the advice of outside political consultant chesapeake, we create a foot soldier in California to start hitting that state, still the biggest even in 1980.

Gun control speech in California our only move this turn because of energy concerns.

Turn 6 Notes
-Energy Speech in California makes headline news.
-Anderson's campaign out of funds
-UN Calls For Hostages' Release
-Carter endorsed by Tip O'Neill, Jim Wright, and Majority Whip John W. Brademas.
-Bush leads Texas

Foreign Policy now Very High because of the ongoing crisis and speech replenished in that area.

Fuck you, Jim Wright. FUCK.YOU.

Now we're really behind the 8 ball.

Foreign Policy speech in Iowa and barnstorming. Foot soldier #2 for California.

Turn 7 Notes
-Carter Has the Big Mo'!
-US Freezes Iranian Assets
-Carter Endorsed by UAW, NEA
-Ford leads Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina
-Speech in Iowa failed, Barnstorming Succeeded

The Big Mo' headline is huge in the game from the reading I've done, so Pres. Carter may have just gotten the big break he needed to fend off Ted Kennedy.

Footsoldier in Iowa. Barnstorm New York twice and Arkansas once.

Turn 8 Notes
-South Carolina now tied, but popups haven't been firing
-Ford leads Florida
-Kennedy Makes Good Impression On Walter Cronkite Show
-Dole Attack Ad Backfires
-Tehran Hostages Insight, but we already used that speech.
-Brown Makes Mistake on NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor
-Reagan Endorsed by Minority Whip Robert Michel

We've now forced a tie in Iowa with Bush.

Foot soldier for New York.

Double barnstorm California, single barn storm Tennessee.

Turn 9 Notes
-Ford leads South Carolina, but Georgia is now tied again.
-Texas tied again
-Carter ahead of Kennedy in polls
-Carter shines in Face the Nation appearance
-Ford Scandal 3 Power
-Bunch of barnstorming success

We're really chipping away at Reagan's lead in California and are keeping ourselves in the running in New York.

The Manchester Union-Leader, a far right newspaper in New Hampshire becomes an endorser as does the center-left aligned Des Moines Register in Iowa. We've given up on New Hampshire and instead build a Foot soldier in Florida. I want to make life hell for Ford and not just give him the big states in the South.

Double barnstorm Florida and Georgia once.

Turn 10 Notes
-Ford lead in Georgia
-We lead in California
-Kennedy Stumbles on ABC's Iran Crisis: Americans Held Hostage
-Kennedy attack ads Carter
-Carter leads Kennedy in polls
-Dole's Campaign Out of Funds
-Reagan's Message: Baker Bad For Country

Looks like Bob Dole might have a short run here. So will Fernandez is my guess.

Very excited to get the lead in California.

We accept an appearance to NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor. 70% Success rate isn't perfect, but it's worth the gamble at this point.

Foot soldier for Iowa.

Double barnstorm Iowa and once Kentucky.

Turn 11 Notes
-Georgia, Pennsylvania now tied
-Reagan Stumbles on NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor
-Carter Comfortably Ahead of Kennedy in Polls
-Iranian Diplomats Expelled From US!
-International Court of Justice Orders Hostages Released
-Reagan hits Baker on Campaign Trail
-Kentucky barnstorm fail
-Good Interview with John Chancellor
-All three barnstorms failed
-Foot soldier in California expired

Bad barnstorming luck. We're also now without Californian foot soldiers, so we hastily build a new one to keep our lead there going.

Foreign Policy speech in New York, as it and Tehran Hostages are now purple issues. Barnstorm Florida and Georgia.

We also change one of our Theme Issues from Leadership to Foreign Policy to coincide with the speech.

Turn 12 Notes
-Baker leads New York
-Bush attack ads Reagan
-Bush shines in ABC's Iran Crisis
-Carter Comfortably Ahead of Kennedy
-Barnstormings all succeeded

We now lead in California and New York. That's big. Nice Christmas present, too.

And you know what Christmas means!

TV ad in Iowa and a newspaper ad, too. I decide to make a newspaper ad attacking Bush's foreign policy, as he's my closest competitor in Iowa and has the least positive relations among the contenders.

Another foot soldier in Iowa. Barnstorms to California and Pennsylvania, with some Issue Knowledge work too.

Turn 13 Notes
-New endorsers available
-Reagan leads Georgia
-Reagan attack ad backfires
-3 power Ford scandal
-Ford makes gaffe on Tax Policy issue
-3 profile Reagan scandal
-Reagan attacks Baker
-Betty Ford slams Baker in Arizona
-Carter Endorsed by Des Moines Register
-War!!!! Russians Invade Afghanistan!
-3 power Ford scandal, Carter scandal

Russian invasion moves all regional issue centers for Foreign Policy one position towards Unknown.

...What? I have no idea what that means.

Anyway, foot soldier in Iowa. Bush attack ad is terrible, and at this point, it's not worth it, because he's only a real threat in Iowa.

Speech in Arizona on Inflation, barnstorm in Arizona, and barnstorm Iowa.

Turn 14 Notes
-Bush leads Texas, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
-Bush attack ad backfires
-Reagan attack ads Baker
-Carter comfortably ahead of Kennedy
-Strategic Sales of Grain and Computers to USSR Cut
-Arizona events successful, Iowa not.

Oh by the way, Ford and Baker are now tied in the national polls. Pretty cool, but it's still early yet. Foot soldier for Arizona, because we're looking like we'll lose badly in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. January 8th, so Arkansas gets added to the ad blitz, even though we're a lock to win it.

Barnstorms for Arizona, Florida, and California.

Turn 15 Notes
-Bush leads Maine
-Baker leads Florida
-Dole attack ads Reagan
-Kennedy campaign negative
-Carter comfortably ahead of Kennedy
-3 profile Ford scandal
-Nancy Reagan slams Baker in Massachusetts
-Ford campaign negative
-Dole and Ford both call Reagan an extremist
-All barnstorms successful

Let's build on that Florida momentum with a foot soldier there. One week to the Iowa caucuses.

Arizona barnstorm, followed by a double barnstorm in Iowa at the end of the run.

Turn 16 Notes
-Baker wins Iowa (Baker and Bush 9 delegates, Reagan 5, Dole 4 and Crane 4, Ford, Connally and Fernandez 2)
-Carter wins Iowa (Carter 27 delegates, Kennedy 12, Brown 11)
-Reagan leads Arizona
-Reagan attack ads Connally
-3 profile Carter scandal
-Bush does well on NBC Nightly News
-Reagan campaign too negative
-Bush makes gaffe on Cities issue
-Reagan endorsed by Manchester Union-Ledger
-Carter endorsed by Govs. Bill Clinton and Harry R. Hughes and a bunch of others.
-Bush makes gaffe on Foreign Policy issue
-Arizona
-Baker Takes Iowa (25 Profile, 25 Power!)
-Arizona barnstorming succeeds, both Iowa ones fail.

Iowa results
Baker: 25.5%
Bush: 22.6%
Reagan: 13.4%
Dole: 11.4%
Crane: 10.3%
Ford: 9.6%
Connally: 5.1%
Fernandez: 2.1%

Wow! I've never seen a 25 Profile, 25 power news story before. Evidently getting Iowa will help us out big time.



The map after Iowa.

National Polls After Iowa
Reagan: 13.9% (-4.6%)
Bush: 10.7% (+0.7%)
Connally: 9.9% (-1.8%)
Ford: 15.7% (-2.4%)
Baker: 16.4% (+5.7%)
Dole: 5.4% (Unch)
Crane: 5.2% (-0.4%)
Fernandez: 2.1% (+0.1%)

Yeah. Iowa has been a huge gamechanger. Now a few weeks to Arkansas.

[Izulde]

Wow! People weren't kidding about the Big Mo' important for Carter. Check this out:



Phenomenal work by Carter's campaign manager. I knew he'd turned things around on Ted Kennedy, but this is insane! They'll be able to work on re-election pretty damn early unless there's a sudden reversal.

