The Campaign Trail

[badgate]

Are you playing games where you intentionally do awful to see how high the opponent can get?

[Flake]

Are you playing games where you intentionally do awful to see how high the opponent can get?

For 1896, no.  For 1968 and 2012, yes.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm starting to think that the 2012 game is rigged in favor of Obama.

[Mopsus]

A positive debate performance and successful sabotage of the Vietnam peace talks won me this victory as Nixon/Romney:

Note that Minnesota, Massachusetts, and South Carolina were all within two points. This, after a game as Wallace that landed me within the 99.5th percentile of people who played as Wallace. I'm on a roll!

[Mopsus]

I'm starting to think that the 2012 game is rigged in favor of Obama.

The only way that you could come to that conclusion is if you're running to the far-right every time. I just played a simple 13-question game as Romney/Pawlenty, running as a moderate conservative, and got this result:

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I'm starting to think that the 2012 game is rigged in favor of Obama.

I actually find it easier to win with Romney.

[badgate]

I won a game as Bryan this morning and scored in the 99.9 percentile. I'll post screen caps in a moment. Also, I've decided to e-mail the guy and inquire about other years. I'll report back

[Mopsus]

I FINALLY figured out how to win as Barack Obama:

[Smid]

I've decided to e-mail the guy and inquire about other years. I'll report back

Any success?

[Flake]

I've decided to e-mail the guy and inquire about other years. I'll report back

Any success?

I emailed him over a year ago with no success.

[badgate]

Yeah, no reply so far. Perhaps the address isn't checked very often. Or he/she is a meanie that doesn't believe in replying to e-mails.

[Sec. of State Superique]

2012 - Meh Romney wins!

270 to win

Fmr. Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA)/ Senator Robert Portman (R-OH): 315 EVs - 49,98% (65,330,124)
President Barack Obama (D-IL)/ Vice-President Joe Biden (D-DE): 223 EVs - 48,35% (63,196,873)
Fmr. Governor Gary Johnson (L-NM)/ Jurist James P. Gray (L-CA): 0 EVs - 1,34% (1,746,541)
Physician Jill Stein (G-MA)/ Anti-Poverty Advocate Cheri Honkala (G-MN) 0 EVs - 0,34% (439,584)

Just changed the hole campaign of Mitt Romney. Instead of just bashing Obama, I tried to send a beautiful conservative message of Optimism, being a little bit vague sometimes, while keeping with a social conservative position on many issues. Focused a lot in the Midwest and in the Rust Belt and picked Portman to lock Ohio. There were things pretty strange in that map. Gary Johnson did pretty well in that game (3,27% in Nevada/ 4,34% in New Mexico/ 2,49% in Colorado) and New York was a close state (Obama: 51.22%/Romney: 47.05%/Johnson: 1.38%/Stein: 0.35%).

Here there's a list of the closest states:
1.Virginia (Romeny 49.44%/ Obama 49,22%)
2.Florida (Meh Romeny 50,02%/ Obama 48,81%)
3.New Hampshire (Romney 50,15%/ Obama 48,37%)
4.Iowa (Romney 50,27%/Obama 48,29%)
5.Colorado (Romney 49,60%/ Obama 47,59%)
6.Delaware (Obama 50,36%/Romney 48,11%)
7.Pennsylvania (Romney 50,62%/ Obama 48,16%)
8.Wisconsin (Romney 50,58%/ Obama 47,98%)
9. Nevada (Obama 49,73%/ Romney 48,62%)
10. New York (Obama 51,22%/ Romney 47,05%)

(NJ,MI,MT,MN,MO) were also close.

