Mr. President (board game)

Mr. President is a political simulation board game designed by Jack Carmichael and published by 3M in 1967 as part of its bookshelf game series, with revised editions following in 1971 and 1972 to reflect the changing issues of later election cycles. The game is built for two to four players, each of whom selects a fictional presidential and vice-presidential ticket and then runs a simulated campaign modeled on real 1960s campaign data. Over the course of play, competing tickets decide which states to campaign in and how to divide limited resources among fundraising, press support and advertising, with optional variant rules adding debates and campaign donations to the core system. Electoral votes accumulate state by state as the campaign unfolds, and the ticket that reaches the winning threshold of Electoral College votes first takes the game. Time magazine, reviewing the game on release, observed that by the final tally the players would have suffered, on paper at least, all the slings and arrows that a real presidential campaigner must endure.