We're still hoping to be his Republican challenger, but we can't coast on Iowa. Arkansas still looks pretty safe, but we need to shift our focus to Arizona, who gets a foot soldier and two barnstorms along with an Issue Knowledge Prep.

Turn 17 Notes
-Arizona now tied between Ford and Reagan.
-Baker Scandal Power 6
-Henry Kissinger campaigns for Ford in South Carolina

Yeah, I'm not worried about that 6 scandal when I still have an 18 Power/Profile Iowa win sitting there.

I screw up in Ad Production and waste a Tehran Hostages insight by accidentally clicking on Military instead. Damn it. Anyway, Arizona gets the advertising blitz now, since it's in the 5 week cycle.

Another foot soldier for Arizona and barnstorms in Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas.

Turn 18 Notes
-Dole attack ad backfires
-Carter stumbles on NBC Nightly News
-Reagan and Bush get a ton of gubernatorial endorsements each.

Another foot soldier for Arizona, although I should be putting it in Florida or Washington, which get the ad blitz.

Florida, Washington, and California earn this week's barnstorms.

Turn 19 Notes
-Carter wins Maine (Carter and Brown 8, Kennedy 6)
-Crane attack ad backfires
-Baker scandal 3 profile
-Baker Scandal 9 Profile
-Baker makes gaffe in California

That's not what we need 5 days before Arkansas.

Maine and Virginia are added to the advertising blitz, including our awesome Military TV ad that should have been Tehran Hostages.

Virginia gets the foot soldier because it's worth more and we have a better shot at winning there.

Barnstorm in Virginia, twice in Arkansas.

Turn 20 Notes
-Baker wins Arkansas (6 delegates, Ford 3, Bush, Connally, Reagan, Fernandez 2, Crane and Dole 1)
-Ford makes gaffe on Cities issue
-9 Profile Baker scandal
-Baker leads Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona

Despite all these massive scandals, we're still holding on.

Arkansas results
Baker: 30.8%
Ford: 16%
Bush: 13.2%
Reagan: 12.7%
Connally: 9%
Fernandez: 8.1%
Crane: 5.3%
Dole: 5%

We're running about 4th or 5th in New Hampshire and for a moment I consider dropping some resources in there.

Somehow I have 15 PIPs again, probably because Wright rejected endorsing me? I go talking to some opponents, but so far, no one's willing to drop out, much less drop out and endorse me.

It's going to cost me a ton of money, but I start the media blitz in New York to make sure it stays in my column.

Foot soldier for Washington. Issue Knowledge, Debate Prep and Florida barnstorm.

Turn 21 Notes
-Baker leads Wisconsin
-Ford leads Pennsylvania
-Crane attack ad backfires
-6 profile Baker scandal
-Ford, Reagan campaigns negative
-Bad interview on NBC Nightly News

New Hampshire tomorrow, Massachusetts in 8 days, Arizona in 9 days, and South Carolina in 12 days. Debate in 6 days.

Well, we're weathering these scandals okay. NH, Massachusetts, and South Carolina are going to be ugly, though.

Foot soldier in Washington. We should be advertising in Missouri, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, but New York is killing us. Connecticut is in play, too. We compromise by shifting one TV ad off New York and moving it to Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. We're running at negative momentum everywhere thanks to these damn scandals, though.

Two barnstorms in New Hampshire just to put in the appearance, and Debate Prep.

Turn 22 Notes
-Baker leads Vermont
-Ford leads Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina
-Reagan wins New Hampshire (22 delegates) 25 Profile/Power
-Carter wins Minnesota (49 delegates, Kennedy 26)
-Carter wins New Hampshire (10 delegates, Kennedy 5, Brown 4) 18 Profile/Power
-Connally wins debate

Massachusetts tomorrow, Arizona the day after, 5 days to South Carolina, 8 days to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Washington, 12 days to Maine.

New Hampshire Results
Reagan: 27.6%
Ford: 18.5%
Bush: 13.9%
Baker: 10.7%
Connally: 10.4%
Fernandez: 8.2%
Crane: 6.1%
Dole: 4.7%

Our last minute burst took us to fourth place and we're still doing okay all things considered.

Texas gets a foot soldier to start our foothold there.

I have no idea on the timing, but I barnstorm Massachusetts twice and Arizona once, which I *think* is the right order.

Turn 23 Notes
-Brown withdraws
-Bush wins Massachusetts (42 delegates) 10 profile/power
-Carter wins Massachusetts (Carter 72, Kennedy 39)
-Baker wins Arizona (7 delegates, Reagan 6, Ford and Connally 4, Dole, Crane and Bush 2, Fernandez 1)
-Reagan wins South Carolina (25 delegates) 13 profile/power

Big turn coming up. Washington, Alabama, Florida, Georgia all tomorrow and Maine this turn too.

Foot soldier for Texas.

Florida, Washington barnstorm. Then two days in Maine barnstorming.

Turn 24 Notes
-Reagan wins Alabama (27 delegates)
-Baker wins Florida (51 delegates)
-Reagan wins Georgia (36 delegates)
-Baker wins Washington (10 delegates, Reagan 9, Ford 5, Connally, Dole, Bush 3, Crane, Fernandez 2)
-Carter wins Alabama (34 delegates, Kennedy 11)
-Carter wins Alaska (Carter 8, Kennedy 3)
-Carter wins Florida (75, Kennedy 25)
-Carter wins Georgia (Carter 47, Kennedy 16)
-Carter wins Hawaii (15, Kennedy 4)
-Carter wins Oklahoma (32, Kennedy 10)
-Carter wins Washington (38, Kennedy 20)
-Carter wins Delaware (11, Kennedy 3)
-Baker wins Maine (7 delegates, Reagan, Ford, and Bush 3, Connally 2, Dole, Crane, and Fernandez 1) 4 power/profile
-Carter wins Mississippi (24, Kennedy 8)
-Carter wins South Carolina (28, Kennedy 9)
-Carter wins Wyoming (Clicked too quick for delegate count)
-6 Profile Baker Scandal
-News headlines rave about Reagan's Alabama and Georgia wins and ignore my Florida win.

Illinois and Virginia are next turn, but we'll pause and take stock. First, the map:



Delegate Count - Republicans
Reagan: 135 (Est. 287)
Baker: 90 (Est. 473)
Bush: 61 (Est. 98)
Ford: 17 (Est. 194)
Connally: 13 (Est. 60)
Dole: 11 (Est. 69)
Crane: 10 (Est. 34)
Fernandez: 8 (Est. 25)

987 needed for the majority. Getting Florida was major and I'm making sure I keep California and New York in my pocket. I'm also working on Texas. If I can get some of these low-ranking guys to drop out and endorse me, that will help out a ton, too.

On the Dems:

Delegates - Democrats
Carter: 496 (Est. 2183)
Kennedy: 203 (Est. 944)
Carey: 5 (Est. 108)
Proxmire: 5 (Est. 39)

1638 required for nomination. Yeah, Carter has this thing locked up. Carey and Proxmire should endorse Carter and drop out soon.

Not looking good for the elephants in the general election, as we're fractured into pachyderm factions, while the donkeys are uniting behind an unpopular long ears.

Oh, popular vote for Repubs update:

Popular Vote
Reagan: 13.4% (-0.5%)
Bush: 11.1% (+0.4%)
Connally: 9.7% (-0.2%)
Ford: 16.1% (+0.4%)
Baker: 19.7% (+3.3%)
Dole: 5.3% (-0.1%)
Crane: 5.2% (Unch)
Fernandez: 2.2% (+0.1%)

Nice rebound by Ford. Reagan's drop strikes me as illusory after his big delegate wins. That should pick up as he builds on the momentum of his wins in the media, especially the press hates Baker. :P

[chesapeake]

Re: Scandals -- Is is several scandals you're going through or just one on a long, painful arc? Is there some sort of spinning you can do to get it to go away?

On endorsements, are there GOP senators up for grabs? Baker should have a strong edge on getting their endorsements. He was very popular among his colleagues.

