A Political Glimpse from Ireland

I may have mentioned this before but I am a gamer, was born that way I think, since one of my earliest memories involves me getting up at 4am to play this RPG on a 486 (A really old computer). Anyway I heard about the release of a new game by Stardock Games called the Political Machine 2008 and decided to give it a try. This game puts in you in the role as your candidates campaign manager where you get to decide where your candidate goes and how much he or she spends. I initially wanted to see an Obama/McCain match-up but you are not allowed to do that in campaign mode so I think I need to finish the whole game before I can play against a computer-controlled McCain. Here was my first matchup:

I was initially caught off guard by the complexity of this game as you are required to generate money, give speeches, and manage your opponent’s success. The hardest part of the game was figuring out what strategy to take; in this instance I decided to go for the big states and even tried to turn Texas blue but former President Grant refused to relinquish his hold on the state. With one week to go until the general election, this is what the polling data looked like:

The blue states show my likely wins while the red show former President Grant’s likely wins. Of course Senator Obama won. Here is the victory shot:

I defeated former President Grant decisively however it must be noted that it is going to get even more difficult as the game progresses. I also outspent him by $2 million dollars which begs the question in reality, does Senator Obama’s money edge give him a better chance of winning?

This game is by no means a comprehensive simulation but it gives me an idea of how important a role money can play in a campaign. Getting your message out there is critical and can really help change the minds of voters regarding a candidate.  One year ago, I would have said that Senator Obama needed all the money he could get to help spread awareness about who he is and what he stands for howoever awareness is not the issue at the moment. The current issue is the far-left feeling that Senator Obama has betrayed them when he has done what every other political candidate has done before him, move towards the center in order to ensure the greatest appeal to the largest number of voters. The key at the end of the day for us liberals is that we get a Democrat in office, is it not?

I don’t know how many people watch this show but if do not, you should. It is in its 3rd Season at the moment where a season only has 6 episodes but they pack a lot of good content into those episodes. The first episode is the most relevant for the moment because I wrote about Governor Sebelius in my first VP Profile highlighting her veto for the building of two new coal-fired power plant units in her home state of Kansas:

“Legislators who promote the expansion of coal-fired plants in Kansas have again made a strategic decision with HB 2412,” the governor said. “Rather than working toward a compromise solution, legislative leaders recklessly chose to jeopardize important initiatives for businesses and communities across our state by combining them with energy legislation I have previously vetoed twice.”

The first episode of 30 days follows Morgan Spurlock into the mines of West Virginia as he explores both sides of the Coal Mining argument. I found it fascinating because I did not realize how much these miners sacrificed to power our homes however I was also shocked at how detrimental the coal industry has been to the environment. This show has an obvious liberal slant but Mr. Spurlock does his best to show the human side behind the coal industry as well as the environmental impact.

Too many times we break down the issues that divide us between democrat and republican with both sides having agenda’s that do not benefit the people. I don’t claim that democrats are perfect but given the last 8 years of republican politics, can we really say that America has moved forward?

Well I have decided to take a break from politics for tonight with this picture that has been sitting on my computer for quite some time. I saw this great picture on paleofuture.com and downloaded it for further examination. In case I have never mentioned it, I am a big science fiction geek for lack of a better word and love imagining what the future holds. This picture in particular, struck me as being a big possibility because if we look at the exponential growth of the earth’s population, it would be reasonable to conclude that eventually we will run out of land to build on.

Some architects and futurists theorize that we will just build up or have even colonized other planets by that time but I am not so sure about that. I used to hope that before the end of my lifetime, the nations of earth would have had a colony on Mars or the Moon at the very least but looking at the money that is going into Space Programs, I don’t think it is going to happen very soon.

There are alternatives to this picture like Victory City created by Orville Simpson II, still an idea at present but it holds some interesting ideas: I would still prefer to live here though, I can imagine it would be quite peaceful and not to mention the Sea Food!