No offense taken at all!!  I was just poking a little fun at myself.  I definitely use the Spiel as a benchmark for excellence! 

Another vote for the Spiel. The amazing array of audio memorabilia you unearthed made me want to replay 1960: The Making Of The President even more than the upcoming election already had. (Still haven't gotten the chance; things went a bit wild and giddy here that night. Maybe I'll post it in your election story thread as soon as my head stops spinning. By the way, just how long does that Kennedy song go on, anyway?) Amazingly, for a game this complex, we played for the first time just sitting down cold and following the rulebook as we went; it's that clear and well organized. Still more impressive to me is that, for a historical political game released in a culture where almost every form of entertainment has been gradually warped into propaganda, 1960 manages to present itself with through the impartial eyes of a strict historian and avoids editorializing on either side; something I probably wouldn't have been able to do.

As for Mr. President, this is eerily the second time running that you cover something I just got, having overpaid for a battered copy in a vintage shop over the weekend. (The missing dice were easily replaced and my India Rails crayons will suffice until I can find proper grease pencils.) There was no Clue-style envelope, but I suspect this had been discontinued by the time of my 1971 copy as the undecided voter stack sees quite a bit of action throughout the game. This may also be why the photo on the back of the box was changed to show the game spread out in the shadow of the capitol dome on some of that furniture that only exists on the back of 3M boxes. I swear if I ever build my dream house, I'll just hand the decorators my 3M collection and say, "This, please." (Check out the pictures on Contigo or Quinto and tell me that wouldn't be cool.) As is perhaps inevitable given the subject, it shows its age more than many Bookshelf titles, most of which I honestly believe could acquit themselves admirably if released unchanged today. (Indeed, Executive Decision for one has done just that.) The Democrats haven't had that kind of edge in Texas for a very long time, the color identification of the parties has inverted and after the recent election, the lack of diversity among the pictured candidates is suddenly glaring. They all look kind of weaselly actually. How strange for me, the great advocate of facsimile editions who thinks that the Hasbro exec responsible for demoting Col. Mustard to a football player should run up against Miss Scarlet in the Conservatory with her candlestick, to find myself thinking "This is a fine, solid game, but it would need a facelift." Then again, 3M apparently gave it several over its time and after last-erm, Tuesday night, even an election game from four years ago would probably feel dated.

The only real problem with both of these games is that tallying up the score at the end feels as long and painstaking as the real thing, but that's an immersive theme for you.

Looking forward to hearing how much you're going to finally end up taking me for next episode. "Sharing the wealth" and all that...

I was perhaps a bit too hard on Mr. President; playing it the day before an election that so completely turned longtime trends on their head and, like you, in the wake of 1960: The Making Of The President was inevitably going to do it a disservice. Most of what felt dated was cosmetic and had the events outside my window been less extraordinary I probably wouldn't have noticed. As to the "edges", those were the accurate stats of its time and could easily be adjusted to reflect other more recent elections. That would be interesting actually; you'd end up with something like Statis Pro Politics. The core of the game is actually quite good indeed; oddly the bit that impressed you the least was the one that kicked the game up a notch for us. When my opponent played a nasty rumor card on me, I was forced to divert my campaign to Ohio to attempt to quash it. The dice roll didn't let me campaign in the state (I failed to persuade the voters that it was a scurrilous lie) and my opponent got to take and immediately cast my Ohio ballots (reaped the benefit of lowdown dirty politics). A bit clunky and random perhaps, but the unexpected introduction of old-fashioned mudslinging suddenly gave an extra charge to the theme.

I finally got to listen to this episode (I am a bit behind on my podcasts), and it was a great one!  During this year's election, I caught myself thinking about 1960 MotP several times while listening to the news. Every time there was a news bit about one candidate conceding a state, or volunteers and resources pouring into another state, I thought about moving my little candidate around the board placing cubes in 1960. And then there are definitely events that happen during the campaign that affect the general trend of the race. Looking at the game through the lenses of the recent election, it really enhances the game - the theme works with the game perfectly!

I do have to dissent in comparing the sibling games though - Twilight Struggle is obviously the superior game! :)