Charles’ campaign was running in high gear since he had pulled even in the polls. His chosen running mate, a former general and legislator was considered a good choice. And, like Charles, he was also a Washington outsider, but very effective at his job. He was well respected and liked even by his political opponents. And he was able to speak powerfully to the issues at hand. Now the two of them would campaign, together at the more important events, and singly everywhere else. They played well off each other’s experience and personalities.
For both of them, every minute of every day was scheduled, up early, breakfast at an event, speak, move on to the next event. While in transit, meet people, plan and study. There were many things to consider, from the wording of speeches and position articles on his web site, to potential cabinet members. Charles now had several assistants, and each one handled a particular specialty. Even though it appeared to be lacking somewhat in organization, everyone was working more or less smoothly with the ultimate goal to land Charles in the White House.
Lunch was taken either on the road or at another event. Usually Charles would speak for a few minutes about an important issue of the day. Eating was noisy and, since he was the guest of honor, often the cooks and servers were overly enthusiastic about his portions. He had to stop his lifelong habit of cleaning his plate.
And there were meetings! Meetings of all kinds, big ones with lots of people, supporters who had donated a lot of money, or won a contest to meet him, and myriads of smaller ones, sometimes with only Charles and a single person. These tended to be with high level officials in government or in his party. Charles noted that some representatives who had carefully avoided him during the nomination now wanted to talk, usually out of the public eye. These meetings would continue into the night.
Outwardly it appeared that everything and everyone associated with the campaign was happy and upbeat all the time. But there were some serious concerns. Charles had been inundated with voters coming up to him asking the same question. Is it too late? Can our government be saved, or is it in free fall and we were doomed to become like Europe, Britain and other countries? “That’s why I’m running, to keep that from happening,” He would often reply. But he did have doubts. Because of his position he was privy to the internal workings of government and what was going on behind the scenes. What he found out disturbed him deeply. And he knew that many times those from his own party were to blame up as well as the other one. Would his own party accept they had contributed to the current state of government? Would they be willing to admit their errors and correct them? Where was the will to enact a sea change in attitude about the size and scope of government? There were no real answers.
From the info his staff had gathered, he was able to guess whether he would have a majority of supporters for his big initiatives, and every time they came up even, or almost even. The votes were always too close to call! Which was one reason he started courting first time conservatives, he would need all their support to enact real change, and these people would not be enamored by the perks of the job, or beholden to any interest group.
One thing he did know. There was great dissatisfaction with the current state of government, and that was working in his favor. Charles was going to play that for all it was worth.
