The American presidential election does not operate under a nationwide popular vote system with unified tallying. Instead, it employs a special electoral college system.
The so-called electoral college system means that each U.S. state possesses a certain number of electoral votes.
In the U.S. presidential election, the voting results from each state's voters determine the allocation of that state's corresponding electoral votes. The presidential candidates win or lose based on the final number of electoral votes obtained, rather than the actual popular vote count nationwide.
This "winner-takes-all" electoral system means that, aside from the deeply entrenched Democratic and Republican parties, it is extremely difficult for any other party candidates to win the election in the United States.
Facts have also proven that in the more than two hundred years since the founding of the United States, aside from the initial George Washington, no president has come from a third party outside of the Democrats and Republicans.
Although Ross Perot's candidacy drew intense attention from the media and the public, anyone with clear eyes knew that the possibility of Ross Perot breaking the deeply rooted political monopoly of the two major parties in America was minuscule.
However, as Ross Perot attracted more and more attention, neither of the two major parties dared to underestimate this independent candidate any longer.
Recent attacks on Ross Perot in some conservative media outlets were clearly deliberate.
In Simon's memory, it was not just media opinion attacks. To stop Perot from running, the Bush administration had even resorted to some underhanded and dirty tricks.
Under the pressure, Ross Perot had once withdrawn from the race, but this strong-willed billionaire, after several twists and turns, ultimately still participated in that year's general election and achieved an unprecedented 19 percent support rate for an independent candidate.
Because it split a large number of conservative votes that should have belonged to the Bush camp, it largely contributed to George Bush's failure to win re-election.
However, in Simon's view, the inexperienced Clinton could only take a different path if he wanted to win this presidential election.
To put it bluntly, it was to ensure that Ross Perot's candidacy would split Bush's votes.
"One of my friends has been handling media public relations work for the Perot family. I chatted with him about it, and a while back I even took the opportunity to attend a cocktail party hosted by Ross Perot. Overall, this is a very strong-willed and arrogant person, prone to stubbornness and unwilling to listen to others' suggestions."
In the reception room of the Greenwich estate, Joseph Schlapp was introducing Ross Perot's situation: "Regarding the recent media attacks, Perot appeared very angry, feeling he had been treated unfairly. This has largely strengthened his determination to continue his candidacy."
Janet personally brought in the coffee.
Joseph temporarily paused his narration. After Janet poured coffee for everyone and sat down beside Simon, he continued: "However, I think Perot's determination will be hard to sustain for long, because the Republican Party, in order to stop Perot from running, will definitely not limit themselves to applying pressure only in public opinion.
For example, recently, Perot's computer services company is planning to assist several major stock and commodity exchanges in establishing a brand new online trading system. This is a huge deal, and it requires approval from departments like the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) and the Department of Justice.
If Perot insists on running, the Republicans might set up obstacles for Perot's company in these areas. Perot himself should be very clear that his chances of winning the election are very low. Damaging the company's interests for this matter would definitely not be worth it, so in the end he might actively choose to withdraw from the race."
Wherever there is a national government, there has never been a shortage of using public power to suppress opponents.
America naturally is no exception.
The Watergate scandal back then saw the Nixon administration threaten to deny cable television licenses to the Washington Post Group in an attempt to stop the Washington Post's related reporting. The Washington Post Group nearly yielded at one point.
Of course, the final outcome is known to everyone.
But aside from that, other similar incidents are simply too numerous to list.
The Westeros Group's two acquisition cases last year also encountered some nitpicking warnings from the Republican side.
Ross Perot's family has a huge business empire, which puts him in the position of "the one wearing shoes fearing the barefoot." If he insists on running, he will indeed have many concerns.
Speaking of which, Ross Perot appeared on the Forbes rich list multiple times in the 1980s, ranking near the top. However, with the rise of the new technology wave in the 1990s, the Perot family, whose main business was computer services, fell silent. It is hard to say whether this was related to the continuous suppression the family company faced after insisting on participating in the 1992 U.S. presidential election.
After several years of cooperation, Joseph Schlapp had earned Simon's trust and thus knew most of Simon's layouts.
Hearing him say this, Simon roughly understood that this was a reminder to Simon: if he wanted Ross Perot to insist on participating in this year's presidential election, he should help the other party resolve some "worries."
Simon was not familiar with Ross Perot, but for things like the online trading system Joseph just mentioned, using the connections established by the Westeros Group, he could indeed provide some help.
Moreover, after Clinton explained the pros and cons to the Democratic side, the Democratic camp should also contribute efforts to push Perot to continue running.
Although the current White House cabinet is controlled by the Republicans, it does not lack Democratic influence. The SEC is even a government department under Congress, and after the midterm elections the year before last, both houses of Congress were under Democratic control.
After discussing the details about pushing Ross Perot to continue his candidacy, Joseph Schlapp then handed over some documents sent by the Clinton team.
For the current Simon, getting too deeply involved might not be worth the loss.
