prez infinity mafiascum 2016: the general creaks into action

[Drench]

okay folks, one more update, and a roundup afterwards

[D3f3nd3r]

At least I'm winning Florida

Unlike the damn Floridian from the RL primary cycle god dammit Rubio

[xRECKONERx]

hey mcgriddles plz drop & endorse me, thx

[Drench]

The Week of December 16th

47 days until Iowa
55 days until New Hampshire
328 days until the Presidential Election

Headlines

The papers are released each day in the morning, and describe what happened the previous day. The first day of the cycle is a Wednesday, and the last a Tuesday, but the first newspapers are Thursday's, and the last Wednesday's.

Thursday's papers:

God

Negarir

is not having a good one. This time, he's using government offices--that cost money to rent, mind you--as a clearinghouse for an underground fake Rolex thing. I don't know what those words mean, I'm low on creativity, but just know that the extent is 6 and it's a

scandal

.

Khan

is filthy rich, and releases an attack ad on

Defender

.

Reckoner

calls for only gays to be permitted marriage licenses, which gets him in a bit of hot water, but his immigration speech is okay so that's cool.

Mothma's

win is still in the news, as

TSL

and

Negarir

meet the voters and pundits.

Friday:

The

Negarir

scandal (they're calling it

RoLax

because he was lax about record keeping or something, I don't fucking know) is building in intensity, even as he tries to deflect with some interviews on O'Reilly.

Abbott

gets heat from a

Negarir

surrogate in Nevada, whilst

Serduchka

is really negative, or something. There are also protesters in places, I don't know.

Saturday:

Khan

literally appointed prostitutes he enjoyed to governmental positions in the Mongol Empire.

Scandal

almost seems like a weak way to put this. Not that

Negarir's

shit is disappearing either, that is also Very Bad. In normal news,

Peanuts

is that rare liberal who does poorly on O'Reilly, and

TSL

trades barbs with

Negarir

on the trail, impacting them both.

Serduchka

calls for whatever it is Democrats want in military intervention nowadays to rapturous applause. Anyway let's get to this debate.

THE THIRD

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

DEBATE

Saturday, December 19th, 2015

Everyone left

McGriddles

alone. That's the first thing you need to know about this debate: that everyone left the clear fifth-placer alone. And they weren't wrong:

McGriddles

did not do well, having no specific thing that even interests or that differs from any other. There were three tiers in this debate; the aforementioned holding one, the winner holding the other, and the middle three. Of them,

Serduchka

[/color and

Peanuts

fought to a draw--true, the former did try to knock the latter, but it did nothing but improve the latter's standing.

Peanuts

, riding off that, didn't convert into a winning performance, nor did his attack on

Spire

work at all. Neither did

Reckoner's

, leaving the golden boy to soar to a highly convincing win.

1. Spire (15 points)
2. Reckoner (6 points)
3. Peanuts (4 points)
3. Serduchka (4 points)
5. McGriddles (-1 point)

Headlines, Continued

Sunday:

The

Khan

and

Negarir

scandals

threaten to overwhelm all else, but some things are still poking through.

Spire

rides a high from the debate win, while

McGriddles

stumbles a bit after his own performance. And it's the traditional endorsement day, so here they are:

Negarir

,

Sen. Mark Warner

;

Defender

,

Sen. Johnny Isakson

(and he spoke well on corruption as well);

Khan

,

Sen. Chuck Grassley

;

Abbott

,

Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin

(lmao); and in a move that'll be a big emotional blow to some:

Peanuts

,

Sen. Bernie Sanders

.

Monday:

Khan

continues to drown.

Negarir

starts to get some clear air for some well-received policy speeches, while a new

scandal

begins to emerge, this time for

Defender

.

Khan

, to be fair, is still out there, doing things in New Hampshire and on TV to relatively good reviews, but, like. Come on.

Tuesday:

TSL

keeps bringing in that dough, while

Khan

would be having a good week if it weren't fort his massive fucking

scandal

that overwhelms all else.

McGriddles

is having a not-very good week after claiming pre-existing condition protections are economically bad and therefore fully bad--as a Democrat, in a Democratic primary--while

Reckoner

keeps on in Virginia. Good stuff.

Wednesday:

Spire

gives a stirring speech blah blah blah is there anything he can't do please kill me.

