A game I own and used to play quite a bit with friends of mine is Risk: the Lord Of The Rings Edition. Unlike normal Risk which is a game that can last forever, I remember games that went over entire weekends, this version actually has a set ending. There is a timer of sorts, a golden ring (the One Ring) traveling to Mordor. To get the ring to Mordor the player’s whose turn it was had to roll high enough to get the ring there, if he failed the ring sat in place and the next player took a turn and the end tried to move the ring off the map and end the game. In general whoever had the final turn usually ended up winning.
Watching the Republican Nomination process this cycle I’m suddenly think if Risk: Lord Of The Rings again. There are only 27 days until the first contest and the first delegates and I am wondering if Newt can get the ring off on his turn. If you look at the chart of combined polls above you can see that Romney has a fairly steady level of support, but never a lot. One by one others have challenged him, first Bachmann but even as she started to climb, Perry jumped into the race stole her fire, raced to the lead and crashed just as quickly. Perry was replace by Cain, he took his turn at the lead and then like Icarus fly too high, got burned and came crashing to the ground, now it seems to be Newt’s turn. (‘My name’s Newt! No One calls be Rebecca!’ — Sorry, wrong Newt.) He’s getting to level that none of the other not-Romney have attained and he’s doing it so close to the first contests. Can he start a tide of victories and steal the nomination from the traditional Republican choice? (The runner up from the last contest often seem to get the nomination with the Republcan Party, see John McCain for details.)
No matter what happens, it’s going to be exciting.
