President Forever results thread...

[defe07]

I just ran as Badnarik in the P4Ever Demo. I also ran "symbolically" as Bayh, Warner, Gore, Frist and Allen so that way they could endorse Badnarik (on the very first day). This gave me a tremendous boost. Here's the map:

Now, these weren't the final results but I just gave the swing states to the candidate that was leading.

Clinton 258 29.3%
Giuliani 265 34.6%
Badnarik (me) 15 15.5% !!!
Undecided Voters 20.6%

[defe07]

I was coming in close 2nd in most of the Southern states and a mix of strong 2nd or weak 2nd in the Mountain West. I did badly in the New England states (obviously, the Libertarians aren't on the NH ballot so that's out) but strangely well in the Midwest states. The Pacific was a mix. Anyways, this 15.5% (which might've been higher if I'd finished the game) has been my best result so far. Before I was happy if I got more than 2% with Badnarik but when I started playing as others to endorse Badnarik, the game totally changed. Oh, I also forgot to mention that Clinton was ahead in New Mexico.

[defe07]

I ran as Badnarik and also ran as Bayh, Gore, Warner, Frist and Allen in the primaries. With exactly a year left, all 5 dropped out and endorsed Badnarik (of course I had them all be with the same platform: social liberal/fiscal conservative with many moderate planks on both sides). All candidates were winning their states before they dropped out. This is still with the demo (yoohoo, I'm finally getting the real game now!)

Final Results (before the game ended)

Giuliani 33.7%/260 EV
Clinton 26.8%/110 EV
Badnarik 17.4%/96 EV
Undecided 22.2%/72 EV

Add up the EV where the states are too close to call:

Giuliani 282 EV
Clinton 160 EV
Badnarik 96 EV

I won SD, TX, TN, VA, WV, NC, AL & MS. Here's the map:

I almost came close to winning 100 EV.

[defe07]

I swear to God I don't know how I got 96 EV myself. I had like $2 million when I was endorsed (but I don't know how to give a candidate money) and used it to run ads. It's funny, I got Perot'92 numbers but won EV and didn't have that much money. CA went Giuliani because I played "spoiler" and got almost 8%. I must admit that part of my success was to have the low-tier candidates focus on winning states in the primaries. My crusaders, Russo and Thompson, campaigned everywhere except NH (not on the ballot) and Badnarik barnstormed here and there but mainly focused on raising money. I also had many foot soldiers and got endorsed by the pro-guns group so that may've helped too. I'm not sure if this is part of how Gabu's strategy works but I thank him. I would like to know though how I can give a candidate money and if a candidate that ran in a primary can run under another banner. Before I forget, all the candidates that dropped out gave Badnarik political points.

[defe07]

Whoa Gabu, would you mind telling me how's your strategy? Do you use the same thing when you're running as an indy or 3rd party candidate? Thanks!

[defe07]

Whoa Gabu, would you mind telling me how's your strategy? Do you use the same thing when you're running as an indy or 3rd party candidate? Thanks!

Well, the main force of my strategy is always a two-part ad burst, preferably to the entire nation, but certainly to as many states at the same time as you can.  I throw out one about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the campaign to halt any advancements my opponent(s) might be making - if you let them go for too long, they'll have wrapped up too much of the nation for you to be able to win them back at the end.  I then throw out the second one as close to the end as I can such that I'll just run out of money right on election day.  This is for two reasons.  For one, positive momentum going into the election is huge; running out of money right on the last day after a massive ad blitz ensures that you have the maximum momentum on election day.  For two, the "X's campaign out of funds" negative newspaper headline does not appear until the day after you run out of money - if you run out of money on election day, it will never appear.

As a third-party candidate, my strategy has always been to win all of the endorsements right away, focusing on those with an attached monetary benefit first (as you can do this with no expenditure whatsoever) and then I simply spend the entire campaign fund raising.  This ensures that I will be able to run the ads when I go to do so for as long and to as many states as possible.

