Many who expected the victory of Donald Trump in 2008 to radically transform American politics now find themselves surprised at how little seems to have changed. After two years, his policy accomplishments amount to a tepid stimulus, incrementalist healthcare reforms, and a financial bailout package. It was good enough to prevent another Depression, but did little else.
Going into his re-election, Trump is seen as vulnerable. A lack of accomplishments to balance out his constant personal scandals has left broad swaths of his 2008 coalition apathetic and alienated. But the President does not lack his own advantages. Standing as the undisputed head of a revitalized liberalism and commanding a deep, almost personal loyalty among his legions of supporters, victory is still achievable against a discredited opposition.
Merely winning, though, will not be enough to change America. Only a truly decisive victory will allow Trump to mold the country in his image.
Put description here
", "color_hex": "#0000FF", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://i.imgur.com/UxPe4ee.png", "electoral_victory_message": "This guy wins!", "electoral_loss_message": "This guy loses!", "no_electoral_majority_message": "We all win?", "description_as_running_mate": "While Barack Obama hasn’t been the least influential Vice President in history, he’s far closer to the title than he would like. The Illinois Senator joined your ticket in 2008 for one reason and one reason only: power. With Republicans weak but nobody else willing to take the spot, he saw opportunity. The first part of his bet paid off. You won in a landslide. He became a heartbeat away from the Presidency and your natural successor.
But with your Presidency in a tailspin, what Obama once saw as a golden key now looks to him more and more like a sinking ship. Since the midterms, your own Vice President has convinced himself that the only way to save his career is to get out, the sooner the better. Even just one wrong move could lead him to quit—a blow from which many think your administration could never recover.
Put description here
", "color_hex": "#0000FF", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://i.imgur.com/QKUTuGI.png", "running_mate_pic": "https://i.imgur.com/FoskcPM.png", "electoral_victory_message": "This guy wins!", "electoral_loss_message": "This guy loses!", "no_electoral_majority_message": "We all win?", "description_as_running_mate": "They're coming out of the woodwork. They tell you to move to the right, to the left, to the center, forwards, backwards and everywhere in between. But you know the answer. All you need is you, so who else would make more sense for your #2 than a man who wants to be you more than anything in the world?
Now having ended his third term as Governor of Illinois early to move into the Naval Observatory, Rod Blagojevich does nothing for you, and that's just what you want. He commits you to no line and leaves your options open. He lets Trump be Trump, and, hey — it's gotten you this far.
Put description here
", "color_hex": "#0000FF", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://i.imgur.com/Cr9pPO9.png", "running_mate_pic": "https://i.imgur.com/ESdRjKZ.png", "electoral_victory_message": "This guy wins!", "electoral_loss_message": "This guy loses!", "no_electoral_majority_message": "We all win?", "description_as_running_mate": "When you travelled the country during the 2008 campaign, one of your most-well recieved lines was that you would put “the best of the best” back in government. You gave no specifics, and that was the point. Republicans shuddered with fear at visions of a Secretary of State Michael Moore and AG Cindy Sheehan; liberals thrilled as they thought of the same. Others thought of businessmen, celebrities, generals, even themselves.
As it would turn out, your idea of “the best of the best” was essentially the Clinton administration. None epitomize this continuity more than Timothy Geithner, the ex-banker and registered Independent who you made the Treasury Secretary. Beloved by Wall Street and the media as much as he is hated by the organized left, now-VP Geithner provides you with a last-chance opportunity for a reset with the establishment, while perhaps burning some bridges permanently.
Put description here
", "color_hex": "#0000FF", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://i.imgur.com/XmZCrEe.png", "running_mate_pic": "https://i.imgur.com/HajfquO.png", "electoral_victory_message": "This guy wins!", "electoral_loss_message": "This guy loses!", "no_electoral_majority_message": "We all win?", "description_as_running_mate": "Tammy Baldwin is not Vice Presidential timber. She is a backbencher representative from a flyover state; a self-described “progressive” supportive of single-payer healthcare. Her nomination baffled Washington, with many assuming that she was the only one willing to accept the nomination. When put up for a vote, she did not win Senate confirmation.
That was the point. By making Republicans stonewall Baldwin's confirmation, you instantly regained your reputation as a progressive champion, with room to spare. With the battle lines of the 2012 campaign now clearly that of right vs. left, Republicans get what they wanted, while you have the opportunity to use your unique appeal to build on the traditional liberal coalition.
Put description here
", "color_hex": "#0000FF", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://i.imgur.com/IzzvoNF.png", "running_mate_pic": "https://i.imgur.com/k2zhByN.png", "electoral_victory_message": "This guy wins!", "electoral_loss_message": "This guy loses!", "no_electoral_majority_message": "We all win?", "description_as_running_mate": "With your re-election campaign newly ascendant, quite a lot has changed. The establishment that once wrote your obituary is now working overtime to find their way back in with you, desperate to keep their intraparty opponents from feasting on the spoils of a second term by themselves. And you couldn't be happier. Their desperation means that you finally have your star.
Who else but Hillary? None of those D-listers you looked over after Barack even compare to her. With her finally by your side, everything looks possible now. Trump-Clinton: how could anyone not love it?
