March 2008. Michael Bloomberg announces that he will be running for President and organizes a grassroots campaign in all 50 states. Bloomberg devises a strategy to win -- focus on the 11 states that will put him at the 270 mark: New York, Texas, Michigan, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carlina, Georgia, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey. Knowing that he wouldn't win all these states, he picked Chuck Hagel, a midwestern conservative known for his anti-Bush policies as his VP candidate in order to appeal to moderates and to mid-westerners where he is not known. Bloomberg ends up spending $2-3 billion on his campaign.
Barack Obama still picks Joe Biden as his running mate, and unfortunately, John McCain sticks with Sarah Palin.
Obama is seen to win the Presidential debates and Chuck Hagel is seen as the victor of the Vice Presidential debate.
During the campaign, Barack Obama and Bloomberg are more cordial to each other than they are to McCain, both saying McCain will just repeat Bush's policies and mistakes. McCain slumps in the polls in many states, but still remains optimistic.
End Results:
Bloomberg's strategy pays off, stealing an equal number of votes from both candidates and managing to secure electoral votes. Bloomberg wins some midwest states. With early victories in Michigan, Connecticut, North Carolina and New Jersey, Bloomberg is confident of victory. A surprise win in Kentucky rallies the Bloomberg supporters even more. For the first time, it looks like there may just be an independent President.
The Obama campaign is shaking in its boots on election night. New England didn't come through for them. They had lost one of Maine's congressional districts and Connecticut. Slim margins in New York and Pennsylvania for the Obama team meant that there would be legal proceedings and possible recounts. What hurt most, is that they lost New Jersey and Ohio.
Out of all the gloom, Obama had managed a victory in Georgia, Bloomberg stealing votes from McCain, and in Virginia. When the Obama team won Missouri, they were ecstatic because no President had ever won without Missouri since the 1800's.
The McCain staffers knew they lost. There was incredible turnout. Bloomberg had surprising victories in many states --ones the McCain camp hoped to win. They had done well in the South but the midwest was disappointing --loosing Oklahoma even with their pickup of Minnesota. John McCain remained ignorant of the fact that they were clearly going to loose --they lost a lot of libretarian leaning Republicans to Bloomberg, and both campaigns lost moderates to him.
The McCain staffers finally decided to tell the candidate that they would loose when they saw exit polls out of Arizona. 42% Obama, 40% McCain, 17% Bloomberg.
The West Coast was a huge victory for the Obama campaign. Winning Arizona was a huge blow to the McCain campaign and made up for loosing Washington. A 13-point margin of victory in California gave them a huge lead in the popular vote.
As they waited for the final results, the candidates watched Al Franken concede to Norm Coleman and learned that the Democrats had a big pickup in the House and Senate.
Final Results:
Barack Obama/Joe Biden
Total PV: 50,187,959
Total EV: 262
Won 22 states + DC (does DC get to vote in the House when there is no majority)
John McCain/Sarah Palin
Total PV: 39,205,333
Total EV: 98
Won 16 states
Mike Bloomberg/Chuck Hagel
Total PV: 42,670,646
Total EV: 178
Won 12 states
House: Obama receives the 26 of 50 votes needed (after several rounds of voting) due to the Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado delegations switching sides after making a deal in the Senate for Hagel to be Vice President.
Senate (58D, 42R)
Biden:41 (Mostly Democrats)
Hagel:54 (Democrats & Republicans)
Palin: 5
President Obama and Vice President Hagel are inaugurated on January 20, 2009. President Obama admits that he would have considered Hagel to be in his cabinet anyway. Biden ends up as Secretary of State.