One thing to recognize about President Forever is that momentum is huge.  The more momentum you have, the more you can get later.  If one of your opponents is beginning to gain the edge, a one-day ad blitz to the entire nation can easily get you momentum well into the three digits, which will completely and utterly obliterate the advantage your opponent was having.  The ad campaign is not sustainable; once the ad stops and the momentum wears off, things will go right back to where they were before.  The trick is to time it just right so that the nation is right where you want it on election day.

Oh yes, and always be researching a scandal on your strongest opponent.  The best thing a third-party candidate can possibly have is for both major party candidates to have negative momentum.

I just ran as Nader in 2000 with the above strategy and this was the result:

Basically I did all the endorsements and made four ads: Leadership/Nader, Experience/Nader, Leadership/Attacking Bush, and Integrity/Attacking Gore.  I then put all these ads into the states with 3-5 EVs and calculated how long I could run them for (it came out to 5 days).  So I then ran all four ads once a week for five weeks (I realized that since it takes a while for your momentum to die down, it's actually better to spread out your ad blitzes instead of running them for consecutive days).  Then I blasted the whole nation with all four ads on the last day.

Do you play using the Primary mode or General Election mode? Anyways, I always try to have my crusaders barnstorm in as many states as I want (usually it's every state except NH) and this helps me when I'm raising money. I always run my ads in the smallest states and sometimes I barnstorm there as well. When I get the pro-gun rights endorsement, I see if any states where footsoldiers are located focus on the small states I'm targeting. If so, I keep the ads running there and barnstorm in the other states. Anyways, I will admit that I always play using the Primary mode and I self-endorsed Badnarik (playing as Gore, Warner, Bayh, Frist and Allen). How about you Gabu, do you do the same thing or are your results thanks to the GE mode?

[defe07]

Has anybody played as Paul running as a Libertarian and if so how did you do?

[defe07]

Has anybody played as Paul running as a Libertarian and if so how did you do?

Me. I actually won Idaho. Of course I turned the Democratic party into kind of a Communist party...

And let me guess: you turned the Republicans into Fascists and the Libertarians into moderates?

[defe07]

I have a question. With a French what-if, how would it work? A candidate needs to get an absolute majority of both the Electoral Votes and popular vote in the first round, or else the candidate with the most popular votes and Electoral Votes in the second round wins, for example?

[defe07]

     I got PF back on my computer! In celebration, I ran through 1992 as Bush, running the most phenomenally negative campaign the world had ever seen. As an ultimate act of humiliation, I won Arkansas & Tennessee.

Bush/Quayle, 42%, 385 EVs
Clinton/Gore, 36%, 142 EVs
Perot/Stockdale, 20%, 11 EVs
Marrou/Lord, 1%, 0 EVs

How did Perot win WA out of all places?

[defe07]

Fred Thompson/Condelezza Rice-330
Joe Biden/Russ Feingold-208(ME)

OK, weird?! You lost Delaware and Wisconsin and somehow beat Thompson in Tennessee?

[defe07]

Polnut/Sebellius - 307EV - 50.7%
McCain/Palin - 231EV - 47.3%
Others -  2%%

I ended losing VT! but won FL, IN, OH!!!

     How on earth did you lose Maryland?

[defe07]

Polnut/Sebellius - 307EV - 50.7%
McCain/Palin - 231EV - 47.3%
Others -  2%%

I ended losing VT! but won FL, IN, OH!!!

     You lost MD? How?

[defe07]

Roosevelt: 197
Wilson: 181
Debs: 149
Taft: 4

The HoR elected Wilson.

Hmm... Debs did well here but why did he do so poor in the West and only one state which was Washington? Dynamism?

[defe07]

Beat FDR!!!

Hoover 339
FDR      188

In a way you must be wondering how come you didn't win Iowa for Hoover, with such a big score.

[defe07]

1992:

Clinton: 41% PV, 279 EV
Bush: 43% PV, 259 EV
Perot: 16% PV, 0 EV

1996:

Clinton: 43% PV, 326 EV
Dole: 42% PV, 212 EV
Perot: 15% PV, 0 EV

OK, who tainted Vermont?

