Book 3 Chapter 1

            Wednesday morning we watched the morning news while we were eating breakfast. The media was still crunching the numbers and filling the airtime with all kinds of scenarios for Finney to win, same old liberal news. We didn’t read the numbers that way.

            I called Vice President Harrison to see if we were thinking on the same track. We agreed to meet at the campaign headquarters in ninety minutes. He had to come from Observatory Circle – the Vice President’s residence in Washington.

            We had the Secret Service coordinate arrival times so we would arrive together. The shopping center was packed with media spectators and well wishers.

            I was an easy find – the Secret Service insisted we ride in the beast and it stuck out like a long eared mule at a cattle auction. At the entrance to the industrial park we were met by State Police and county Sheriffs. I wanted to get out and walk to the headquarters but the Secret Service refused, even though I had both sets of body armor on. I had to endure the slow snail’s pace ride to the door.

            Vice President Harrison’s procession was parked beside us. Both of us stepped out at the same time and waved to the crowd. The media was yelling, trying to get a statement.

            The Secret Service and the police had roped off an area for the media. Vice President Harrison and I shook hands and then raised them in a sign of victory for the media.

            I asked the state police Captain if he had a bull horn I could use to speak to the well wishers.

            ”Thank you all for coming out today. The numbers look even better this morning than they did last night. It looks like the electoral vote is going to end up better than the 325 we now have. With Puerto Rico now a state, it takes 275 to win. It was a short campaign and believe me, I am glad of that. With the war and the problems in New York I really didn’t have the time to campaign like I should have,” I said.

            ”At least on January twentieth I can officially move the rest of my things into the White House for a four year stay. For that I need to thank everyone that voted not only for me but that other guy who is still wondering if I am an encyclopedia on steroids.” I said.

            ” I think this should put an end to all the snide comments about not being the real President, just a place holder. This is as real as it gets – this vote settles it,” I said.

            The liberals had been using the place holder comment every time I did something they did not like, usually adding, ‘‘Just wait, she will soon be gone – then we will get our way.”

            ”In a few days Vice President Harrison and I will sit down to review the people we have, finalize my administration, the goals and the policies of our administration,” I said

            ”I’m sure that my mentor and teacher in the world of politics – President Thomas – is looking down and cheering today’s victory,” I added.

            We walked inside to cheering campaign workers. The White House media group followed with cameras.

            ”Today we can take a break and celebrate victory after ten weeks of nonstop work, hundreds of thousands of phone calls and speaking to millions of Americans. Some of them were standing in crowded venues, some standing in the cold and rain or in the comfort of their living room or car.”

            ”They were listening to my message and my words that all of you worked hard day after day to make them want to vote for me. They heard our pleas for contributions so we could carry the fight to every corner of America and they sent money. They decided that our promises, our vision of the future is the one they wanted. We must deliver,” I said.

            ”They voted. I’m sure the numbers will change but one hundred million votes were cast for the conservative party compared to the sixty million for the liberal progressive communist. Yesterday they – the liberal communist media – were predicting a landslide – but they had the wrong party picked for it,” I said.

            ”It wasn’t just that they voted for the presidential ticket, those votes carried over in the conservative Congressional races as well. Conservative senators and house members were reelected. Fourteen new conservative senators are to join them. We have a twelve senator majority in the Senate. They lost – we won. ” I said.

            ”In the house there are still some seats in limbo, but as it stands now we conservatives have a sixty seat majority. They lost – we won big time.”

            ”But the fight is not over! We must look forward to the congressional election in two years. Traditionally the President’s party loses some congressional seats at the midterm. I am determined that not happen and that we pick up more seats,” I said.

            ”As a party we need to start grooming young hard-working dedicated conservatives now, not weeks before the primaries. We cannot allow ourselves to fall into an over-confident stupor.”

            ”We won by your hard work and the hard work of thousands of volunteers canvassing neighborhoods across America. We won by the hard work of elected local conservatives carrying our message to their districts,” I said.

            ”There are no words that can adequately express how grateful we are for the support from my family, my friends to those in this room, this state and our nation. Thank you one and all.”

            ”There will be no more tip-toeing around the delicate issues. Speak softly is now a bull horn and the big stick is now a tree trunk the size of a sequoia. Either get on board the train or get out of the way because the fireman got a bigger shovel and a full load of coal,” I said to cheers.

            I stepped down off the box so Vice President Harrison could speak. Like me, he emphasized the size and scope of the victory. It had been an expensive victory; the conservative party had spent over two billion dollars. One billion of which had been made from the fundraisers, another billion in response to the call for donations.

            The super Pac that Jeanna, GW Mclintock and Marcy had formed had spent nearly one billion five hundred million. There was five hundred million to start a re-election campaign. That needed to be started near the end of the first year. But I would start much sooner – I would call it ”The Thank You Victory Tour,” just to piss off the liberals some more.