Khan

continues to suffer.

Negarir

and

Reckoner

both get accused of being too negative, while

Mothma

decides campaigning is important and appears on Meet the Press, doing well in the process.

Defender

gets hit by

Negarir

on the trail; the latter's real busy today, also appearing on O'Reilly and giving a speech on free trade, to good reviews. What a week.

The Week That Was

Ironically, the Democratic primary appears more settled, but the proportional nature of Democratic delegates makes a contested convention far more likely than the inversely settled Republican primary. Anyway, this is me begging this game to make it closer.

Week in Review

The news cycle strength is how good or bad your media was for the week, if you had any media at all. The ads just tell you who's producing what, and what's being targeted in each. Scandals are self-explanatory. The full picture has basically everything that happened, but unformatted, so you can cry while you read it.

Spoiler: News cycle strength

Khan

-53,

Negarir

-43,

Peanuts

-12,

Spire

+10,

Abbott

-7,

Mothma +6

,

McGriddles

-6,

Reckoner

-5,

Tilden-St. Leonard

-3,

Serduchka

+2,

Defender -1

.

Spoiler: Ads

Tilden-St. Leonard

> completed ad > United States >

Tilden-St. Leonard

/Integrity.

Negarir

> completed ad > United States >

Tilden-St. Leonard

/Immigration.

Mothma

> completed ad > United States >

Mothma

/Leadership.

Defender

> completed ad > United States >

Mothma

/Military Intervention.

Abbott

> completed ad > United States >

Abbott

/War on Terror.

Khan

> completed ad > United States >

Khan

/War on Terror.

Serduchka

> completed ad > United States >

Serduchka

/War on Terror.

Spire

> completed ad > United States >

Spire

/Leadership.

McGriddles

> completed ad > United States >

McGriddles

/Health Care.

Reckoner

> completed ad > United States >

McGriddles

/Government Spending.

Peanuts

> completed ad > United States >

Peanuts

/Health Care.

Spoiler: Scandals

Scandal on Negarir!
Scandal on Khan!
Scandal on Defender!

Spoiler: The rest

Abbott endorsed by Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin > Education!
Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin is now a potential Surrogate for Abbott!
Defender endorsed by Sen. Johnny Isakson > Government Spending!
Sen. Johnny Isakson is now a potential Surrogate for Defender!
Khan endorsed by Sen. Chuck Grassley > Environment!
Sen. Chuck Grassley is now a potential Surrogate for Khan!
Peanuts endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders > Government Spending!
Sen. Bernie Sanders is now a potential Surrogate for Peanuts!
Negarir endorsed by Sen. Mark Warner > Immigration!
Sen. Mark Warner is now a potential Surrogate for Negarir!
Khan receives permanent issue bonus from policy speech on the Integrity issue.

Gaining momentum:

Spire

,

Abbott

,

Serduchka

Losing momentum:

Peanuts

,

Negarir

,

Khan

MAPS

Ignore McMullin. Leaders of each state are colour-coded; white states means it's too close to call. The percentage list on the right-hand side is the popular vote; the lines and segments down the bottom are PROJECTED delegates. Once delegates start being earned, that will be added separately.

REPUBLICANS

DEMOCRATS

Next time, on this thing!:

We are six updates away. It's time to start getting hype.

[D3f3nd3r]

At least I'm winning Florida

-Says
-Loses Florida

Scandal on Defender!

What did I do this time?

[Drench]

The First-In-The-Nation Roundup

40 days until Iowa
48 days until New Hampshire

Let's check this out, because national polling =/= state by state polling. Everything under spoilers because there are eight images here.

The Republicans

Spoiler: Iowa

So, Abbott's doing really well in Iowa. Like, superbly well. He has unbelievable momentum in Iowa.



Is it going to last? Who the fuck knows. But there ain't many better places to start your peak than just one month before. Then again, it'd probably be way better if it were happening in two weeks, when there wasn't any more time for it to die. Notably, the nationwide leader here is fifth, although a lot of that I'd put down to the massively bad week he just had.

Spoiler: New Hampshire

Abbott is just CASHING in tbh! And if he can get these two in a row, that sets him up really well in a way the polls aren't capturing right now, imho. His momentum here is great, too.



