Novel 1

From President

"You know what their problem is?"

The Governor leaned back in his leather chair, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the television in his office. Donald Lexington, the senior senator from Ohio was making a speech to a few hundred people in Iowa, and it was already familiar. He shook his head as he popped a grape in his mouth.

"No sir, I'm sorry - I don't follow." replied his Chief of Staff, who at this point looked as though he would rather be just about anywhere other than this office, because he knew he was in for some kind of lecture.

"Vision, Dave - vision."

A much shorter answer than he anticipated hearing, Dave Jameson rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and mumbled a very quiet thanks to several different deities for sparing him. "Yes sir."

"You see..." the Governor began, "they've just completely lost vision. I mean, take Lexington here. What is he peddling? This is basically just pandering to everything Aldridge represented. I mean, right now its an open competition to see who can be the most like Aldridge. 'I'm the real Aldridge republican' they all say. I wonder - how exactly do they think President Aldridge became such a transcendentally great figure? Did he do it by saying, 'I'm the most like Calvert and Prior' or 'I'm the new Reagan'? No Dave - he knew who he was, what he believed and what he wanted to do, and just because the previous standard bearer of the party did it one way, that did not mean he was going to stick with that indefinately. I swear, this drives me absolutely crazy."

"Yes sir." Dave had heard this particular rant of his at least three times this week. It was becoming clear the Governor was completely unsatisfied with the voices that had declared themselves candidates for presidential race in 2036 thus far, especially the presumptive republican frontrunner who was now on television pandering to Iowans. "At this point though, governor, you can't do much about it. Its only natural that they would look to the most successful republican leader in the last forty or fifty years for inspiration. Once one of them gets in office, they'll end up being their own man. Now, I have a couple changes to your itinerary this afternoon, if you'll just..."

"Oh to hell with my itinerary, Dave."