Best States:
Obama - D.C (88,71%)
Romney - Utah (69,97%)
Johnson - New Mexico (4,34%)
Stein - D.C (1,65%)


Oh! Romney did better than McCain in Arizona! (60,11%)

[Sec. of State Superique]

1896 Elections - Changing History

224 to win

HR William Jennings Brian (D-NE)/ Governor Claude Mathews (D-IN): 234 EVs -51.07% (7,116,089)
Governor William McKinley (R-OH)/ Garret Hobart (R-NJ): 213 EVs - 47,98% (6,685,030)
Governor John M. Palmer (ND-IL)/ Governor Simon B. Bolivar (ND-KY): 0EV - 0,95% (131,985)

[Mechaman]

1968 as Humphrey

HHH/Fred Harris: 407 Evs/46.06% PV
Nixon/Somebody: 66 Evs/39.69% PV
Wallace/Somebody: 64 Evs/14.25% PV

Best States HHH:
DC: 78.88%
Hawaii: 66.90%
Rhode Island: 63.50%
Massachusetts: 62.43%
Connecticut: 58.22%

Worst States HHH:
Alabama: 18.70%
Mississippi: 24.08%
Louisiana: 27.14%
Georgia: 29.02%
Arkansas: 29.63%

Best States Nixon:
Wyoming: 51.60% (LOL)
Montana: 51.48%
Utah: 50.95%
South Dakota: 50.30%
Nebraska: 50.27%

Worst States Nixon:
Alabama: 11.03%
Mississippi: 11.39%
DC: 19.17%
Louisiana: 24.61%
Georgia: 26.56%

Best Wallace States:
Alabama: 70.28%
Mississippi: 64.52%
Louisiana: 48.25%
Georgia: 44.42%
Arkansas: 41.62%

Worst Wallace States:
Massachusetts: 1.90%
DC: 1.95%
Rhode Island: 2.77%
Hawaii: 2.95%
Connecticut: 3.45%

[morgieb]

Played all 3 games. Won 2012 with the exact same margin as real life (although the state percentages were different) - I outplayed 84% of my contemporaries, drew with HHH (won a plurality of EV's though) - losing California and a mediocre performance in the Midwest hurt me, and I lost with Bryan where I lost the Midwest (although I got a majority of the vote).

I don't have 1896's actual results on me, but here's 1968:

[Mechaman]

2012: 2000 Revisited

Ran a little to the left of what Obama did IRL, while not taking an overtly aggressive tone.

Results:

Mitt Romney: 270   EV 63,062,381    48.30%
Barack Obama: 268 EV  65,482,604    50.15%
Gary Johnson    0    1,572,837    1.20%
Jill Stein    0    448,543    0.34%

Yep, I got robbed.

Obama

Best States:

DC: 91.41%
California: 65.44%
Massachusetts: 64.66%
Hawaii: 63.66%
Illinois: 63.63%
Rhode Island: 62.81%
Vermont: 62.75%
New Mexico: 61.38%
Oregon: 58.21%
Maine: 57.09%
LOL at California

Worst States:
Arizona: 37.87%
North Dakota: 37.77%
West Virginia: 37.38%
Arkansas: 37.06%
Texas: 36.84%
Alabama: 34.10%
South Carolina: 33.92%
Oklahoma: 32.90%
Mississippi: 32.11%
Utah: 29.71%
Looks like a total Southern collapse.

Romney

Best States:

Utah: 69.55%
Oklahoma: 67.10%
Mississippi: 66.74%
Alabama: 64.80%
South Carolina: 64.75%
Arkansas: 61.95%
West Virginia: 61.73%
Texas: 61.53%
Arizona: 60.80%
North Dakota: 60.56%

Worst States:

Washington: 40.97%
Oregon: 39.70%
Rhode Island: 35.35%
Vermont: 35.16%
Illinois: 34.83%
New Mexico: 34.65%
Hawaii: 34.40%
Massachusetts: 33%
California: 32.25%
DC: 6.89%

Johnson

Best:

New Mexico: 3.42%
Nevada: 2.86%
Montana: 2.69%
Idaho: 2.43%
Colorado: 2.31%
Wyoming: 2.15%
Alaska: 1.79%
California: 1.68%
Texas: 1.58%
Massachusetts: 1.58%

Worst:

Minnesota: .92%
Florida: .88%
Pennsylvania: .88%
Arkansas: .83%
Louisiana: .79%
West Virginia: .71%
Michigan: .67%
Utah: .66%
DC: .37%
And of course, Oklahoma is dead last with zero!  THank you fascist voting laws!