[Izulde]

It's several scandals. I could spin, but because Baker only has 7 CPs a turn, the max I can spin with is 1 CP, which has a 0% spin success rate.

There was one Republican senator, but he endorsed Reagan. I think my key to try and get a delegates victory is through convincing the opposition to drop out one by one and endorse me.

[Izulde]

Although there's not much chance without spending PIPs, I ask Fernandez to drop out of the race and endorse me.

I add a foot soldier in Louisiana and ad blitz Missouri and Louisiana.

We've already written off Illinois, but we'll make a barnstorm appearance nonetheless. Double barnstorm Virginia, just to be on the safe side.

Turn 25 Notes
-Fernandez endorses Baker, withdraws
-Proxmire endorses Carter, withdraws
-Reagan wins in Illinois (102 delegates) 15 power/profile
-Carter wins in Illinois (179 delegates)
-Baker wins in Virginia (22 delegates, Reagan, Ford, Bush 7, Dole, Connally 3, Crane 2
-Carter wins Virginia (48 delegates, Kennedy 16)
-6 profile Baker scandal

Connecticut and New York tomorrow, Minnesota and Missouri in 7 days, Kansas and Wisconsin in 8, Louisiana in 12.

Yeah. No mention of our winning Virginia and another scandal. Oh well, at least we got Fernandez to endorse us.

Another foot soldier for Texas, advertising in North Dakota and Alaska. Barnstorming New York, Connecticut, and Minnesota.

Turn 26 Notes
-Bush leads Texas
-Reagan leads Utah
-Carey withdraws
-Reagan wins Connecticut (35 delegates)
-Baker wins New York (123 delegates) 10 profile/power
-Carter wins Connecticut (35, Kennedy 19) and New York (211, Kennedy 79)
-Baker wins Minnesota (8 delegates, Connally, Ford, Bush, Reagan 5, Dole and Crane 3)
-Reagan wins Missouri (10 delegates, Baker 9, Ford and Connally 5, Dole and Bush 3, Crane 2) 4 profile/power

Delegates Update
Reagan: 294 (Est. 336)
Baker: 260 (Est. 521)
Bush: 76 (Est. 183)
Ford: 34 (Est. 234)
Connally: 26 (Est. 56)
Dole: 20 (Est. 70)
Crane: 17 (Est. 34)

Reagan's winning Connecticut gives him the lead over us. Grr.

But the good news?

National Polling Update
Reagan: 15.2% (+1.8%)
Bush: 12.1% (+1%)
Connally: 9.4% (-0.3%)
Ford: 16.7% (+0.6%)
Baker: 21.2% (+1.5%)
Dole: 6.5% (+1.2%)
Crane: 5.6% (+0.4%)

We're now leading this race by a fair amount, probably thanks to the New York win and the Fernandez bounce. But Reagan is the hottest candidate right now so I need to knock him off his pedestal.

Kansas and Wisconsin tomorrow, Louisiana in 5 days

[CrimsonFox]

You, sir, have officially hurt my head!

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

You, sir, have officially hurt my head!

Numbers are scary.

Foot soldier and advertising blitz for Texas. Barnstorm Wisconsin and health care speech in Texas.

Turn 27 Notes
-Reagan leads Indiana and Nevada
-Dole wins Kansas (32 delegates)
-Baker wins Wisconsin (34 delegates) 5 power/profile
-Carter wins Kansas (31 delegates, 6 Kennedy)
-Carter wins Wisconsin (75 delegates)
-Baker wins Louisiana (31 delegates) 5 power/profile
-Carter wins Louisiana (38 delegates, 13 Kennedy)
-Crusader expired

10 days to North Dakota, 13 to Alaska.

We've now seized the delegate lead and I decide to spend 11 PIPs to try and convince Bush to not only quit, but endorse me in the race. If that happens, I take out the #3 candidate in terms of current delegates, and I have a feeling Texas gets handed to me on the proverbial platter. 70% success rate.

Washington D.C. and North Carolina get ad blitzed.

Barnstorms for North Dakota, Alaska, and North Carolina.

Turn 28 Notes
-Reagan leads Colorado and New Mexico
-Baker leads Texas
-Carter wins Arizona (25, Kennedy 4)
-6 profile Baker scandal
-Carter has commanding lead in polls
-3 profile Baker scandal
-Reagan: Baker Extremist
-Offer rejected

3 days to North Dakota, 6 to Alaska, 8 to Pennsylvania

I offer 13 PIPs to Bush for an 82% success rate now.

Michigan foot soldier. Barnstorms to North Dakota, Alaska, and Michigan.

Turn 29 Notes
-Reagan leads Montana, Wyoming, and North Carolina.
-Baker wins North Dakota (5 delegates, Reagan 3, Ford, Connally, Dole, Bush 2, Crane 1)
-Carter wins Idaho (14, Kennedy 3) and North Dakota (11, Kennedy 3)
-Baker wins Alaska (7 delegates, everyone else 2)
-3 profile Baker scandal
-Crane's campaign out of funds
-Bush makes gaffe on Integrity
-Offer rejected

Pennsylvania tomorrow, Texas 12 days.

We accept a Meet the Press. We're now projected to win 649 delegates, but Reagan should win 518, so he's made up a ton of ground.

Another foot soldier for North Carolina and another 11 PIP offer to Bush. His endorsing me would really, really, really help in Texas and Michigan.

We have zero shot at Pennsylvania, but will barnstorm there anyway along with North Carolina and Texas.

Turn 30 Notes
-Bush endorses Reagan, withdraws
-Crane endorses Reagan, withdraws
-Reagan wins Pennsylvania (83 delegates) 10 profile/power
-Carter's winning everything so yeah
-Operation Eagle Claw Fiasco! Rescue Attempt Fails

Texas and Washington D.C. this week. A bunch next week.

The expected delegate total just became 859 for Reagan, 669 for us. Thanks a lot, asshole Bush. Die in a fire.

We're also now tied with Reagan nationally and he has big time momentum



That's the map after Bush stabbed me in the back.

[Izulde]

Can we reverse this? We throw all our PIPs at Dole to try and get him to endorse us.

Foot soldier for Michigan and barnstorms for North Carolina, Texas, and Washington D.C.

Turn 31 Notes
-Reagan leads pretty much everywhere.
-Connally endorses Reagan, withdraws
-Dole endorses Baker, withdraws
-Baker wins Texas (80 delegates) 10 profile/power
-Carter wins Tennessee (47 delegates, Kennedy 8)
-Carter wins D.C. (14 delegates, Kennedy 5)
-Baker wins D.C. (14 delegates) 2 profile/power
-6 profile and 3 profile Baker scandals

North Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana tomorrow, Delaware the day after. Wyoming a few days after that. Maryland and Nebraska is 8 days, Hawaii 13.

Despite the big Texas win, we're still well behind Reagan in expected delegates and actual delegates. Grr.

Reagan and Ford both hate me, so there's no chance they'd listen to me in negotiations anyway.

Foot soldier for Michigan, barnstorms for North Carolina, Delaware, and Wyoming. Michigan and Ohio get ad blitzed.

Turn 32 Notes
-Reagan wins Indiana (54 delegates)
-Baker wins North Carolina (40 delegates)
-Reagan wins Tennessee (32 delegates)
-Reagan wins Delaware (5, Baker 4, Ford 3)
-Reagan wins Wyoming (10, Baker 5, Ford 4)

Maryland and Nebraska tomorrow, Hawaii in 6 days.

Devastating loss in our home state, but as it turns out, if we hadn't blitzed North Carolina, we would have lost.

Foot soldier for Ohio, barnstorms for Maryland, California, and Hawaii.

Turn 33 Notes
-Kennedy withdraws
-Reagan wins Maryland (30 delegates)
-Reagan wins Nebraska (25 delegates)
-Reagan wins Hawaii (Reagan, Baker 5, Ford 4)
-Ford has poor showing in NBC Nightly News

At this point, we're jogging second to Reagan and don't have the momentum needed to overcome him.

Foot soldier for New Jersey, as we have a strong chance to beat Reagan there now.

