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This is the article devoted to HR's campaign platform. Again, if you feel I'm being impartial or have left anything out, feel free to tell me in the comments or through PM.

Harrison’s platform is a long one, but is direct and to the point. It states the problems he seeks to solve, and how he plans to solve them for the most part. That isn’t to say it’s perfect, but it’s certainly a well-written platform.

The first point he brings up, which he states is the most important issue we have is a lack of an opportunity for new leaders to shine in America. This is absolutely true, and a great way to bring in new players. However, some of the “younger” players he mentions in his platform are older than Scrabman was when he served as president, grooming HR for his future campaign. These players are already viewed as leaders by the majority of the active population, whether they know it or not. The active younger population looks to them for their views on issues on the off-site forums and in articles.

The fact that those players haven’t been given an opportunity to serve shows a lot that is wrong with our country. This is something I would love to see Gaius pledge to work on as well. It’s an issue that could affect the votes of many young players.

V2 is the next item mentioned in the platform. This is a large issue that we know essentially nothing about, so specifics aren’t exactly available here. However, it’s good to know that it’s being considered by the presidential candidate. Harrison makes a valid point in stating that the country that is most prepared for V2 will be at a huge advantage, so keeping it as something to think about is important.

The third point is one that has been a longstanding opinion of the Federalist party. We try to make our party a useful experience, one that helps new players grow just as much as it helps older players gain leadership experience and network within the game. However, we will never stop most new players from leaving their first day, as they simply leave right after creating their accounts. That’s one factual point though, and is not much to worry about.

However, this point means little for a presidential candidate. What can the country president do to improve political parties? There are so many layers of leadership in most domestic political parties that almost nothing our country president did could change the way they run. One could argue that this is part of the problem with our political parties today. Expect an article on this soon. What this point does serve to do is establish his position on the party issue, while avoiding directly insulting any of the top five parties he didn’t mention. Regardless, all parties need to step up their game for the sake of the nation, as a secure top five is vital when it comes to congressional elections.

Promising money to the department of technology is a good move, though I know very little about scripts and what they’re capable of doing, so I’m not going to comment further on it.

The fifth point on the retention problem is a tough one. I outlined in a previous article why the retention problem cannot be solved by us. Harrison is right in saying the problem is a beast with many heads, but what we’re really working to do is make the game more interesting for those who choose to stay. Most of the points he makes are valid, my main point of contention is with the one that says government jobs are easy to get. I’ve been an ambassador to Mexico for a while, but I don’t really consider that much of a government job. When Mexico was invaded, I was told to keep silent and not to talk to anyone, that the leadership was handling it. What is the ambassador job then? That’s the subject of another article.

The point is, I’ve filled out the government job form twice in my six month citizen life. I really want to do something to help out. I even indicated on the forum that I have nothing but free time and practically live on IRC. I have never been contacted for any position. Everyone I’ve talked to around my age has run into the same problem. So yes, government jobs are easy to get if you have friends in government. But for all those younger citizens Harrison speaks of wanting to retain, government jobs are almost entirely unattainable.

Harrison’s foreign policy is well-thought out, though some issues seem to exist by nature. It starts by stressing the fact that EDEN and Phoenix are both unstable alliances, which is correct. However, the platform goes on to state that we should be pursing relationships with both alliances. This becomes a problem when seeking out good relations with one inherently damages the relationship with the other party.

That could be argued as the problem with these mega alliances: It makes it difficult for a nation to be truly independent. Harrison is wise to go on to describe how the United States is more closely aligned with EDEN then Phoenix. No one can disagree with this point. He goes on to describe how important it is to align ourselves with various other nations that have historically been on our side.

These are both very popular views, and few will dispute them.

The third point is that we must support EDEN when it is right and stay neutral when it is wrong. This is not so easy to do when we are not included in EDEN’s planning. How are we to decide when EDEN is right or wrong when we don’t know long term goals? I’m not saying we need to stand by the alliance every step of the way, but who gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong? To an outside party, this could be viewed as using EDEN, but only when it benefits us. Harrison says it’s easier said then done. I’d appreciate it being laid out in more detailed terms.

The fourth point is allowing for a future mega alliance that could potentially involve Phoenix nations. I support this point. There are no good and bad guys in Erepublik, just two (it always comes down to two) different sides competing for resources. It’s easy to let the rivalries fall into habit, but we should not do that if strategically it would benefit us to align ourselves with a previous enemy.

However, to that same point I would contend that among many of our allies, we have friends. It’s referred to in Harrison’s second point in the foreign policy section. We have many long standing allies that we already know we can trust, and they know they can trust us. Strategically, it’s more important to remain aligned with them then to explore new alliances. However, history has shown it’s not always a matter of choosing one or the other.

Number five on the platform is essentially number two. We must continue helping our long term allies. This is true, and very few people in the eUS will disagree with this point.

Numbers six and seven are essentially saying that the eUS is wrong on occasion, and communication with our allies is key. After seeing everything that’s happened over these past few months, no one in the country can disagree with this. Communication is what’s cause so many problems in our alliance. The lack of control in our media also hurt the alliance. Harrison is going to reach out to Poland and Spain to try and get them back to friendly terms with us, provided they’re willing to talk. This is key to keep us going as a nation.

However, again there’s a conflict of interest with reaching out to nations of Phoenix while trying to pursue a relationship with EDEN nations. One harms the other, so we need to find a focus. In reading Harrison’s platform, the focus seems to be on EDEN, which is where it should be.

In conclusion, Harrison is running a much more smooth campaign. Through advertisements (though as far as I know, none of the ads were placed by him), frequent articles and forum presence, and an actively enlarging cabinet, Harrison is getting his name out more than Gaius, which makes all the difference come election day. Most voting-aged living citizens were not around for either president’s last campaign, and can’t remember the names of either from past media articles. It’s up to both of them to get their names out as much as possible before May 5th.

I’ll have analysis of the platforms of the remaining two candidates up sometime tomorrow.