The Westeros Group's main expansion target in the political arena remained the congressional senators and representatives, who held significant power but would not attract too much attention.
Therefore, after spending just over twenty minutes on this matter, Joseph Schlapp subsequently brought up the lobbying progress on several bills related to the telecommunications and media industries that the Westeros Group was concerned about.
What Simon had been paying most attention to recently was the bill to lift the restriction preventing telecommunications operators from getting involved in telecommunications equipment manufacturing.
After releasing the first GSM digital phone last year, Nokia's expansion in the European market had been very rapid. On the American side, North America's largest telecommunications operator AT&T and Verizon Telecommunications controlled by the Westeros Company had both begun laying out GSM mobile communication systems.
If Nokia could not enter the North American market as soon as possible, even with advantages like Verizon as a channel operator, falling one step behind would mean falling behind in every step. Ultimately, expanding into the North American market would only become increasingly difficult.
Fortunately, it was not just the Westeros Group alone. Giants in the telecommunications industry like AT&T were all pushing for the opening of telecommunications industry regulations.
Although it would still take a year or two to lift the restrictions on merging long-distance and short-distance telephone services as well as cable television businesses, the ban on telecommunications operators engaging in telecommunications equipment manufacturing would likely be lifted by the end of this year.
At that time, Nokia could enter the North American market.
In the media field, after Sony acquired Columbia, as more Japanese and European companies eyed Hollywood's major studios covetously, in order to prevent Hollywood from being continuously occupied by foreign capital, lifting the ban on mergers between content providers and channel operators in the media industry had almost become an inevitable trend.
At the latest, the relevant ban would be lifted next year.
By then, the traditional three major television networks and Hollywood's major studios could achieve mutual mergers. The FOX television network, which had been restricted in many aspects due to owning 20th Century Fox Film, could also freely expand its scale and thoroughly become America's fourth major television network, on par with the three old public television networks.
After the Sherman Antitrust Act was enacted in 1890, for a century, the United States had continuously restricted the expansion of large corporate giants. During this process, Standard Oil was broken up, the Paramount Decree was born, AT&T was split into seven, and many other industries were subject to numerous restrictions under antitrust laws.
This was exactly as the saying went: "What has long been divided must unite."
At least, in Simon's memory of the next thirty years, America maintained an attitude of either overt or covert leniency toward the expansion of corporate giants.
America would therefore enter the next golden age of capital.
Continuous expansion allowed American corporate giants to maintain competitiveness on a global scale under globalization. But at the same time, this expansion would undoubtedly suppress innovation and hinder industry development, so it was hard to say whether it was ultimately good or bad.
However, for the Westeros Group, the next thirty years would definitely be the best era.
After discussing various matters for the entire morning, they retained Joseph Schlapp for lunch. After seeing him off, the time was already one o'clock in the afternoon.
It happened to be a sunny day, and the early spring sunlight carried a bit of warmth.
On a terrace of the estate villa, there was a wide lounge chair. The sunlight poured down warmly, and Janet, like a cat that had arrived in spring, snuggled up to Simon and rubbed against him.
It truly was "spring" that had arrived.
After giving birth to the little one, she had rested for a few months. Last night they had finally been able to make love passionately and thoroughly, which was why they had gotten up so late this morning. When Joseph Schlapp arrived at nine o'clock, the two had just finished breakfast.
Simon also comfortably squinted his eyes, feeling the warm afternoon sunlight and the fragrant, soft woman in his arms. He dozed off in a daze for who knows how long, until the sunlight was blocked by the partition wall on one side of the terrace. Only then did he say softly: "Baby, how do you plan to spend your birthday?"
The woman's birthday was March 13th, next Friday.
Simon remembered it very clearly.
Janet, who was wrapped around Simon, however, shifted her body. Her little claws scratched at the man a few times as she said discontentedly: "No birthday. I'm not celebrating my birthday."
Simon laughed: "Just treat it as your 18th birthday, okay?"
"Roar..."
"All right, all right," he said, reaching out to pat the woman who had bitten his shoulder. After thinking for a moment, Simon added: "How about we go to Australia next week and take a look at the kid while we're at it."
"Hmm, it's only been a few days. Are you sure you want to go see the child?"
"..."
"Hehe."
Speaking of which, through video communication, the couple could actually see the little one far away in Australia every day.
When Veronica took the child to Australia, Simon had originally been a bit worried that the little guy might not adapt to the new environment.
However, that situation had not occurred.
Surrounded by the whole family, the little guy was simply even more pampered than when in Los Angeles.
Although Janet often complained about the little troublemaker, as a mother she was not the slightest bit unqualified. She had always liked children. It was just that the woman did not like the feeling of being tied down by a little guy and losing her free and easy lifestyle.
As for Simon, the coma he experienced after first encountering Veronica had caused a strange fusion between him and the original soul of this body.
Simon's original consciousness still firmly dominated this body. However, inevitably, many memories and emotions from the original owner of this body had been unconsciously influencing him.