Barnstorms for Michigan and Vermont, who have their primaries this turn, and Kentucky.

Turn 34 Notes
-Baker wins Michigan (82 delegates) 10 profile/power
-Reagan wins Oregon (29 delegates)
-Reagan wins Vermont (8 delegates, Baker 6, Ford 5)
-Carter and Baker even in Polls!

We're setting up with an interesting situation, where Baker leads the national popular vote, but Reagan leads delegates and will be just 32 delegates short of the nomination if current projections play out.



You can see how everything stacks up as we head into the stretch run.

[Izulde]

New Jersey is added to the ad blitz and given another foot soldier. Kentucky, Oklahoma, and New Jersey are barnstormed.

Turn 35 Notes
-Reagan wins Idaho (21 delegates)
-Baker wins Kentucky (27 delegates)
-Reagan wins Nevada (17 delegates)
-Reagan wins Oklahoma (15 delegates, Baker 12, Ford 7)
-6 profile Baker Scandal
-Ford attack ads Reagan
-Carter and Baker Even in Polls

A whole ton of primaries tomorrow, then Colorado in 2 days.

Foot soldier for Utah, a bunch of advertising, New Jersey, Colorado, and Utah barnstormed.

Turn 36 Notes
-Ford withdraws
-Baker wins California (168 delegates)
-Baker wins Mississippi (12 delegates, Reagan 10)
-Baker wins Montana (20 delegates)
-Baker wins New Jersey (66 delegates)
-Reagan wins New Mexico (22 delegates)
-Baker wins Ohio (77 delegates)
-Reagan wins Rhode Island (13 delegates)
-Reagan wins South Dakota (22 delegates)
-Reagan wins West Virginia (18 delegates)
-Reagan wins Colorado (17 delegates, Baker 14)
-Baker takes California, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and Ohio! 10 Profile/Power
-Baker and Carter even in polls

It's not official yet, but... HOWARD BAKER HAS WON THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION!!!!



We did it by hitting New Jersey hard to swing it in our direction, by stealing Montana, and, the ultimate crowning blow, the luck of Ford dropping out to give us Ohio.

All told that's

77
66
20
-----
163

1080
-163
------
917

Heck, even take out Ohio's 77 delegates and we're left with... okay 1003, still enough to win the nomination, but only thanks to stealing Montana.

I'm so excited I forget to do anything this turn.

Turn 37 Notes
-9 profile Baker scandal
-Reagan gives great speech, keeps attacking Baker

Reagan refuses to even consider dropping out. Asshole.

Turn 38 Notes
-Reagan wins Utah (11 delegates, Baker 10)
-Carter attacks Baker

Sadly, Reagan just won't consider dropping out, even after his narrow Utah win. That's going to put Republicans at a big disadvantage as we try to get a pachyderm victory.

Break now. It's time to start thinking about general election strategy.

[Izulde]

Things are looking grim on the general election front right now. We're given a Fair chance of the following states:

Utah
Arizona
Alaska
California
North Dakota

estimating us to have a lead on 51 electoral votes, most of that in California.

From now on we'll be barnstorming states where we're reasonably close until nomination time.

Turn 40 Notes
-Carter does well on Walter Cronkite
-Baker and Carter even in polls
-Baker rollin' in Arkansas

Turn 41 Notes
-Carter does well on NBC Nightly News
-Baker and Carter even in polls
-Reagan and Carter attack Baker
-3 profile Baker scandal
-Republican Convention starts

Turn 42 Notes
-Baker 845 delegates with a majority
-Howard Baker has won the Republican party convention and is the Republican nominee for President of the United States!

Now here's an interesting decision. I can accept the federal block grant of $29.4 million but then I can't fundraise or use the $4.9 million I have left over from the primaries.

It's a tough decision. But since Baker only has 7 CPs/turn, I can't afford to waste any time fundraising so I'll accept fed money.

I also have to pick a Vice President. My choices are:

Jack Kemp
John Dalton
George Bush
Phil Crane
Bill Clements

Naturally the game gives me nothing to judge the nominees by. I know there's no way in hell I go with Bush after he stabbed me in the back. Crane endorsed Reagan so he's out. Clements is eh at first glance.

Hell, this is FOFC, and I think Kemp is New York based, which is a state I want, so it's a Baker/Kemp ticket FTW.

Oh wait. It gives me the info after I pick Kemp and asks me to confirm or go with someone else.

Kemp is indeed based in New York and has 3s across the board, save for a 4 in Issue Familiarity and a 2 for How Well Known. Really? A 2 for a former pro football star?

Bush has 3s everywhere except a 4 in Stamina.

Crane is 3 across the board and is based in Illinois

Clements has 4 Leadership, Experience, Issue Familiarity, Charisma, and Debating Familiarity and 3s elsewhere. Also based in Texas.

Realistically, Clements is the strongest play. From Wikipedia, he was the first GOP governor of Texas since Reconstruction, but I also find out he was part of the group that paid SMU players and was at least partly responsible for SMU's death penalty as a result.

Funny how the two most preferred VP candidates have football ties. But corruption in college sports makes me so it'll be Kemp.

Next Turn Notes
-9 profile Baker scandal
- 5 power/profile for winning Republican nomination

Starting this turn I have 35 CPs and control both Baker and Kemp, so things get hectic now. I'd post an updated electoral map, but it still says Republican, so I'll wait until it changes over.

Polls still show us as even with Carter, but the map and our strategy predictions show very different results, with the map showing a ton of blue, but our strategy projections only winning Alaska and Arizona for a whopping 9 electoral votes.

We have 15 weeks or turns to sort it all out.

[chesapeake]

Just catching up on this now. Congratulations on winning the nomination!

A GOP electoral strategy in 1980 is a lot different than the strategy in 2012. I'd use the 1976 electoral map as my starting point and add Texas, Tennessee, Ohio and NY since you picked Kemp. You're the challenger, so you have to constantly stay on the attack. Since you are battling Carter, you have many, many good attack options, however.

[Izulde]

Great ideas, thanks. I also added Florida to the list, since we hold the lead there currently according to the map, even though our strategy polling says differently.

[vols21]

good job winning nomination with Howard Baker (I enjoy this game).

Carter seems to be pulling out all the dirty tricks to derail you. Have you researched any scandals on him yet? They are especially effective when released the last 2-3 weeks before election day

[Izulde]

I haven't tried it yet. I've been meaning to pick this back up, but I was like whoa, general election! What now?!

I'll get back to it at some point when I'm not sucked into MLB The Show '10, which finally became the first The Show I got since '09.

[Izulde]

So I'm not sure when the changeover happens. The map is also strangely incongruent with our private polling data, which shows us about to get our tails whipped.

Now is when we shift into attack mode, and start preparing ads questioning Carter on his leadership. We'll also hit him on inflation, but that'll come later. For now we'll start hitting up our positive ad on Inflation in the states that haven't seen it yet.

Not to be outdone on the scandal front, we'll work on Carter there too.

Inflation speech in Wisconsin and a whole bunch of barnstorming.

Turn Notes
-Baker Chooses Kemp as VP (3 Power/Profile)
-Carter comfortably ahead of Baker

Oh and uh, we have a map.



Yeah. Ouch.

We keep pressing on with barnstorming and waiting for our research and ad production to bear fruit.

Turn Notes
-Carter Comfortably Ahead of Baker
-Kemp Campaigns for Baker in Idaho
-Carter attacks Baker umpteen times
-Anderson wins Independent nomination
-Carter campaign too negative?
-Kemp Campaigns for Baker in Oklahoma

So after this turn we're leading in California, over half of our 70 leading electoral votes. We're building a pretty nice power base in the Southwest, with Arizona, California, and Utah all blue.

Our Leadership attack ad on Carter turned out great, so we're going to run it in all of our electoral strategy states.

Turn Notes
-Baker attack ads Carter (3 profile)
-Carter comfortably ahead of Baker

We've done some more cutting into Carter's framework and a lot more white states appear on the map, including big ones in New York and Michigan. We're also creating John Rhodes as a crusader (2 power), and starting to re-build our footsoldier network in key states.

