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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 14 2015, @04:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the coin-flip dept.

The Bern Report reports

Dr. Rick Hardy and Dr. John Hemingway have been leading Mock Presidential Elections [at Western Illinois University] since 1975. During that time, students who have participated in these mock elections have chosen the winning party with 100% accuracy and have an astonishing record in selecting presidential winners.

On the Democratic side for the Primaries Sanders won[1] by close to a 2 to 1 margin over challenger Hillary Clinton.

[...] After nominating Sanders, the student Democrats put him up against Jeb Bush, who received the Republican nomination, with Bernie winning the electoral college by nearly a 4 to 1 margin and a decisive win for the popular vote.

This simulation always takes place the year before the presidential election year, and three months before the actual Iowa caucuses. The genesis of this mock presidential election began at the University of Iowa in 1975 with two political science doctoral students, John Hemingway and Rick Hardy. In that year, students selected Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford--long before anyone really knew of Jimmy Carter.

In the years that followed, Rick Hardy expanded the format and engaged thousands of students at the University of Missouri-Columbia where students registered a perfect record of selecting the subsequent winning presidential party. In 2007 and 2011, Hardy and Hemingway teamed up again to conduct a massive campus-wide simulation at Western Illinois University. In 2007, Western students selected Barack Obama as president at a time when no one thought he could win! And, in 2011, students narrowly re-elected President Obama.

[1] Content is behind scripts.


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  • (Score: 2) by BK on Sunday November 15 2015, @10:26AM

    by BK (4868) on Sunday November 15 2015, @10:26AM (#263611)

    The immigration issue is, at this time, an economic issue. At least it is for a large portion of Trump's supporters. It is difficult to counter an economic argument, which is fairly concrete, with the values argument which by its nature is somewhat less concrete.

    There are lots of issues that are primarily values issues either because they don't have an economic component, or because the economic ramifications are not clear. You mentioned mass surveillance. Abortion rights and gun rights are also good examples. If one of these is most important to you, you'll probably care about your candidates values position with regard to it. In fact you might be offended if someone were to make an economic argument on some of these issues.

    So no you don't need to have an economic argument against mass surveillance. But if you are pro open borders and want a Trump supporter to vote for you, and economic argument would sure help.

    --
    ...but you HAVE heard of me.
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