If Romney ran as an independent

[Ljube]

Romney must avoid vote splitting at any cost. This means he has to run only in those states TRUMP could never win and where he could hurt Hillary.
Romney only needs one state to win the election in the House of Representatives, provided TRUMP and Hillary win less than 270.

[Ljube]

I have a hard time imagining any Obama state going to Romney. That's why I think he is not the best candidate to stop both Hillary and TRUMP and Bloomberg, who could win New York would be far better.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think that Romney should pick a moderate (center-left or center-right) as VP. If his goal is to take the election to the House, he needs to win over some center-left voters too. He'll need to win at least a couple of blue states (like Virginia or Colorado).

Here's a semi-realistic map where no one gets over 270 EVs:

Hillary Clinton: 268 EV's, 47%
Donald Trump: 160 EV's, 30%
Mitt Romney: 110 EV's, 20%

NOTE: I don't think that this map will happen.
I'm just saying that this is a possible map where no one gets over 270.
The reason I shaded Arizona and NC red is because of vote splitting.
AZ and NC could certainly go blue/green.
You guys have to remember that Colorado and Iowa absolutely hate Clinton and Trump.
I could see Romney winning these two states.
What do you guys think.

Why on Earth would Romney win here or Wisconsin? And you can't just say "vote splitting". The Democratic floor here is about 40% (basically Al Franken's 2008 numbers), so even if Trump collapsed here and ended in the single digits Romney would still need at least a quarter of Obama 2012 voters.

And those numbers don't reflect the popular vote at all. Hillary would be winning over 40 states if she had a 17 point lead on the second place candidate. You basically just took the 2012 map and colored some states green.

[RR1997]

I think that Romney should pick a moderate (center-left or center-right) as VP. If his goal is to take the election to the House, he needs to win over some center-left voters too. He'll need to win at least a couple of blue states (like Virginia or Colorado).

Here's a semi-realistic map where no one gets over 270 EVs:

Hillary Clinton: 268 EV's, 47%
Donald Trump: 160 EV's, 30%
Mitt Romney: 110 EV's, 20%

NOTE: I don't think that this map will happen.
I'm just saying that this is a possible map where no one gets over 270.
The reason I shaded Arizona and NC red is because of vote splitting.
AZ and NC could certainly go blue/green.
You guys have to remember that Colorado and Iowa absolutely hate Clinton and Trump.
I could see Romney winning these two states.
What do you guys think.

Why on Earth would Romney win here or Wisconsin? And you can't just say "vote splitting". The Democratic floor here is about 40% (basically Al Franken's 2008 numbers), so even if Trump collapsed here and ended in the single digits Romney would still need at least a quarter of Obama 2012 voters.

I don't think this map will happen. I know that Romney wouldn't even come close to winning Wisconsin/Minnesota (he might win Iowa though). I just couldn't think of any other ways Hillary could fall below 270 EV's.

Is this map any better?

Hillary Clinton: 47%, 262 EV's
Donald Trump: 30%, 161 EV's
Mitt Romney: 20%, 115 EV's

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think that Romney should pick a moderate (center-left or center-right) as VP. If his goal is to take the election to the House, he needs to win over some center-left voters too. He'll need to win at least a couple of blue states (like Virginia or Colorado).

Here's a semi-realistic map where no one gets over 270 EVs:

Hillary Clinton: 268 EV's, 47%
Donald Trump: 160 EV's, 30%
Mitt Romney: 110 EV's, 20%

NOTE: I don't think that this map will happen.
I'm just saying that this is a possible map where no one gets over 270.
The reason I shaded Arizona and NC red is because of vote splitting.
AZ and NC could certainly go blue/green.
You guys have to remember that Colorado and Iowa absolutely hate Clinton and Trump.
I could see Romney winning these two states.
What do you guys think.

Why on Earth would Romney win here or Wisconsin? And you can't just say "vote splitting". The Democratic floor here is about 40% (basically Al Franken's 2008 numbers), so even if Trump collapsed here and ended in the single digits Romney would still need at least a quarter of Obama 2012 voters.

I don't think this map will happen. I know that Romney wouldn't even come close to winning Wisconsin/Minnesota (he might win Iowa though). I just couldn't think of any other ways Hillary could fall below 270 EV's.

