Two old thoughts merged yesterday, and became the kernel of a new strategy for getting myself elected President of the United States of America in 2008. Believe it or not, if my strategy works, I could concede 99.99998% of the popular vote to my opponent, and still get elected.
Here are the two thoughts that merged:
Old thought #1, triggered whenever I hear a do-gooder on either side whining and moaning about voter turnout being “too low”:
“Why the heck should I want voter turnout to be higher? My vote carries the most weight when everyone else stays home!”
[Sometimes the do-gooder is a family member, in which case voicing my opinion makes an unpleasant evening highly likely.]
Old thought #2, triggered every time I get a positive email from a reader:
“I’ve had favorable feedback on this site from at least the 11 most populous states; I bet I could swing a few votes...”
Merged idea - The "Why Bother" strategy:
If I could convince enough people in eleven specific states to stay home on election day, but could also be sure a small but sufficient number of voters in those states cast a ballot for me, the presidency would be mine—because of the electoral votes.
My two-pronged proto-strategy:
• Concentrate on the eleven most populous states;
• Convince enough voters in those states to stay home and relax on election day.
To analyze the possibilities, I set up a spreadsheet showing potential vote tallies in the fifty states plus DC. All I really need to do is win by one popular vote in each of the eleven most populous states... and that yields an interesting set of potential election outcomes.
Below is one of those possible outcomes:
11 votes for me, 55 million votes for my opponent.
Result: Oval Office, here I come.
Does my strategy have legs? I’m not sure; that’s why I’m posting it here for you to examine. Your feedback is welcome, of course; I’ll wait for that before I decide whether to take this campaign to the fund-raising stage.
[And even if this strategy turns out to be a no-go, I just might get a few of those bumperstickers printed up anyway.]