Weird Results:

The West, for instance:

Idaho:
Romney: 56.20%
Obama: 41.13%

Wyoming:
Romney: 59.26%
Obama: 38.44%

I mean really, you would've expected these to be super Republican, given the campaign I was running.

[Mechaman]

Closest States

Obama:

Iowa: 49.36%-49.25%
Pennsylvania: 49.99%-48.82%
Colorado: 49.26%-48.08%
Wisconsin: 50.38%-48.18%
New Jersey: 50.57%-48.06%
Nevada: 50.55%-46.20%
Minnesota: 52.08%-46.63%
Delaware: 54.15%-44.45%
Michigan: 55.03%-43.78%
New York: 55.17%-43.26%
Yep, a lot of greedy millionaires voted that year.

Romney:

Virginia: 49.77%-48.94%
New Hampshire: 50.09%-48.44%
Ohio: 50.92%-47.76%
North Carolina: 51.21%-47.48%
Florida: 51.79%-47.04%
Indiana: 51.94%-46.65%
Montana: 51.64%-45.39%
Missouri: 52.85%-45.86%
Tennessee: 55.75%-42.9%
Georgia: 56.41%-42.38%

This election certainly is redefining "swing states", isn't it?

[Thomas D]

I'm starting to think that the 2012 game is rigged in favor of Obama.

Just like the polls were last year, right?

[Mechaman]

Running as Mitt Romney on a non-interventionist foreign policy, downplaying social issues (but not moderate), and as an economic populist (fiscally conservative and protectionist):

I ran as pretty much a moderate Ron Paul Republican, and here is the results.

---- Mitt Romney    325    65,642,617    50.12%
---- Barack Obama    213    63,075,509    48.16%
---- Gary Johnson    0    1,794,157    1.37%
---- Jill Stein    0    455,807    0.35%

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

Played Humphrey/Connally in '68.

Richard Nixon:57 EV 29,641,022  40.41%
Hubert Humphrey: 435 EV 34,377,578 46.87%
George Wallace: 45 EV 9,334,869 12.73%

Best States
D.C.: 77.03% (!)
Hawaii: 64.47%
Massachusetts: 60.57%
Rhode Island: 59.34%
Maine: 57.31%
Connecticut: 55.03%
West Virginia: 53.22%
Michigan: 51.57%
New York: 51.11%
Oregon: 50.92%

Worst States
Alabama: 23.87%
Mississippi: 27.85%
Louisiana: 29.21%
Georgia: 30.15%
Arkansas: 34.52%
South Carolina: 35.19% (lol I still won here)
North Carolina: 35.48% (and here)
Tennessee: 35.83% (...here as well)
Florida: 36.86% (...yeah.)
Arizona: 37.91%

Closest States
North Carolina: 35.48%-34.99%-29.53%
Virginia: 39.60%-39.00%-21.40%
Florida: 36.86%-36-12%-27.02%
Oklahoma: 41.23%-39.66%-19.12%
Indiana: 45.54%-43.54%-10.92%

All Humphrey wins.

[Cryptic]

Obama/Biden: 347 52.10%
Romney/Ryan: 191 46.25%

Played as Obama.  Did somewhat better than real life results. 

[Smid]

It would make a bit more sense if this thread were in the Election Games board.

[Representative Joe Mad]

Got almost the exact same popular vote percentage as well.  As Obama I had 50.82%, Romney had 47.49%.

[Thomas D]

Got almost the exact same popular vote percentage as well.  As Obama I had 50.82%, Romney had 47.49%.

That's actually rather impressive.

[politicallefty]

I ran a fairly liberal 1968 campaign with Humphrey/Kennedy.

Hubert Humphrey  316  44.8%
Richard Nixon        168  41.4%
George Wallace      53  13.7%