Well if Hillary wins the popular vote by 17 points over second place, she's not falling under 270. That map is basically just 2008 with two states flipped red and a bunch flipped green.

[mencken]

Clinton vs Trump vs Romney

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Can we, as a forum, stop trying to push this whole "MODERATE HERO THIRD PARTY" narrative?

How about no. If Trump is the nominee, theirs a large chance of a centrist third party candidate running (IE A JOHN ANDERSON).

Much more possible then another scenarios and discussions involving third parties. If any election is to have a major third party, its this one.

Yes, and could have an impact similar to how John Anderson got a double digit percentage and won electoral votes!

Also Romney is not a centrist.

[Ljube]

Can we, as a forum, stop trying to push this whole "MODERATE HERO THIRD PARTY" narrative?

How about no. If Trump is the nominee, theirs a large chance of a centrist third party candidate running (IE A JOHN ANDERSON).

Much more possible then another scenarios and discussions involving third parties. If any election is to have a major third party, its this one.

Yes, and could have an impact similar to how John Anderson got a double digit percentage and won electoral votes!

Also Romney is not a centrist.

Bloomberg could fit the bill.

[RR1997]

Can we, as a forum, stop trying to push this whole "MODERATE HERO THIRD PARTY" narrative?

How about no. If Trump is the nominee, theirs a large chance of a centrist third party candidate running (IE A JOHN ANDERSON).

Much more possible then another scenarios and discussions involving third parties. If any election is to have a major third party, its this one.

Yes, and could have an impact similar to how John Anderson got a double digit percentage and won electoral votes!

Also Romney is not a centrist.

Bloomberg could fit the bill.

I like Bloomberg, but I have to disagree with you.
Both Bloomberg and Romney would get around 5% of the vote if they were to run.
The difference is is that Bloomberg wouldn't even come close to winning a state, while Romney could certainly win Utah, and possibly other states like Idaho and Colorado.
Bloomberg 2016 isn't going to happen.
Romney also has a much higher ceiling than Bloomberg, even though their floors are about the same.

[mds32]

I think that Romney should pick a moderate (center-left or center-right) as VP. If his goal is to take the election to the House, he needs to win over some center-left voters too. He'll need to win at least a couple of blue states (like Virginia or Colorado).

Here's a semi-realistic map where no one gets over 270 EVs:

Hillary Clinton: 268 EV's, 47%
Donald Trump: 160 EV's, 30%
Mitt Romney: 110 EV's, 20%

NOTE: I don't think that this map will happen.
I'm just saying that this is a possible map where no one gets over 270.
The reason I shaded Arizona and NC red is because of vote splitting.
AZ and NC could certainly go blue/green.
You guys have to remember that Colorado and Iowa absolutely hate Clinton and Trump.
I could see Romney winning these two states.
What do you guys think?

I would argue that is more than a couple blue states lol.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm going to very blunt here: Did any of you pass math classes in high school? Because most of these maps are mathematically impossible, even if you ignore the shading levels.

The map of this scenario if Romney does as well as most of you have him, would not simply be 2008/2012 with a few states flipped to green.

[win win]

Romney is pathetic and if he does this would become the most hated man in the GOP.
The dems would love him though!

[/]

You guys are hilarious; the only actually feasible map is something around this:

[Stranger in a strange land]

Trump makes large inroads with the white working class, but still loses due to a surge in Latino turnout, high black turnout, and the loss of Middle Class White Suburbanites, many of whom vote for Romney. Hillary wins a bunch of states with pluralities because of this.

Clinton 50% - 440 EVs
Trump 39% - 88 EVs
Romney 10% - 10 EVs
Other 1%

Oh, and also, Romney doesn't have a chance of actually winning Wyoming (12% Mormon - only Lincoln County is majority Mormon) or Colorado (2% Mormon). Romney obviously gets a large number of non-Mormon votes in this scenario, but not enough to win either of those states. Wyoming in particular doesn't have many of the type of Republicans who would back him over Trump.

[Maxwell]

Romney sucks. He is Donald Trump except with a dog whistle instead of a loud speaker.