Not playable
", "color_hex": "#B73838", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://i.imgur.com/LtJiuQI.png", "electoral_victory_message": "Placeholder", "electoral_loss_message": "Placeholder", "no_electoral_majority_message": "Placeholder", "description_as_running_mate": null, "candidate_score": 1, "running_mate": false } }, { "model": "campaign_trail.candidate", "pk": 18, "fields": { "first_name": "Gary", "last_name": "Johnson", "election": 3, "party": "Libertarian", "state": "New Mexico", "priority": 1, "description": "Not playable
", "color_hex": "#f7ea46", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://www.jetsimon.com/public/candidateexample.png", "electoral_victory_message": "Placeholder", "electoral_loss_message": "Placeholder", "no_electoral_majority_message": "Placeholder", "description_as_running_mate": null, "candidate_score": 1, "running_mate": false } }, { "model": "campaign_trail.candidate", "pk": 19, "fields": { "first_name": "The", "last_name": "Greens", "election": 3, "party": "Green", "state": "Massachusetts", "priority": 1, "description": "Not playable
", "color_hex": "#2bc210", "secondary_color_hex": null, "is_active": 0, "image_url": "https://www.jetsimon.com/public/candidateexample.png", "electoral_victory_message": "Placeholder", "electoral_loss_message": "Placeholder", "no_electoral_majority_message": "Placeholder", "description_as_running_mate": null, "candidate_score": 1, "running_mate": false } } ] campaignTrail_temp.running_mate_json = [ { "model": "campaign_trail.running_mate", "pk": 81837, "fields": { "candidate": 16, "running_mate": 30 } } ] campaignTrail_temp.opponents_default_json = [ { "election": 3, "candidates": [ 16, 17, 18, 19 ] } ] campaignTrail_temp.opponents_weighted_json = [ { "election": 3, "candidates": [ 16, 17, 18, 19 ] } ] jet_data = { "headerColor": "#565656", "windowColor": "#f1f1f1", "containerColor": "#FFFFFF", "innerWindowColor": "#ffffff", "bannerImageUrl": "https://i.imgur.com/fu5PHaJ.png", "backgroundImageUrl": "https://i.imgur.com/kBAAW7x.png", "endingTextColor": "#000000", "customQuote": "" } //#startcode let style = document.createElement('style'); style.type = 'text/css'; style.id = 'dynamic-style'; style.innerHTML = ` .campaign_trail_start_emphasis { background-color: #FFFFFF; } a:-webkit-any-link { color: #431b19; } .content_single { border-color: #431b19; } .container { border: .3em solid #431b19; } .footer { border-color: #F1F1F1; } .game_header { border-color: #F1F1F1; } .inner_window_front { background-color: #FFFFFF; border-color: #FFFFFF; } select { background-color: #FFFFFF; } `; document.head.appendChild(style); nct_stuff.themes[nct_stuff.selectedTheme].coloring_title = "#565656"; nct_stuff.themes[nct_stuff.selectedTheme].coloring_window = "#f1f1f1"; document.getElementsByClassName("game_header")[0].style.backgroundColor = nct_stuff.themes[nct_stuff.selectedTheme].coloring_title; $("#game_window")[0].style.backgroundColor = nct_stuff.themes[nct_stuff.selectedTheme].coloring_window; $(".container")[0].style.backgroundColor = "#FFFFFF"; document.getElementById("header").src = "https://i.imgur.com/fu5PHaJ.png"; document.body.background = "https://i.imgur.com/eZJL6TZ.png"; document.head.innerHTML += ""; // MUSIC MODE musicMode = () => { // Initialise custom music $("#music_player")[0].children[0].style.display = "none" $("#music_player")[0].children[1].style.display = "none" document.getElementById("modLoadReveal").style.display = "none" document.getElementById("modloaddiv").style.display = "none" musicBox = document.getElementById("music_player") musicBox.style.display = "" var trackSel; e = campaignTrail_temp e.selectedSoundtrack = 0 toTime = (seconds) => { var date = new Date(null); date.setSeconds(seconds); return date.toISOString().substr(11, 8); } generateTime = () => { // Get the audio element var audio = document.getElementById("campaigntrailmusic"); timeTracker = document.createElement("div"); timeTracker.style = ` text-align:left; border-style:solid; border-width:3px; height:150px; width:200px; background-color:#999999; float:right; padding: 10px; ` $("#trackSelParent")[0].prepend(timeTracker); $("#trackSelParent")[0].prepend(document.createElement("br")); // Create a new element to display the current position of the audio var positionDisplay = document.createElement("gg"); positionDisplay.id = "position-display"; // Create a new slider element to change the time var timeSlider = document.createElement("input"); timeSlider.type = "range"; timeSlider.min = 0; timeSlider.max = 1; timeSlider.step = 0.001; timeSlider.value = 0; timeSlider.style.width = "200px"; timeSlider.id = "time-slider"; var pausePlay = document.createElement("button"); pausePlay.id = "position-display"; pausePlay.innerHTML = "Pause" pausePlay.style.width = "100%"; pausePlay.addEventListener("click", event => { event.preventDefault(); updatePositionDisplay(); let audio = document.getElementById("campaigntrailmusic"); if (audio.paused) { audio.play(); event.target.innerHTML = "Pause"; return; } audio.pause(); event.target.innerHTML = "Play"; return; }) var volumeLabel = document.createElement("gg"); volumeLabel.id = "volume-label"; volumeLabel.innerHTML = "