In the end, a body that had fused more than ten people's souls could never again be some simple whoever.
The current Simon Westeros was simply Simon Westeros.
Janet teased with one sentence. Seeing that Simon did not speak, she propped herself up and looked over: "How about we go to Manhattan tonight to watch a fashion show? Those two 'waist spirits' and 'leg spirits' you casually raised in Europe last time are both there recently."
In this era, among the four major fashion weeks, New York Fashion Week still came after London, Paris, and Milan.
This year's New York Fashion Week had officially opened only yesterday and would last ten days.
Last year in Milan, Simon had casually boosted two models, Yasmeen Ghauri and Nadja Auermann. Their fame had continued to rise over the past six months, so naturally they would not miss this New York Fashion Week runway.
Reaching out to wrap his arm around the woman's small waist again, Simon pretended to worry: "You're not going to go beat someone up, right? They're just ordinary little vixens and can't withstand the ravages of a great demon king like you."
Janet bared her small white teeth: "Little bastard, if I hit anyone it should be you."
Simon lowered his originally slightly raised head, assuming a posture of letting others do as they pleased: "Hit me, hit me. I won't resist."
Janet lightly smacked Simon, then softly muttered again: "Little bastard."
Then she snuggled back over, listening to the man's strong heartbeat.
Thump thump thump
In fact, knowing more about the situation, those two models, the waist spirit and leg spirit... He had poured a large sum of money on the two women, which was huge for ordinary people, yet he had not slept with them, nor would he have any special feelings.
In truth, he probably really liked that feeling of controlling everything.
God said, let there be light!
It seemed like a very long time ago, and yet it also felt like only yesterday.
When her wrist had been tightly grasped that time, she knew this man was her God.
"Simon."
She suddenly could not help calling out softly.
A response came from beside her ear.
"Mm."
Then a very satisfied feeling welled up.
Probably due to telepathy, the man's large hand gently patted her waist again.
Time passed as they watched, until the sky completely darkened. Only then did they reluctantly leave the terrace.
After discussing for a bit, they took the car together to Manhattan, selected a nice restaurant, had dinner, and then headed to Bryant Park in Midtown to watch the show.
Arrangements had been made in advance, and they happened to arrive just in time for CK's runway show.
Even though the fashion trend of celebrities and stars attending runway shows had already formed, when Simon and his wife appeared at the CK show, it still felt somewhat like two giant dinosaurs showing up in a chicken farm.
The photographers at the show probably consumed more film on the couple than on any model on the T-stage.
Brand runway shows never lasted too long. The two had arrived right on time, and in less than twenty minutes, the show that might have taken several months of preparation in private came to an end.
After CK founder Calvin Klein took his bow, he personally came over to invite Simon and his wife to the following brand party.
He appeared very attentive.
Simon actually understood the reason. The couple's appearance at CK's show tonight would definitely bring a wave of high exposure to the brand.
Moreover, at a deeper level: the current CK was actually on the verge of bankruptcy.
This was something Janet had quietly mentioned in Simon's ear after entering the show.
Sophia had already noticed this American native high-fashion company since the end of last year.
CK's main businesses in jeans, underwear, and so on happened to not compete much with Gucci.
Therefore, acquiring this company, which had more than twenty years of history and a deeply ingrained brand, should be a good complement for Melisandre's fashion business.
Of course, coming to watch the show tonight was purely on a whim for the couple.
Unlike Gucci, although CK had been established for more than twenty years, its overall scale was still not large. Its revenue had only just broken through 100 million dollars in recent years. Even if they chose a full acquisition, the price would not exceed 100 million dollars.
A 100 million dollar deal was not something that required Simon's excessive attention.
Of course, he did not refuse Calvin Klein's party invitation.
Probably due to financial strain, although they had invited newly risen famous models like Nadja Auermann, Yasmeen Ghauri, and Kate Moss, the subsequent party felt somewhat shabby. The venue was in a banquet hall of an ordinary hotel near Bryant Park.
If not for the appearance of Simon and his wife, many of the models participating in the show and the supporting celebrities probably would not have attended.
Perhaps because the news had spread, not long after Simon and his wife appeared at the CK party, people kept arriving one after another. The originally sixty-person party site already felt somewhat crowded half an hour later.
This included top supermodels in the fashion world like Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista who had all rushed over.
Nadja Auermann, Yasmeen Ghauri, and even the newly emerging Kate Moss, even though their careers were rising rapidly, still could not yet claim the title of "supermodel" at this point. This showed just how much weight the 1990s Supermodel title carried.
Then, upon discovering that Janet was by Simon's side, many ambitious young women at the scene clearly showed a bit more disappointment in their eyes.
Nadja Auermann and Yasmeen Ghauri's rapid rise over the past six months had made many fashion circle women who spared no effort to climb the ladder feel Simon Westeros Midas touch magic. This attraction was even more enticing than the Westeros Group's hundreds of billions in assets.
Who wouldn't hope to become the next lucky one touched by the golden finger?