[defe07]

Gore: 47.1% PV (57,333,427), 323 EV
Bush: 47.1% PV (57,319,113), 215 EV
Nader: 3.7% PV (4,533,557), 0 EV
Buchanan: 2% PV (2,453,099), 0 EV

Gore's best state was Rhode Island, with 82.6%
Bush's best state was Oklahoma, with 92.3%
Nader's best state was Alaska, with 17.5%
Buchanan's best state was Alaska, with 16.8%.

Gore won Wyoming by 204 votes.
Bush won Delaware by 313 votes.

How did Buchanan and Nader do overall? I know they did well in Alaska but, for example, Buchanan must've scored in the mid-20s or something in order for Gore to win Wyoming.

[defe07]

Nader and Buchanan both did very well.  They combined for nearly 6% of the popular vote, and broke 10% in multiple states each.  In DC, Nader finished ahead of Bush, and Oklahoma was the only state where neither of them reached 2%.

But why was Wyoming so close and why did Gore win it?

[defe07]

Nader and Buchanan both did very well.  They combined for nearly 6% of the popular vote, and broke 10% in multiple states each.  In DC, Nader finished ahead of Bush, and Oklahoma was the only state where neither of them reached 2%.

But why was Wyoming so close and why did Gore win it?

Right, sorry.  I don't know why it was so close, but Gore won by 0.1%.  Both Nader and Buchanan broke 10%, and Gore got 39%.

So maybe this was the result? Gore 39%, Bush 38.9%, Nader+Buchanan 22.1%.

[defe07]

Barbour v. Obama v. Ventura in 2012. Say hello to President Haley Barbour! He almost pissed away a 10% lead and won by just 3%.

Any popular vote totals by state?

[defe07]

you did better in OK then CA? lol

No, I was Ron Paul.

How did you do as Paul, state by state?

[defe07]

Major glitch. I ran as Ruwart. Will only post map, but I received almost 20% of the vote.Romney/Lieberman won the popular vote by 3% over Vislack/Richardson, but lost the electoral vote. Like, 25% were undecided on election day.

God, you won Florida as Ruwart?

[defe07]

2000: Bush vs Gore vs Me

Bush: PV 42.7%, EV 267
Gore: PV 42.5%, EV 271
Me: PV 14.8%

What were your best states? I mean, percentage wise and if you came in second in any of them!

[defe07]

my best ever game was this. In 1996 I smoked Dole with 55% of the vote, Perot taking about 11%:




I also did this as Mondale:

What were Perot's best states?

[defe07]

Best Game Yet 2000

Senator Evan Bayh/Senator Russ Feingold-346 EV, 49,769,282 PV (45.8%).
Governor George W Bush/Former Senator John Danforth-192 EV, 47,360,281 PV (43.6%).
Activist Ralph Nader/Former Congressman Dan Hamburg-6,245,136 PV (5.8%)
Activist Pat Buchanan/Activist Ezola Foster-5,203,443 (4.8%)

I edited 2000 alot since I got this scenario. I added Paul Wellstone, and Evan Bayh to the Democratic primaries, and lots of extra VP options for each party. I created Bayh today, expecting to come in dead last in each primary. I started off with 8% in Iowa. I won Iowa, New Hampshire, and eventually, the nomination at a divided convention. Gore lost votes to the right to Bayh, and to the Left from Wellstone and Bradley. Bush won his primaries easily, though McCain and Dole gave some opposition here and their. With a centrist's Bayh and Bush (somewhat) as the nominees of the major parties, the Left boomed. Nader got 11% in Georgia, and averaged 10% in most states. Buchanan won the Teamsters and AFL-CIO endorsements for his protectionist positions. The election was extremely close, though I pulled it off. Two days before the election, it looked like Bush was gonna win a landslide.

Which were the best states for Nader and Buchanan?