Ooh, this one is interesting.
Senator Scott of CT wins the Democratic primary by uniting the moderate and liberal wings of the party. He picks moderate governor Clinton1996 of Virginia, and together they run on a very centrist economic platform while mostly ignoring social issues.
In the GOP, former gov Oldiesfreak1854 of Michigan defeats moderate senator Spamage from Oregon by appealing to more conservative voters. Fortunately, theere were no significant "true conservative" candidates in the race so Oldiesfreak1854 was able to position himself to the right of Spamage without moving very far to the right. Oldiesfreak picks Spamage as his running mate to unite the party and counter the Scott/Clinton ticket's moderate appeal.
The election is an interesting one, with the ideological gap between the candidates smaller than most in recent history. Both candidates try to run on personal issues and their records in office, however neither of them have much of an advantage there either as Oldiesfreak was a successful governor and Scott is one of the most respected senators. Oldiesfreak's campaign attacks Scott on social issues fairly successfully, highlighting the one area where one of the candidates is out of step with the average American voter, but Scott's campaign counters by accusing Oldiesfreak of running a "negative" and "divisive" campaign based on social issues while his campaign is more positive and focused on economic issues that people care about more.
In the end, Oldiesfreak wins the popular vote by less than 1%, but Scott pulls out the narrowest possible electoral college victory, 270-268. Much of the difference is regional based on the home states of the candidates. The Scott/Clinton ticket does well in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic, while Oldiesfreak does well in the Rust Belt and the West. Both the Green party and the Constitution party do well, getting almost 2% of the vote each.