Turn Notes
-Democratic Convention
-Carter comfortably ahead of Baker
-General election cycle now starts. Each turn takes one day.

...California is now up for grabs. We have 5 CPs per day but are currently using 8 because of our footsoldier overload.

Baker is at -15 energy.

We're leading in 16 electoral votes.

I have a feeling we're going to get waxed.

[Barkeep49]

I think crusaders are important assets in the General Election as they don't cost you CPs or energy once they're made.

[Izulde]

Baker Collapses from Exhaustion on the Campaign Trail (5 profile/power)

...Well shit.

Next turn it happens again. Finally the next day it clears, but I'm still resting him. Evidently the game also makes plans for you in case you don't do anything, especially for your VP, so I just let it roll in terms of Kemp and keep resting Baker.

August 20th Notes
-Baker leads in Idaho
-Tie in North Dakota, Texas
-Carter leads in Nevada
-Carter comfortably ahead

August 21st Notes
-3 Profile Carter scandal
-Kemp Collapses on Trail

Evidently VPs can get exhausted too.

Kemp keeps collapsing so evidently I need to give a long rest too. New endorsers break out a few turns later. Basically all the newspapers it appears.

I decide to spend 19 of my 20 PIPs to convince Governor Hugh Carey of New York to endorse Baker. It's a key battleground state and the +3 Momentum will be a huge shift.

That endorsement puts New York back in play and California is now ours again. Florida's also tied up.

We pick up the Teamsters Union endorsement, which gives us 30 footsoldiers and some cash. We get more foot soldiers and cash when the National Rifle association endorses us, but Carter gets the AFL-CIO's backing and a ton of newspaper support.

Things continue to look grim. New York gets in our corner, but it's at the cost of California and I have no idea how we're going to avoid this being a bloodbath. Maybe there is no way.

But we keep gradually chipping away and by September 18th, we're up to 113 electoral votes in the lead, thanks mostly to California and New York, and much of the rest of the West is opening up for us.

Bad news. Carter kicks our butts in the debate, giving them a 5 profile/power momentum shift.

Every time we start making inroads, we suffer major setbacks, such as an 8 profile Scandal on October 8th. It's frustrating.

12 days before the election and we're looking lucky to break 70 electoral votes, especially after making a gaffe and getting hit by a scandal a week before.

The blowsw just keep right on coming. Another gaffe, this time on national TV, followed by another poor performance. Baker looks dog tired and done.

Carter wins the second debate, Baker collapses and makes another gaffe. This campaign has quickly gone down in flames.

Election Night
-Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Indiana are all quickly declared for Carter.
-We battle back and forth for Virginia and New Hampshire in the early going.
-John Anderson is polling 16.6% of the vote early.

-We have a brief early lead in North Carolina, but that disappears quickly as the Carter juggernaut rolls on.

-Just when I think we're going to make some headway, the news stations call the election.



-John Anderson very briefly leads Nevada, but that's quickly overrun.
-We get our first electoral victory in Idaho, followed relatively quickly by Arizona and Utah.
-New York continues to be a dead heat -44.8% with Anderson 10.4%, with 13% of the precincts reporting.

-Almost immediately after the reports start trickling in, North Dakota is declared for Baker.
-21% of the precincts in and we're leading New York 45.1% to 44.5%. I have plans for the 1984 file if I can figure out how to mod it, because I'm liking the idea of developing a political universe. I'm attaching this to NY because one of the things that's important is related to if we win the Empire State or not.

-30% in and New York is flipped back red.
-7% in California and it's been blue most of the time.
-41% in NY and Carter has a full percentage point ahead of us.
-We lock up Alaska early.

-80% in NY and it finally flips back over to blue, 45% to 44.9%. Let's hope we can keep it and salvage something out of this disaster.

-The script changes a few more times, but we finally eke out the win in New York. Baker - 2,969,422 to Carter - 2,966,300 - a difference of of 3,122 votes. Anderson got 681,976 votes and damn near cost us the state.


Final results

In fact, I'd say Anderson pretty much cost us the election. We would have won a lot more states in the West and had a good shot at states in the East if it wasn't for his running independent and doing so well.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I think crusaders are important assets in the General Election as they don't cost you CPs or energy once they're made.

I agree. It was nice having Rhodes out there doing a lot of work when Baker and Kemp couldn't.

[Izulde]

Baker Moves To Arizona, Forms New Federalist Party


Outcast by the Republican Party following his humiliating defeat to Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, former Republican presidential nominee Howard Baker has moved from his original state of Tennessee, where he lost badly to Carter, to Arizona, and has announced the formation of a new political party of centrists, called the New Federalist Party.


Yes I know I stole this from the British Federalist Party. It's a cool logo

In the intervening four years, the New Federalists, led by Baker's personal magnetism and 1980 election results, grew in strength in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and North Dakota to the point of 25% save North Dakota, where they had a 40% rate. and had a 7% rate in California, but was completely dismissed elsewhere.

[quote]
OOC Notes
I based these percentages on the Independent party in the default 1984 scenario which has 5% everywhere, save for a few New England states where they're 25-40%.

I also used the 30/40/40/-1 percentages in terms of committed/leaning/undecided/alienated for those regions that the Independents have and gave them the same 3 Established as the Independents since this is my first try at this. I bumped it up to 50/20/30 for North Dakota, to reflect the ease of Baker's win in 1980, figuring that those adherents to the New Federalists and Baker would be more devoted to the cause.[/quote

The party's platform, much like Baker's own political ideology, is strictly centrist, and they've been successful enough to get on the general election ballot on all 50 states and Washington D.C., thanks largely to Baker's presence as a national political figure and his leadership role in Congress prior to losing the 1980 election.

Baker Candidate Notes
-I left most of his attributes as they were at the end of the election. I brought Issue Knowledge and Debate Prep back up to 3, raised his experience to 4 and knocked how well established back down to 4, to reflect that he's starting a new party.
-It also asks me to give a goal percentage, which I assume is national percentage. -1 is default and that's win the election. Since it's a new party, let's have him shoot for 5%.
-His primary percentages don't matter because he's the only candidate and the general election percentages are greyed out.

Baker is still searching for a list of potential vice presidential candidates. Jack Kemp, his former VP, has become acclaimed in the Republican party and will be joining the ranks of Republican contenders which will not include Ronald Reagan, who is now 73 and failed in 1980 in his third try at the nomination.

Can anybody recommend potential VP candidates for Baker? Ideally I'd like to have at least two or three, so Howie has to make a choice. I'm leaving him as CPU in the 1984 election cycle to see how he does.

Also, there's 11 Democratic contenders, which is a good number. I like large fields. But with Reagan out as presidential contender, although I still may make him a VP candidate, the Republicans need people to fight for the open field with no incumbent president on either side. The last election came down to Baker, Ford, and Reagan, but both Ford and Reagan are over 70 now. I think George H.W. Bush would be good and Bob Fernandez is still in the default field, but I'm having trouble thinking of A) who else to include and B) how to rate them percentage-wise, etc. in the primaries.

[Izulde]

Oh and while I'm on the subject, I do think it kind of sucks you have to pay $10 to be able to write scenarios, but I understand why they do it.

My dream goal would be to be able to start with the 1789 election and go all the way to the present, creating an alternate history and the rise and fall of various parties through the years. But that would require massive map manipulation, which I have no talent for and it'd take a long time to create each scenario from scratch.

I'll still keep that as a long-range goal and go by baby steps.

[Coffee Warlord]

Interesting idea...how about one of the joint chiefs from the era? Nice military man as your VP during what's still the cold war?

Quick wikipedia search gives us....(as far as chairmans go, at least, I didn't go that deep)

George S. Brown, USAF (74-78)
David C. Jones, USAF (78-82)
John W. Vessey Jr., USA (82-85)
William J. Crowe, Jr., USN (85-89)

[chesapeake]

I question the underlying mechanics of a game that gives Carter any kind of chance to win in 1980.