Whether it holds: again, that's the thing. But right now, his direction is up. Once again, the nationwide leader, Negarir, is fourth. TSL is doing well. And Defender is doing so poorly he doesn't make threshold--which I won't expect to change unless something dramatic goes down.

The Democrats

Spoiler: Iowa

Here is The Problem for those who want to down Spire with a well-placed win in Iowa.



He is winning in Iowa. And his voters, when they move from him, aren't going to others--they're becoming undecided. That's the mark of voters who might just come home in the end. Notice as well, all five are receiving delegates in current polling--but Reckoner is very very very very close to being locked out. The other problem?



His momentum is down--but so is the momentum of others. He has to be second to someone, and right now, nobody's really showing any ability to be that overtaker.

Spoiler: New Hampshire

This ain't much more interesting but it's a little bit more interesting. Reckoner holds the clear lead, and enough support that it's locking out not one but two candidates from any delegates at all. Which is great, except guess who's second. Yes, it's the guy who's on track to win the whole thing according to national polling. Good stuff.



Then again, Reckoner is benefiting at the expense of literally everyone else in NH. If he can replicate that elsewhere, or anyone can replicate that at all, this may not be the coronation it's starting to feel like, what with Spire, The Candidate Who Can Do No Wrong.

This all assumes a contested convention isn't coming. It's always too early to assume until the first few primaries are done, but I'm not sure at this point whether that'll be avoided.

40 days out. 28 of those days will be taken up by the next four updates. As we get to the last week and a bit, I may do day by day updates, which will obviously be shorter and therefore faster to produce, to Increase Suspense (and also to get day-by-day maps and polling lmao).

[AniX]

I hope you all know I am the one behind all these scandals.

[Drench]

i mean SOMEONE's leaking them and it ain't the candidate themselves

i personally expect the really big ones to drop in the fortnight before, i would bet money that campaigns are holding onto the big ones to leak at the opportune times

[AniX]

TSL Scandal Production HQ

[inspiratieloos]

Reminder I am literally the Anti-Hillary and have zero scandals on me of any kind (I know definitely the Repubs but probably you Dems too) and am by far the richest person in the race. I don't need to do shit. All I need to do is let you degenerates do your degeneracy (both parties) and keep the pressure on for them, outlast you all, and in less than a digital year you'll all be singing along to Taylor at my Inauguration.

Don't forget you're losing your primary, another point of difference.

I'm also scandal free so far btw.

[Majiffy]

hey mcgriddles plz drop & endorse me, thx

After you spent the entire race so far attacking specifically me? Tough chance there, cookie.

[Kublai Khan]

I hope you all know I am the one behind all these scandals.

Scandalous.

[xRECKONERx]

look...

i got nothin

[Majiffy]

Maybe you shoulda considered your options before playing hardball with the richest Dem on the ballot

[Majiffy]

But if you want to drop out and endorse me I'll give you Sect. of Urban Housing and Development.

[Kublai Khan]

Oh damn. He's Carsoning Reck.

[xRECKONERx]

money can only get u so far

(source: ur poll standing)

[Majiffy]

Yeah but I can feed my horses longer than yours.

[Majiffy]

Also you're dead last in Iowa and I'm 3rd so that gives me a significant amount more strength to my claims than you.

[AniX]

Reminder I am literally the Anti-Hillary and have zero scandals on me of any kind (I know definitely the Repubs but probably you Dems too) and am by far the richest person in the race. I don't need to do shit. All I need to do is let you degenerates do your degeneracy (both parties) and keep the pressure on for them, outlast you all, and in less than a digital year you'll all be singing along to Taylor at my Inauguration.

Don't forget you're losing your primary, another point of difference.

I'm also scandal free so far btw.

The BEGINNING of the primary is still 40 day away. You seem nervous enough about me to have already been rationalizing why I won't win though.

And that's because nobody on your side is a skilled scandalmonger. Wait until I get a grasp of you.

[Majiffy]

I'll take you on, AniX. My only scandal is that I can't put these damn donuts down for

anything

[N]

I don't know how to feel about Abbott doing well

[Vijarada]

tony abbott is the greatest prime minister of all time how dare you

[Majiffy]

Bump

[Drench]

i literally said ahead of time this week was busy for me, hold ur horses