Thread: Road To The White House

Some of you know I'm a gamer. A friend of mine discovered a set of play-by-email rules for a game called Road to the Whitehouse. In it players guide a candidate for party nomination through the caucusses and primaries in the order they actually occur. Issues get raised throughout the campaign and then pushed aside as new issues arise. Each candidate has a set of 'positions' on the various issues which provide bonuses toward debates. Winners achieve popular votes in the state where the debate took place and losers lose some. Popular votes are also accumulated through advertising in the individual states, by visiting the state, or by random endorsements from unions, consumer groups and the like. Congressional Votes are assigned as in reality.

Although the board game takes just a few hours to complete, the email version is being run in real time so we're in week 3 and my candidate arrived in Des Moines, Iowa on Presidents Day where 3 other candidates are about to be soundly trounced in debates.

I've never really kept up with how the whole congressional thing plays out and I'm learning a lot about the US political system. I've posted this to ask any of you political junkies out there if you have any advice for me about how to organise my candidate's travels, advertising budget etc. over the next four months. Maybe you've seen some great blunders occur or terrific coups. I'm totally green at this so anything you can offer will be appreciated.

Anne Serious for President!

X

I didn;t see any pbm rules. Is it administered or run by a few folks?

Originally Posted by xman

I've posted this to ask any of you political junkies out there if you have any advice for me about how to organise my candidate's travels, advertising budget etc. over the next four months. Maybe you've seen some great blunders occur or terrific coups. I'm totally green at this so anything you can offer will be appreciated.

Anne Serious for President!

X

Sell out to a corporate interest of your choice.

Originally Posted by Scrapyard Ape

Sell out to a corporate interest of your choice.

Not an option have control over. Endorsements are drawn somewhat randomly.

hiker, I'll check for you.

X

X,

Sounds like you're already ahead of at least half of the citizens in our country... I was a poli-sci major in college, and I'm always fascinated by the odd schemes we human beings concoct to help us make decisions--or avoid making them.

Word to the wise: Don't diss corn while you're in Iowa.

This sounds like a fun game.

Josh

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

Word to the wise: Don't diss corn while you're in Iowa.

Originally Posted by Scrapyard Ape

Sell out to a corporate interest of your choice.

You guys are no help at all.

The debates went well, one candidate hid under a rock, another left town screaming and the third is bloody and broken behind the podium. I expect an announcement Saturday that I've won the state.

I gather this year ISN'T a caucus year as it isn't an election year, but I still see a lot in the news about the candidates, some of whom have already announced they'll seek the presidency (Clinton and Obama most notably getting lots of attention in the press). What's up with all the media attention on a process that hasn't even started?

X

Originally Posted by xman

You guys are no help at all.

The debates went well, one candidate hid under a rock, another left town screaming and the third is bloody and broken behind the podium. I expect an announcement Saturday that I've won the state.

I gather this year ISN'T a caucus year as it isn't an election year, but I still see a lot in the news about the candidates, some of whom have already announced they'll seek the presidency (Clinton and Obama most notably getting lots of attention in the press). What's up with all the media attention on a process that hasn't even started?

X

Now this is a dangerous topic.

Your belief of the reason for the media attention paid to these two is most likely decided by the attitude of the party you most closely find yourself aligned with.

My general belief about politicians is that the more hot air they spew the higher their media fame, kinda like balloons. Therefore I feel that these two have the most inflated heads around at the moment therefore they get a lot of attention. This despite the complete lack of substance in either their words or the medias coverage of them.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

My general belief about politicians is that the more hot air they spew the higher their media fame, kinda like balloons. Therefore I feel that these two have the most inflated heads around at the moment therefore they get a lot of attention.

Yeah, sure. I follow that. What I'm confused about is not the personalities, but how the state organisations seem to be handling things as a kind of preliminary set of caucuses. Is this normal? Is it a way of drumming up early support? I just don't get what's going on this early.

And I agree we're close to the danger zone with an almost political discussion, but I don't want this to get sidetracked about actual political beliefs and this guy vs. that gal. I'm just trying to understand the congressional process a little better and maybe plan my progress through the states. Let's go easy on the political opinions and have fun with the mechanics.

X

X,

The reason the elections are starting so early is due to several factors: These days the candidates need huge amounts of money to be considered viable--at least $100 million for when the primaries start early next year.

Also, many of the states have moved their primaries up earlier in the year because they want to be more important. Lately the candidates have been wrapping up the nominations earlier and earlier in the year, so the states that held their primaries later were getting ignored. It's sort of a silly game, though, because if everybody moves up, you end up in the same situation...

We don't have any incumbants running, either. This is the first time in a long time that neither a sitting president or vice president is running. The wide-open field means more candidates from both sides get involved.

You're using the word "caucuses," which is only applicable in a few states. Most state primaries are just like regular elections except you only vote for candidates in your party. Those candidates go on to the general election.

Caucuses, like those held in Iowa, are pretty cool actually. The voters gather in local schools and auditoriums and discuss issues. They try to convince each other of their positions. Somehow these results are tallied statewide. I'm not sure exactly how this works because Pennsylvania does a more traditional primary. The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries are considered important because they kick off the election season, which technically starts in January or February and runs through the summer. Then the general election is held in November.

The congressional elections don't really get started as early. The candidates are always laying the groundwork, but we don't hear much about them until closer to the actual elections.

I don't think all the attention Clinton and Obama are getting is purely political. They're both pretty media savvy. Having worked in the press, I'm confident in saying that certain people just relate well with reporters, and this translates to a lot of coverage. Both Clinton and Obama are in the opposition party, and they're opposing a war that's not very popular right now. John McCain is another media favorite on the Republican side.

I can talk about this all day. I apologize if I'm telling you stuff you already know; a lot of people in this country don't really understand how this stuff works.

Josh

Originally Posted by xman

Yeah, sure. I follow that. What I'm confused about is not the personalities, but how the state organisations seem to be handling things as a kind of preliminary set of caucuses. Is this normal? Is it a way of drumming up early support? I just don't get what's going on this early.


X

I have no real idea why this is happening so very early this time either other than some candidates base supporters (big $$$ guys) might be a little unsure of the general appeal of the horse they are backing so they might want to see it run before they back it in the big race.