It takes a few standard elements to make an effective campaign website in 2016. It’s like they’re all assembled from the same generic kit. A red-white-and-blue color scheme is mandatory, for instance. That’s something upon which even Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton can agree. Some vague, optimistic promises are nice, too, as well as a highly selective biography that bears only a passing resemblance to the truth. Throw in some flattering photographs, inspiring slogans, sly propaganda, and a heaping helping of shameless self-promotion, and the site is complete. That’s how it works for real candidates, and that’s how it works for fictional ones, too, as proven by this frighteningly accurate campaign website for Veep character Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons). In the HBO comedy’s fifth season, the weaselly and widely despised Ryan is running for Congress in his home state of New Hampshire. Although completely satirical, the site is so well put together that it could pass for the real thing. Compare, for instance, the image that welcomes visitors to Ryan’s site:
To the one at Trump’s site: