# 2012 US Presidential Election According to Robert Heinlein **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2011, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052 "2011-04-20T04:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/21 "2011-04-22T01:20:29Z")
I may be mistaken, but I thought the backstory re. Scudder and the advertising agency was the other way around. That marketing had advanced to the point that a presidential candidate could be sold to the public by calculated propaganda strategy, excepting only an “x” factor of charisma that could be quantified but not duplicated. So Scudder was picked as the perfect candidate to front the campaign, only he became a Frankenstein’s Monster who got out of his handlers’ control. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/22 "2011-04-22T10:19:33Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > And doesn’t it seem like forever since 1997? When the Jupiter 2 launched? And about a hundred since the [wreck of the _Titan_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility,_or_the_Wreck_of_the_Titan). Well, give or take a year or thirteen. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/23 "2011-04-22T12:19:21Z")
Like most good science fiction, the Future History series offered a lot of interesting possibilities and told some good stories, but as a serious prediction of the future it stinks: [http://templetongate.tripod.com/rahfuture.htm](http://templetongate.tripod.com/rahfuture.htm) Going through a science fiction series to find some place where they made some clearly right or wrong prediction is missing the point of science fiction. It’s not about having a guidebook that will tell you the future. It’s about knowing the many possible futures and being able to decide for yourself at any point, given what has happened up to then, what you’d like to have happen next. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/24 "2011-04-22T14:34:07Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If Romney gets the GOP nod, this could still happen. OTOH, if Kennedy couldn’t deliver the country into the hands of the Vatican, I doubt Mitt could swing it for Salt Lake City. And thus the concepts of “Mitt Romney” and “swing” appeared together in a sentence for the first and only time. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/25 "2011-04-22T23:54:56Z")
[Rough design](http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?clear=true&number=527691132&pid=2529374&source=email&cmp=EMC_NewDesignAccess&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cafepress&tm_content=NewDesignAccess&utm_campaign=Lifecycle_Make) after three beers. Needs work. A flag or something. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/26 "2011-04-23T00:07:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > All of which is by way of saying that this isn’t supposed to be prediction. Heinlein wrote about a future World President (not U.S. President, I note) whose wife took her cues from an astrologer. And in _Methuselah’s Children_ he had a U.S. President named “Ford”, but these are fortuitous accidents (as i think Heinlein would agree), not predictions. My favorite Heinlein coincidence is [John Sperling’s plan to donate his fortune to longevity research](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/immortal.html). No word on whether he has a daughter named Mary. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/27 "2011-04-23T01:02:23Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [Rough design](http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?clear=true&number=527691132&pid=2529374&source=email&cmp=EMC_NewDesignAccess&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cafepress&tm_content=NewDesignAccess&utm_campaign=Lifecycle_Make) after three beers. Needs work. A flag or something. Keep working on it. I’ll buy one. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/28 "2011-04-24T08:27:31Z")
Somebody already [made one](http://www.cafepress.com/+nehemiah_scudder_for_president,16449167). ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/29 "2011-04-24T12:38:09Z")
I see no reason to take seriously Mr. Heinlein’s predictions of what happens in 2012. Unless, of course, he was Mayan. ---
**Author:** ![ankh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@ankh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ankh)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052/30 "2011-07-15T16:35:18Z")
\> Mayan Texan? [Rick Perry's Army of God - The Texas Observer](https://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-us-presidential-election-according-to-robert-heinlein/579052.md?page=1)