With all the rumblings that many states may do next week what Florida did in 2000, I was reminded of an ATGS thread Michael Burger started in the wake of Florida's stalemate. Maybe instead of counting electoral votes, we should look at the electoral map like the Blockbusters board. Since Shrub is the incumbent (politicalspeak for "returning champion"), he must connect red to red, west to east. As the challenger, John Kerry must connect blue to blue, north to south.

Place your cyberbets: if this were the format, who would win?

After reconsideration, I've reopened the thread... but let's not have this degenerate into "Shrub Sucks! Hanoi Kerry swallows!" Okay, folks? :-)

If those were the rules, the election would be most fiercely contested in three states: Washington, Oregon and California.

CA for the most part... quickest route I can see for Bush would be CA-AZ-NM-TX-AR-TN-NC.

Shrub Sucks! Hanoi.........er, excuse me. :)

We all know that the presidential election will be decided with how the Redskins do on Sunday........;)

Oh, and since no one's suggested a course for Nader, allow me... the following states should work:

Confusion-Inadequacy-Delusion-Arrogance

I would make it a game where each candidate competes to get to the center. Kerry starting from the California (the so called left coast), Bush from the right side (Washington D.C.) First guy to get to Iowa wins.

Dave, I think you've found something we can agree on. :-)



You've just made me aware of how terribly ironic it is that I live in Pennsylvania. :-)

Sounds like a vehicle for Johnny Carson's comeback:
Earn Your Presidency!

(yes, I know noone under 50 is going to get that)

I'm looking at this map, and if Kerry starts at the northeast, works southwest (via Pennsylania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois), then down through Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, it is feasible to win the match. My problem is looking through California, and going around the northern plains can connect up and around...

'tis a confusing map, I need a telestrator.

Well, this has to be the '87 version, since it's one on one. So, if this goes 3 rounds, what does the tiebreaker map look like? ;-)

Clearly Kerry has the advantage going top to bottom because just like Blockbusters, a short, verical-slanting route is easier than a long horizontal-slanting route(Bush). Of course, there's no best 2 out of 3 like Blockbusters so, it's for all the marbles(or the White House in this case).

Well, Bush does have Cheney doing the thinking, so it's two against one, thus the GOP pair gets the longer path.

We all know that the presidential election will be decided with how the Redskins do on Sunday........;)
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No, no, no, it is decided with whether Kenjen breaks Olmstead's record by the 11/2 episode of J!.

Johnny Carson hosted Earn Your Vacation back in 1954. I read it in a book called "How Sweet It Was".

Just for the record, in a game of Presidential Blockbusters, and assuming a minimum of four connections (just like on the show), Bush is the likely winner. Bush is a lock going right through the center of the country from the Dakotas straight down to Texas.

Kerry will probably win the three west coast states, but if he loses any one of them then Bush almost certainly gets a left-right connection as well. Bush, in fact, will definitely win more individual states than Kerry, which means very little in the actual race but means a lot when you're playing Blockbusters.

Kerry's best chance for a Blockbusters win is taking Arizona or Nevada, giving him the minimum four connections in the west, or making a top-to-bottom connection along the Mississippi, including the state of Mississippi which is highly unlikely.

Here's a great site I've been checking daily. It's run by a registered Democrat who works very hard at staying impartial, and it gives the electoral breakdown of the race based on state-by-state polling data.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Speak for yourself. I'm under 50 and I got it. :)

Doug

As opposed to GSWitch, who got it but still doesn't "get it." ;-)

Who's Johnny Carson?

(Matt checks tv books)...

Oh, the guest host NBC hired while waiting for Jay Leno to become available to host the Tonight Show!

I love history.

Canada.

I'd be surprised if he's ever "gotten it". As it were.

Since it would have meant nothing to this group of people in 2000 but would mean something now, the person who actually quipped about the electoral map being like Blockbusters was Kevin Olmstead. I just stole the joke at the time because who knew that the source would become minorly famous.

If you really want to be creeped out by the coverage this year, apparently NBC is turning the Rockerfeller Center skating rink into a big electoral map.


--Mike

Well, Brokaw wants to go out in a blaze of glory. And the whole Democracy Plaza thing is it.

We should get Howard Dean to announce, just so someone can monitor our contestant's progress. When someone gets 270 points, he belts out a great big "YEAAAAHHHHH!"

Damn, you didn't need to remind me about today's J!

MAN IN STUDIO AUDIENCE (to Steve Allen): Steve, do they get your show in Pasadena?

STEVE: They hear it, but they don't get it.

Notice that "Presidential Blockbusters" can end in a tie. The key is the "four corners". If one candidate takes Arizona and Colorado, and the other candidate takes Utah and New Mexico, with the rest of the map appropriately colored, it's a tie.