Some Veep ideas...
Moderate Senators
Sam Nunn D-GA
Fritz Hollings D-SC
John Chafee R-RI
Dan Evans R-WA

Governors
Pete DuPont R-DE
By the standards of 1984, Bill Clinton D-AR would be a fit.

[Izulde]

Good idea. I'll take notes.

Right now I'm working on editing the 1789 scenario I downloaded. It's designed as primaries only so stop before the general election, and to get a VP because Washington was automatically historically.

But I'm changing that up and making Washington fight to get his presidential spot. I'm still keeping it primary, though, because it's too much work right now to do general election - I'd have to create a party for each candidate. I started doing that in one copy, but I've got another going where it's all candidates in one party and just having it be primary.

...And I'll probably create a separate thread for that one, just in case I decide to use that as a launching point for alt-history.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I question the underlying mechanics of a game that gives Carter any kind of chance to win in 1980.

Some Veep ideas...
Moderate Senators
Sam Nunn D-GA
Fritz Hollings D-SC
John Chafee R-RI
Dan Evans R-WA

Governors
Pete DuPont R-DE
By the standards of 1984, Bill Clinton D-AR would be a fit.

*adds those to possible list*

What happened was Carter managed to get the Big Momentum in the primary season, and I've read when you pull that off, you have a very good shot at winning.

I also think Anderson took a ton of the votes away from Baker and cost him the election. If it was just Baker and Carter, I think Baker wins.

[vols21]

possible VP candidates or other figures to use

Texas Gov John Connally. He would have been about 67 at the time and good fit with Baker.

SC Senator Strom Thurmond. had his own run as a 3rd party candidate once upon a time and leader of the Dixiecrats

NJ Democratic Senator Bill Bradley
His fellow former TN Senator Bill Brock
Bob Dole could slide over to help his Senate pal (or stage his own run).

Also, a Texas millionaire named Ross Perot gained some fame when he hired his own men to go into Iran to rescue some of his employees. There's a rumor he might be looking into politics

On the democratic side, be sure to include the possibility of Jesse Jackson
Jesse Helms would be an interesting candidate on the Republican side.

[vols21]

Looks like all the in-fighting during the primary did you in. Carter wrapped things up early and was already loading up scandals,etc to use against you in the general election. and you were trying to run a cleaner campaign.

didn't help that both of your guys collapsed from exhaustion - that negative publicity helped seal your fate. Not that Carter needed the extra momentum at that point.
One idea for the future when energy is that low is to spend the week building up Foot Soliders. That way you get some needed R&R and some help in key battleground states - when they hit the ground, plan a quick visit to rally them (gives them +1 power).

You used the "big state theory" and in the end that's about all you got (NY and Cal). Baker should have been able to make some inroads into the South (how did he lose his home state in both the Primary and General?? he was a superstar in TN unlike Gore who also lost TN in his general election). From what I remember, a lot of people THOUGHT the election between Carter and Reagan would be close and were surprised it turned into such a rout. Overall, I'd say you did well trying to overcome the big hole you started out in.

btw, I think there is a site somewhere that has Mod's with lots of elections since 1789 Topic: 1789 | 270soft Scenarios

check out the 1984 version for other names to include in your alternate world

[Izulde]

Okay, so I'm going to give my initial test run of my modified 1984 scenario a try and see what comes of it.

I haven't tested it or tinkered with it much, so the results will be... interesting.

Since I was a Republican last election cycle, and it's only Ronald Reagan and Ben Fernandez running, we'll enter the crowded Democratic field as John Glenn, because astronauts are cool.

Just to summarize, we have four candidates guaranteed in this election:

Democratic
Republican (a lock to be Reagan)
John Anderson
Howard Baker's New Federalist Party

I think the way I'll play it is, if Baker's NFP manages to win a state, or get 5% of the vote nationally, they'll remain in play as a party for 1988. Note: I have no idea how the percentages I assigned them will work, so we'll just have to see.

[Izulde]

The opening national picture. Hmm, Howard Baker doesn't even register 0.1%.



The opening Democratic primary picture. Ted Kennedy pretty much owns the field right now, with Walter Mondale not far behind.

But it's crowded. How crowded?

Ted Kennedy - 26.7% (Massachusetts)
Walter Mondale - 19.1% (Minnesota)
Gary Hart - 9.9% (Colorado)
George McGovern - 5.3% (South Dakota)
Jesse Jackson - 3.1% (South Carolina)
Jerry Brown - 2.9% (California)
John Glenn - 2.5% (Ohio)
Alan Cranston - 1.2% (California)
Ernest Hollings - 1% (South Carolina)
Reubin Askew - 0.9% (Florida)
Lane Kirkland - 0.8% (South Carolina)

So not only do we have 11 Democratic candidates, but 3 of them are from South Carolina.

...Weird. Baker is showing up as 0% in the NFP primaries, even though Anderson's 100% in the Independent primaries. Did I do something wrong here with the file?

...Yep, I did. Didn't set Baker's percentages for the primaries, nor the NFP's percentages. Time to fix that and relaunch.

I'm giving the NFP 5s across the board, with the exception of Arizona, Idaho, California, Utah, and North Dakota, as per the above post where I first outlined the changes I was making. I also bumped up Tennessee to 7%, given that it's Baker's old home state.

Baker now assigned 100% in primaries as well.

...Son of a bitch. My changes aren't showing up in the game when I load the scenario, even though I saved it in the campaign editor and everything is showing up as working right in the editor when I open it to double-check.

This is getting irritating.

[Izulde]

Heh. Problem solved. I had a couple of errors. 1) The North Dakota breakdown was 110%, not 100%. Secondly, I forgot to assign 100% committed to Baker for the primaries.

So yeah, the Campaign editor needs some more robust error checking, because it told me everything was fine.

Oh, I have John Anderson to be set Default On in the campaign editor, but when I load the scenario, he's not doing that. Minor bug that I can fix just by turning him on, though.

Anyway, because it's a new ballgame...





Baker is actually in a deadlocked tie for North Dakota, but oddly enough, in Arizona and Utah, all he's done is siphon votes away from the Democrats, rather than the Republicans. (10.9% for Dems in Utah, 17.1% in Arizona).

This strikes me as unusual, but we'll roll with it. It's a good way to learn more about the game and how modding stuff affects things.

Anyway, new starting polls:

Ted Kennedy - 26.7% (Massachusetts)
Gary Hart - 17.5% (Colorado (+1 from previous)
Walter Mondale - 15.4% (Minnesota) (-1 from previous)
George McGovern - 2.8% (South Dakota)
Jesse Jackson - 2.6% (South Carolina)
Jerry Brown - 2.3% (California)
John Glenn - 2.3% (Ohio)
Alan Cranston - 1% (California)
Ernest Hollings - 1% (South Carolina)
Reubin Askew - 1% (Florida)
Lane Kirkland - 0.8% (South Carolina)

30.3% Undecided

Wow, Hart and Mondale flip-flopped. Interesting. We're still very much way back in the fold, and I've forgotten how to play this game it's been so long, so we'll see what happens.

We're not given a chance of winning any states, which means we'll have to go for the get hot early strategy, I think?

That means focusing on Maine, Iowa, Minnesota, and New Hampshire, the four earliest primaries in that order.

Time to start up the advertising production machine. We'll focus on Leadership, Experience, and the Cold War as our three main issues in the theme, since Leadership and the Cold War are both red button issues and Glenn has a 4 in Leadership.

Foot soldiers ordered for Maine and Iowa. Barnstorm all four of those early primary states.

Click to go to the next turn and "Invalid floating point operation."

[Izulde]

Okay, so I planned to kick off my next game (since I still can't get my custom 1984 Baker New Federalist file to work), with the 1992 general election, bypassing the primaries completely.

Only the damned scenario file is bugged to where it makes you the Democrat even when you have it set to Computer.

And so I'll have to take the guy I most wanted to vote for in 1992, Ross Perot, through the primary season and general election both. I couldn't, of course, because I was in middle school.

