I've just noticed that when I reload a game, a lot of the data is different from when I saved the game. The percentages in different states have changed. The issues no longer show whether they've risen or fallen in priority. The projected electoral college vote is different.

Instead of McCain leading by 20 electoral votes, as he did when I saved the game, the current polling shows McCain up by 100 electoral votes. How frustrating. Not only can I not track how well I'm doing overall, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do against an opponent who blatantly cheats. So with only two months left in an election that makes Zimbabwe look like fair play, I make a drastic decision. I am going to Texas. Read about it after the jump.

Originally, I figured Texas wasn't worth the bother, since McCain was probably going to get those 34 electoral votes anyway. So Obama hasn't campaigned in the Lone Star State. He hasn't so much as dipped a toe into Texas, which has only a 5% awareness of him. That's about to change.

(By the way, here's another bit of The Political Machine that's either broken or incorrectly documented. The game tells me that every television ad should raise my candidate's awareness by three points nationally. This important benefit is one of the reasons TV is so expensive. But I've got five TV ads running. Assuming it's working like it should, Obama's awareness shouldn't be lower than 15 in any state. Yet plenty of states, most of them rectangular and in the west, have only a 5% awareness of Obama.)

Obama becomes a Texas hurricane. He spends almost all of September campaigning here. He brings along with him a squad of four intimidators, who were purchased by spending a metric butt-ton of political capital. These intimidators will knock down McCain's awareness rating among Texans. Obama, his VP candidate (me!), and a couple of consultants set about raising his awareness rating. Speeches are given and advertising is purchased to rejigger the issues Texans care about. John McCain favors high gas prices! John McCain opposes improving the economy! John McCain opposes the environment! Yes, the actual environment. The entire thing! He's against it. All of it! That's the message spread through Texas over the course of September.

By the end of the month, the previous number one issue – withdrawing from Iraq – has dropped to number four. Texas is still breaking for McCain at 52% to 42%, but that's a darn sight better than the beginning of the month, when McCain had 69% and Obama had 26%. And I've got a month left. Come election night, I may very well be able to swing 34 Texan electoral college votes from McCain over to Obama.

And what did McCain do all September while Obama spent the entire month courting the most valuable Republican state? Did he make a play for California or New York? Did he break the deadlock in Ohio or Florida? Did he close the narrow Democratic leads in Pennsylvania or North Carolina? Nope. McCain went to Kentucky and gave a speech accusing Barack Obama of supporting the obesity crisis.

At the point, I'm convinced the "challenging" AI is challenging because you never know what crazy pointless thing it's going to do next.