We arrived back on the island in time for a barbeque and beer. On the way back I thought about Iran’s troop movements and drills. It was the biggest yet, involving the most troops.
Their people were in deep poverty and had been for a while after the decades of embargoes and sanctions. Gas and food were rationed as was electricity. We called them rolling blackouts. For the Iranians it had become a way of life – electricity for four hours a day – except for Teheran.
Nuclear accidents had been costly; thousands of acres were off limits for decades because of radiation from test failures and waste disposal. Yet they pushed on to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The intercepts indicated the strikes were going to be against American interests, allies and bases. All these troop movements made me think there could be much more.
I called Bob Smith and General Ingram back, ”I want increased surveillance of Iraq, Syria, and Jordan,” I said.
They had no method to get that many troops across the Strait into Saudi Arabia, Oman or United Arab Emirates so they must be planning on a land attack or one hell of a land defense. Either way it bore watching more closely.
I had time to get all my mates off to the side and talk more about our life as we wanted it to be and the changes we were going through.
There were the rough spots with me now being President but we were working through them. One thing was as much personal time with each of my mates as I could get. When we did have time we made the most of it and I made sure I spent equal time with all of them. I did the same with our kids.
It was the end of March; I had been President almost three months. We had a system worked out; at least two of my mates were with me every day, sometimes three of them. And with the kids whenever possible.
The office was still running smoothly, even though there still was a learning curve in a couple departments. We had good employees and trained them to make them better. The business was still making money – lots of money – and growing.
The Mexican contract which was thought to be only a couple years, had stretched into long term contracts. The same was happening with the pact country contracts. We thought several hundred employees would be the final numbers. Now Vicky was pushing a thousand – so many in fact, we were hiring local people in several countries to fill routine jobs.
The college security division was no different; what started as twenty colleges was now at seventy and thousands of employees.
What had started as a gamble was the Polokwane mines and the ghost town and it truly had turned into a gold mine. We had anticipated not seeing profits for a minimum of ten years. It turned profits immediately.
The C5s were bringing massive loads of gold and uncut diamonds to Morton each month. They were still digging up gold they had hidden from the prince and his henchmen and would be for at least another year. Only then would the miners move to the gold seams that had been found in the appraisal.
We were spending tons of money in the beginning hiring back the three thousand miners that would call the town theirs. Then we hired craftsmen to build four thousand decent houses for all to live in instead of shanty shacks without running water or sewage.
We moved an eighteenth century town into the twenty first century in three years. It was complete with food stores and a medical center, paved roads, clean water and sewage with a treatment plant and its own power plant and school.
We were still running heavy security for the town, mines and airport. While the townspeople of Polokwane were happy people, those outside of the district were not, especially with prodding by the rebels migrating south from Botswana, Zimbabwe and further north. There were limits that we were sticking to.
If we needed additional people and skills, a place was found for them but the town was not a charity town. If we didn’t need them they were sent on their way, sometimes forcefully.
The town had elected their own managers and government. What had been a company owned store was no more and dozens of other independent business were springing up. It had turned into a success story we could be proud of.
We started talking about the election and the fundraisers we had done. They admitted they had fun at the last ones. They were getting into the energy of the crowd and could not wait for Sunday’s fundraiser and rally at ATT stadium – formally known as Cowboys stadium – in Arlington Texas.
Off season, the stadium was used for concerts, Motorcross, RV shows, Ag equipment shows and more. When in the concert format the portable stage was moved back from the grand entrance to accommodate the crowd size. With the monster overhead HDTVs screens every seat was a good seat. I was told it was sold out but I had no numbers.
I finally broke down and asked my mates the big question, ”Should I officially run for President?”
We had talked about the possibility but never in depth. In the last two fundraisers I had made the mistake of implying I might. It was decision time.
In between each of the last three presidential election cycles there had been major changes to the caucus and delegate process for the political conventions.
Once upon a time Iowa and New Hampshire were known as early states, followed by Nevada and South Carolina. Then there was Super Tuesday followed by another Super Tuesday a month later, capping off the majority of the quest for delegates. Of course there were a few individual states along the way.
All this gave the candidates time to visit all the delegate rich states. Only one problem: the liberals of California, New York and New Jersey and a couple more larger states felt that the earlier voting in the smaller, possibly more conservative states diminished the power and influence of progressives, extreme liberals and Socialists to help set party policy and elect liberal presidential candidates.
All this set in motion a redo of the presidential election process, with more being done to the process between each election. The previously mentioned extremely liberal states grouped together to have the earliest possible caucuses.
The theory was they could chose the candidate for the national ticket because they were the delegate rich states. The candidate that won those states would be unstoppable.
The result was the rest of the nation – fly-over country – would be powerless to stop the liberal choice or even help a more moderate candidate.
The next thing they tried was a winner take all of the states delegates, regardless of party affiliation. It was an attempt to stifle all opposition to the liberal agenda.
The real goal was to eliminate any possibility of a moderate or conservative candidate getting any delegates.
Then two different approaches to eliminating the Electoral College were tried. One of them was a winner take all again. If a state had one hundred electoral votes, the candidate that won fifty one percent took all one hundred, not the fifty one for one and forty nine for the other.
The other was elimination of the Electoral College completely. Those six states could elect the President. In the other forty four there would be no need to vote. Our founders argued over this very problem before deciding on the Electoral College.
With global environmentalists demanding population consolidation to reduce transportation pollution it was conceivable that some point as few as two states could elect the President under the liberal plans.
There were twenty candidates still in the running and not one of them had more than ten percent of the delegates. The conservative party was in a fiasco – a doom and gloom fiasco. With the big caucuses now past, their problems were just beginning.
After a long talk I decided that a run for the presidency with the current state of events was out of the question and would only add to the confusion. Besides, after I finished with Iran and its terrorists no one would ever vote for me anyway. I would be political poison.
I would continue to do the fund raisers for the party but would be more careful about what I said.
The night was quiet and restful. We were up early with a big breakfast – the last one we would eat here. Then we were spending time on the beach again, after which we would be packing everything up.
We were leaving at 1400 for Texas; the rally and fundraiser started at 1800. After the rally we were returning to Andrews. All my family was spending the night at the White House for the first time. They would fly home from Andrews tomorrow.
We made the flight on time and landed at Dallas Fort Worth International at 1600. From there we had a motorcade to ATT Stadium for the standard meet and greet with wealthy donors and those seeking influence.
My mates and I did the usual politics, pictures and hand shaking. At 1800 I walked out onto the stage to a wall of people. The portable stage was at the forty yard line. People were seated in all three levels of bleachers from there around the end zone to the forty on the other side. The field itself was chairs from the goal line to the stage.
In front of the stage were handicap and special needs people and VIPs with special access. The speech was more data, facts and more positive motivation to continue the prosperity and growth, finishing out with the eight – more -years chant.
We landed back at Andrews at 2200. I slept well, we all did. I hated to see my family heading back to the Island. Everyone was needed there, they had been away ten days – there was a lot of work to catch up on. I had my share of things to do as well.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.