Back in the days of 2008, I decided to do bracketology for the Democratic and Republican primaries, mostly as a way to keep some levity during the ongoing primaries, because sometimes we need to keep it light. As was once said by a great philosopher, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” (One of my personal favorite philosophers, who had other great lines such as, “I am a pirate, 400 years too late,” and “I hope Anita Bryant never ever does one of my songs.”)
When 2012 rolled around, I didn’t care a bit about the primaries; in 2016, there was no real reason to do Democratic primary, and I didn’t care about the Republican primary.
But now, in what will probably be the most important election of our lifetime, we need to get the best candidate possible and then, “Vote blue no matter who.” But how do you do a bracket?
I decided to try something new. Rather than single-elimination, I set up groups like the World Cup. I took the leading contenders based on this Rolling Stone article and counted 28 24 total contenders and wild cards. Thus, I took the top seven six, seeded them in seven groups A-GF, determined by the Rolling Stone ranking; then the next seven, seeded them randomly across the seven groups; then the last 14 eighteen and seeded them randomly.
I figure every so often, I can do pairings and you can vote. You can vote for “Candidate A”, “Candidate B”, “either”, or “neither”. If a candidate wins, they will get a goal differential based on the percentage difference (I’m tweaking that now). If “either” wins, it will be scored as a 1-1 tie, and if “neither” wins, it will be a 0-0 tie.
After the games are finished, then the top two of each bracket will advance, and then two wild cards. Yeah, I’m working on the wildcard tiebreak as well, and also the final bracket.
So, let me know if you want this, if you’ll participate, or if I should just forget about levity and start throwing pies.
Oh, you want to know the brackets? Well, okay, sure. Remember, it’s not set in stone, and you might want to replace some of the candidates, or just remove four candidates and go down to six groups.
Without further ado:
Group A
Kamala Harris
Terry McAuliffe
Tulsi Gabbard
Tim Ryan
Group B
Elizabeth Warren
Pete Buttigieg
John Delaney
Kirsten Gillibrand
Group C
Sherrod Brown
Jeff Merkley
Eric Holder
Eric Swalwell
Group D
Beto O'Rourke
John Hickenlooper
Julián Castro
Jay Inslee
Group E
Joe Biden
Amy Klobuchar
Cory Booker
Steve Bullock
Group F
Bernie Sanders
Michael Bloomberg
Andrew Yang
John Kerry
Let me hear your feedback, folks!
Wednesday, Feb 6, 2019 · 5:12:05 PM +00:00
·
MikeTheLiberal
Hi again,
I removed Garcetti, Clinton, Abrams, and Schultz, dropped it down to six groups, and reseeded. Once again, Group E is the “Group of Death”.
Please review, comment, and get ready for voting. Oh, First round Group B features a pair of heavyweights (figuratively, of course). If all goes well, I’ll start the voting next week, a full five months before the first Democratic presidential debate! :)