            By the end of the day the absentee ballots had improved our numbers. I had 337 electoral votes. All the fancy number crunching and scenarios by the liberal media were for naught. The liberals’ media were crying in their green tea, wondering what went wrong. How could this have happened? How could the people ignore the utopia society they promised for the poor and immigrants at the expense of the middle class?

            At 1200 Albert Finney called and conceded the election, victory was mine.

            ”Albert Finney just called and conceded. The victory is ours,” I said while standing on a wooden box in the big room.

            Now was the time for celebration. Cases of champagne were brought out and hundreds of those disposable glasses. For this occasion I filled my glass for the toast and ignored the taste.

            ”Here’s to eight more years,” I sent the message; this was just a start. The cheers were deafening. I had just cranked the media up already.

            Customarily when elected a new President formed a new cabinet. The problem was I liked the people I worked with and for the most part they were going to stay. The people I needed to reward with a government jobs were going to have to settle for Ambassador positions and the hundreds of lower level jobs.

            All that meant I had an easy transition ahead and three months to breath breathe. The phones started ringing, congratulations coming in from everywhere. Russian President Orbatch called my personal cell phone as did Prime Minister Attenborough and many others.

            After the celebration died down, we sent everyone home with a reminder  to those who were hired to work in the campaign HQ. They were to continue to come in to finish up the necessary campaign work and filings and to pick up their paychecks until the end of the year.

            Vice President Harrison left for the circle and my mates and I left for Summers Lane; I was spending the night at home.

            I had a wonderful evening together my family, all my family. Jake, Mindy and their twins, Jason, Lisa, Jeanna, Mom, Dad, and of course our kids. The Secret Service chefs cooked a great celebratory dinner for us.

            It was the first time in ten weeks that we had all been together for a family meal, something that I missed.

            Thursday morning I was on my way back to the White House, There was work on my desk to take care of and I needed to start the review process and changes for my new administration.

            At 0700 I was sitting at my desk, looking over the last several weeks of general updates from various agencies. The important updates were delivered in person every day, either personally or by MTAC.

            Vice President Harrison and I now had a lot to do in the next few months. I sent him a text that we needed to set up several planning meetings at his convenience.

            Well wishers were calling in all morning with congratulations. The Joint Chiefs, the members of the national security group and the groups from the basement sections all stopped in at various times all morning.

            The Joint Chiefs – all them – were in with the latest updates on several areas that had been interesting in the last few weeks. Frank Love came in with them.

            ”Army and Air Force intelligence was actively monitoring the Lufthansa Airbus flight from Japan to Shanghai. We weren’t the only ones watching,” General Ingram said.

            ”The KBG was more active than anyone. We have found out they had operatives working the flight line at Tokyo International where the Airbus laid over for four hours. There was an electronic transmission from an unidentified source just seconds before the explosion,” Frank said.

            ”The USS Scorpion was shadowing a Russian boomer that surfaced twice that morning to make radio transmissions or to monitor them. One of those radio transmissions was thirty seconds before the plane exploded. The submarine had been at periscope depth for 30 minutes,” General Ingram said.

            ”Normal transmissions to submerged Russian subs are carried out the same as ours, with the sub trailing long antennas while underway. The only reason to come to periscope depth is to extend the short wave antenna for satellite communications or else land or air communications,” General Ingram said.

            ”Why would the Russians want to down the flight?” Frank asked.

            ”The Russians were voicing more objections to the China social media deal, more than we were. They viewed it as a tool the Chinese were going to exploit as a backdoor into Russia, especially in the west. The eastern block was relaxing rules and regulations to escalate trade with the European Union,” I said.

            ”President Orbatch and I discussed the issue when I was there. I told him that we were going to try to place limits on the agreement but I didn’t have high hopes of being successful,” I said.

            ”He asked if I would be opposed to Russia applying pressure or their own solution because it was an American company.”

            ” I told him I had no objections since Congress and other pressures didn’t sway Sucker or Terpshaw,” I added.

            ”They may have done us a favor bigger than you think. Inheritance tax is going to be enormous with the changes that were done. Five million is the exemption and eighty five percent the rate, plus putting the money in a trust no longer avoids the inheritance tax. Treasury is going to get a real boost out of the events of the last few weeks.”

            ”We might be able to fund some research on Enterprise NCC1701,” I said and added a wink.

            ”I have a meeting with Orbatch first of December and OPEC in January. I will check him out, see what he is willing to disclose. In the meantime destroy all the information you have collected including any hard drives. Any possible leaks would have no advantage to us at this time, don’t you agree,” I said.

            ”I believe you are right, it will be done,” Frank said.

            ”I want an update on the variable yield warheads. I want to know when we are going to change them out. Turkey will be one of the first in the NATO group to get them,” I said.

            While I had a few minutes to think, I wrote my thoughts on a legal pad of things I wanted to change. I would call my staff together to discuss them tomorrow and to ask for their input.

            On another legal pad were things I wanted to change at the party level. I called Carl Isham and set up a meeting for next week. I knew without a doubt, the socialists would waste no time investigating what went wrong in their loss and make adjustments.

            Edit by Alfmeister

            Proof read by Bob W.