Full Democratic slate because that's how I always roll, with as many candidates as possible.

To be honest, this is going to be interesting. I've never had a solo candidate before. What's even more interesting is that the initial start gives Perot good shot at winning a number of states.

Winning in Maine, even, as this screenshot shows.



The states with the >< around their abbreviations are the ones I've put in my campaign strategy for the general election. As you can see, my strategy is going to be own Middle America and New England, and just leave the South well enough alone.

I won't detail a turn by turn strategy. That takes too long when there's no primary contests to fight. George Bush will, of course, kick Buchanan's ass in the Republican primary.

Democrats? Here's the opening line:

Mario Cuomo - 16.9%
Jerry Brown - 10.4%
Paul Tsongas - 8.5%
Bob Kerrey - 8%
Bill Bradley - 7.8%
Dick Gephardt - 7.5%
Bill Clinton - 7.4%
Jay Rockefeller - 5.3%
Al Gore - 5%
Doug Wilder - 2.9%
Tom Harkin - 1.2%
Undecided - 19.1%

Wide spread there. Anyone can win it, I think, with the exception of Wilder and Harkin.

Viola! I win the independent nomination on the first turn and select James Stockdale as my VP because his middle name is Bond and who can go wrong with James Bond?

Cuomo gets hit with a 9 power Scandal first turn. Ouch!

Things get very interesting just after the first turn as we switch to the general election map while everyone else primaries.



I'm wondering how much of this is a convention/nomination bounce, though.

Wow. After two turns, I'm noticing that Perot sucks at barnstorming. Two out of three barnstorms failed this turn.

Issue Knowledge perhaps? Hmm, something to think about.

Okay, I spend the next couple turns bumping up Issue Knowledge and barnstormings are a lot more successful now. Good to know.

A few more turns go by and it's hard to get a sense of if we're actually improving or not. Gephardt is getting slammed left and right by everyone and he and Slick Willie are duking it out as frontrunners.

Gephardt's got 15.4%, Willie 19.3%, Gore with 10.9% as the three top guys right now. Cuomo's 9 power scandal absolutely destroyed him, taking him down to 6.1%.

Bush gets a ton of endorsements from governors across the nation.

I spent all my political influence points to try and get the Teamsters Union to endorse Perot.

We get the Teamsters endorsement, which I wanted for the 16 foot soldiers, and make a good impression on the Larry King Live Show, which is a 3 profile boost.

Jerry Brown's campaign runs out of money, so he's probably done.

Al Gore picks up a slew of endorsements of his own.

We release a 3 profile scandal on Bush and release our first television ad to our current target states, some of which have changed. Going to cost us $2 million a day to target all the states in our current, but it's worth it to get us jump-started.

We shine in our NBC Nightly News appearance and all of a sudden, our Command Points jump from 14 to 21. No idea how that happened, but we'll take it.



A snapshot after the jump.

One thing I noticed is that our How Well Established is only a 2. I'm thinking that's where we've been having problems generating anything consistent and keep slip-sliding all over the place.

Issue Knowledge and Debate Skill for Perot are both at 4 now. Stockdale's Debate Skill is only at 2, so we need to pump that up.

I'm thinking our real route to victory will probably lay in a combination of building up our establishment, maxing out our debate skills, and continuing to work on finding scandals to take Bush and whoever wins the Dem nom down.

Updated Dem standings:

Mario Cuomo - 12.7%
Bill Clinton - 11.8%
Dick Gephardt - 10.7%
Al Gore - 8.2%
Bob Kerrey - 7.7%
Bill Bradley - 7.4%
Paul Tsongas - 6.9%
Jay Rockefeller - 6%
Jerry Brown - 4.3%
Doug Wilder - 3.4%
Tom Harkin - 1.6%
Undecided - 19.3%

Cuomo made a huge rebound somehow from that 9 profile scandal. Brown's money woes have crashed him from one of the initial favorites to an also-ran. Surprised Gore's dropped 2% despite all the endorsements he's been getting. Most impressive part of this to me is Gephardt's jump from his initial starting position. Clinton I kind of expected, given the historical reality.

[Izulde]

I changed computers and as a result lost the save files I had. Going to restart fresh with the 2008 - Policy Wonk scenario, which makes things even more interesting than the base 2008 start because it includes more candidates.

[Izulde]

So with the 2008 - Wonk Edition, instead of 13 Dem candidates, 12 Republican candidates, 3 Libertarian candidates and a Constitution Party candidate we have... 13 Dems, 10 Repubs, 3 Libertarians and a CP.

...Oops.

My fault.

I guess the only change was John Kerry gets swapped out for Russ Feingold, but that's just fine, because my native state Senator who never should have been voted out for that Johnson Teabag assclown is our candidate.

Opening Map and Polls


Hillary Clinton: 20.4%
Barack Obama: 11.5%
Mark Warner: 7.1%
Al Gore: 6.3%
John Edwards: 5.7%
Russ Feingold: 4.5%
Wesley Clark: 2.9%
Bill Richardson: 2.2%
Joe Biden: 2.2%
Evan Bayh: 2%
Tom Vilsack: 1.5%
Chris Dodd: 1.1%
Dennis Kucinich: 0.5%

So % wise, we're off to a much better start than Clark in the default campaign I ran, but Hillary and Obama also command a larger share of the national vote right now, so it's all equal mostly likely.

We're at -10 or worse everywhere but Wisconsin and the grouping of Delaware, Alaska, Wyoming, and Mississippi, where we're winning and -9 respectively.

Initial Iowa Polls
Clinton: 15.3
Obama: 15.2
Edwards: 10.2
Vilsack: 6.9
Warner: 6.5
Feingold: 5.2
Richardson: 4.8
Gore: 3
Biden: 2.1
Bayh: 1.2
Dodd: 0.9
Kucininch: 0.4

Hmm.

We're 6th in Iowa, tied for 4th in New Hampshire, and 5th in Michigan, the latter of which, remember, only has 1 delegate, similar to Florida.

Looking over the Super Tuesday states, we're doing worse overall than the early states, so the early momentum appears to indeed be the best tactic.

Turn 1
I've decided to make this election about Iraq, Healthcare, and Integrity, the latter being Feingold's strongest point. The former two are highest priority issues, and I think I have a shot at potentially winning by focusing on them.

-Noisy Protesters at Feingold, Obama, McCain Events
-Concerts for Dodd, Vilsack, Clark, Obama, Paul
-Giuliani Ahead of Clinton in Polls

First barnstorm failed, second one succeeded in Iowa, and the New Hampshire one succeeded as well.

One foot soldier already built in Iowa, and another one goes there. We're going to hop around Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire for a while, barnstorming and building foot soldiers, while creating ads to prepare for a launch when the time is right. Oh and we'll also start hitting the Super Tuesday states we have planned to go after, many of which are in the Mountain West and South.

Turn 2
-Warner makes gaffe on Issue Familiarity
-Noisy Protesters at Dodd Event
-Obama Campaign Too Negative?

Turn 3
-Gore makes good impression on Letterman
-Obama Campaign Too Negative?
-Romney Wins Debate
-Clinton makes Gaffe on Experience Issue

We seem to have about a 50% success rate on barnstorming, which isn't great.

turn 4
-Protesters at Obama, Richardson Events
-Clinton Gives Stirring Speech in Michigan
-Clinton Endorsed By League of Conservation Voters

Turn 5
-New Hampshire is Clinton/Warner tie
-Obama Attack Ad Backfires
-Clinton Shines On Oprah
-Dodd Wins Democratic Debate
-Obama Campaign Too Negative?

Son of a bitch. We just lost the debate, too... 10 to 9.

We're running like 5th in New Hampshire now too.

Turn 6
-Tie in Montana: Clinton/Clark/Warner
-Tie in New Mexico: Richardson/Gore
-Edwards hits Warner on Campaign Trail
-Vilsack Campaign Too Negative?
-Noisy Protesters at Feingold Event
-Obama's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner Speech Draws Rave Reviews
-Clark Campaign Too Negative?

Turn 7
-California and Colorado - Clinton/Obama Tie
-Texas - Clinton/Obama/Warner Tie
-Obama and Clinton Attack Ad Warner
-Bayh Makes Gaffe on Military Issue
-Vilsack Campaign Too Negative?
-Dodd Wins Debate
-Clinton Rollin' In New Hampshire

9 to 8 Debate Loss. We just can not break through.

The good news is our efforts in Iowa now give us a Good chance of winning the state.

Turn 8
-Delaware Tie - Clinton/Biden/Obama
-New Hampshire Tie - Clinton/Warner
-New Mexico Tie - Richardson/Obama/Gore
-Pennsylvania and South Carolina Tie - Clinton/Obama
-Edwards Attack Ad Backfires
-Warner Attack Ad Backfires
-Obama endorsed by Governors

Turn 9
Missouri - Tie Clinton/Obama
Ohio Tie - Clinton/Warner Tie
-Warner Attacks Gore
-Bayh Attack Ad Backfires
-Obama endorsed by more governors

I decide to release an attacking Hillary on health care in Iowa and New Hampshire, with plans to strike again in later states.

Turn 10
-Warner makes good impression on Letterman
-James Carville Campaigns for Clinton in Iowa
-Richardson Makes Gaffe on Subprime Mortgages

Turn 11
Iowa Tie - Feingold/Obama
-Clinton/Warner Too Negative?

We're running out of time, so I create Barbara Boxer to be a Crusader for me.

Turn 12
FEINGOLD WINS DEBATE!
Clinton Attacks Warner
Clark Makes Gaffe on Integrity
Biden Makes GAffe on Immigration

About god damned time we won a debate.

Turn 13
-Vilsack shines on Daily Show
-Warner, Clark Too Negative?

4 Days to Iowa, 9 to New Hampshire

Turn 14
Feingold wins in Iowa (31 delegates, Warner 26) 13 Profile - 13 Power
-3 Power Clinton Scandal
Obama and Feingold Debate to Draw

2 Days to New Hampshire

Turn 15
Warner wins New Hampshire (30 delegates)

We finished second in New Hampshire, so not all is lost.

[Izulde]

We're pouring almost all our money into Super Tuesday ads in hopes that will get us over the hump... Going to be tough, though.

Turn 16
Clinton wins Michigan
Warner wins Nevada

We finish 4th in Nevada, which is a rough setback. Michigan I didn't pay any attention to.

Turn 17
Warner wins South Carolina (18 delegates each Warner/Obama/Clinton)

Turn 18
-Gore, Biden, Dodd endorses Clinton, withdraws
-Kucinich Withdraws
-Warner wins Florida
-6 Power Clinton Scandal

Turn 19
Edwards, Bayh Endorses Clinton, Withdraws
Warner wins Alabama (22, Obama 22, Richardson 16)
Feingold wins Alaska (5, Clark 5, Obama 4, Warner 4)
Feingold wins Arizona (31, Warner and Obama 18)
Warner wins Arkansas (16, Obama 11, Feingold, Clark 10)
Obama wins California (144, Clinton, Warner, Feingold, 99)
Warner wins Colorado (39, Obama 31)
Feingold wins Connecticut (21, Warner, Obama 15, Clinton 9)
Feingold wins Delaware (9, Obama 8, Warner 6)
Obama wins Georgia (44, Warner 34, Clark 24)
Warner wins Idaho (10, Obama 7, Clark 6)
Obama wins Illinois (139, Feingold 46)
Warner wins Kansas (23, Obama 18)
Obama wins Massachusetts (45, Feingold 44, Clinton 32)
Obama wins Minnesota (30, Clinton/Warner 29)
Warner wins Missouri (49, Obama 38)
Obama wins New Jersey (58, Clinton/Warner 34)
Obama wins New Mexico (21, Warner 17)
Obama wins New York (104, Warner 103, Clinton 75)
Warner wins North Dakota (9, Obama/Clark 6)
Warner wins Oklahoma (22, Obama/Clark 13)
Obama wins Tennessee (22, Clinton/Warner/Feingold 21)
Warner wins Utah (16, Obama 13)
Accidentally skipped one, think it was a Warner win though
Feingold wins Louisiana (36, Warner 16, Obama 15)
Warner wins Nebraska (14, Feingold 10, Obama 7)
Obama wins Washington (31, Clinton/Warner/Feingold 22)
Obama wins Maine (11, Clinton/Warner/Feingold 7)

Delegate Count
Obama - 895 (Est. 1770)
Warner - 754 (Est. 1039)
Feingold - 392 (Est. 484)
Clinton - 347 (Est. 578)
Clark - 64 (Est. 64)
Edwards, Vilsack, Bayh - 0

So Super Tuesday was not very kind to us. 1976 delegates are needed to win the nomination before the convention, and we could potentially play Obama Kingmakers. We can't offer to be the VP candidates though because he hasn't secured the nomination.

Turn Whatever
Richarson endorses Clinton, Withdraws
Obama wins Maryland (43, Clinton 33, Warner 23)
Warner wins Virginia (and Obama 37, Feingold 27)
Obama wins D.C. (and Clinton/Warner 11, Feingold 7)
-3 profile Clinton Scandal

All the Clinton scandals are catching up to her if they haven't already.

Next Turn
-Vilsack endorses Clinton, withdraws
Clinton wins Hawaii (11, Obama 8, Warner/Clark 5)
Feingold wins Wisconsin (69, Warner 23)

Suddenly that win in the home state makes a lot of other states toss-ups.

Playing out the string...
Clark endorses Obama, withdraws
Obama wins debate
Clinton Too Negative?
Carville Slams Feingold
Obama blasts Warner
Warner endorsed by Ted Kennedy
Obama wins Ohio (56, Warner 41, Clinton 40, Feingold 24)
Warner wins Rhode Island (11, Obama/Feingold 8, Clinton 6)
Warner wins Texas (105, Obama/Feingold 61)
Warner wins Vermont (10, Clinton 5, Obama/Feingold 4)
Obama wins Wyoming (8, Feingold 6, Warner 4)

Texas was huge. We didn't win, but we shut Hillary out and are now guaranteed to be in third place heading into the convention.

Obama wins Mississippi (17, Warner 14, Feingold 10)
Obama makes gaffe on experience issue
Warner screws up on Leno
-9 power Warner scandal
Clinton caught in a bunch of lies
3 power obama scandal
Obama and Warner attack each other through several turns

Feingold wins Debate x 2
6 power Obama scandal
4 power Obama scandal
Whole bunch of gaffes for Obama

Suddenly it's looking like anybody's game at the convention potentially.

Clinton Withdraws

Obama wins Pennsylvania (69, Feingold 69, Warner 48)

Simultaneous 3 power Obama scandals
6 power Warner scandal

We lost Pennsylvania 39.3 to 38.3% and the amazing part is, a month before, we were dead last in the state. We have no chance of being anything but third before the convention, and will probably be voted out again, but c'lest la vie.

...What.the.fuck?! We were pouring a ton of resources into North Carolina, looking like it's ours, and suddenly Obama's way ahead in the state, and there was nothing to indicate why.

Obama wins Indiana (46, Warner 39)
Obama wins North Carolina (58, Feingold 45, Warner 31)

The scandals continue to fly but that North Carolina win was huge for Obama and has him in the nomination driver's seat.

Obama wins Indiana (45, Warner 37 I think)
Feingold wins Kentucky (28, Obama 22, Warner 10)
Obama wins Oregon (43, Warner 22)

Scandals continue to hit both frontrunners but with only 7 CP I can't do anything about it.

Feingold wins Montana (12, Obama 9, Warner 4)
Feingold wins South Dakota (11 Warner/Obama 6)

Naturally I lost, and Obama picks up most of my delegates to win the nomination, but he's behind - Guiliani's at 47% Obama 29.2% - and Guiliani is projected to win every state except Illinois, which is a tossup, and few New England states.

That said, Feingold was chosen for the VP.

Not sure if I'll continue this one or not.