Much laughter.
“This is one of Kate’s few campaign appearances since I announced, last January. As you may have heard, the national security depends on her being at her desk in Langley, Virginia, nearly all the time, and there’s a pretty good argument to be made that she is more important to her country there than on the campaign trail.”
More laughter.
“This is Peter’s first campaign appearance since he was twelve years old. He has been, of course, occupied with school, although it’s going to be very hard to get him to go back, after having met Astrid.”
More laughter.
“Tonight, I want to thank you for more than your financial contribution: I want to thank you for your personal contribution to the political life of your country. People from that far-reaching community we all think of as Hollywood have always taken an interest in national affairs, just as the nation has always taken an interest in them. So many of your faces are so well known to the American people that they have come to think of you as their neighbors out west, and they want to know where you stand when it’s time to choose the nation’s leaders. I am very proud and very grateful that so many of you are standing with me.”
Much applause.
“The Democratic convention opens tomorrow, and tonight, all across this city, there are other parties like this taking place, though perhaps not quite so well attended as this one. I don’t want you to think of your colleagues who are supporting other candidates as your opponents. By this time next week, our party will have chosen its candidates, and we will all be working together to see that they are elected. There will be parties, too, for candidates of the Republican party, and though you may rightly think of them as opponents, after the first Tuesday in November, we are all — Democrats and Republicans — going to have to work together to make this country all that it can be.
It is at the center — not the left or the right — where the work gets done, and that New Center is where we are all going to have to meet each other and our obligations to our country. We are all in this together, and together we will take this country into the new millennium!”
Will stepped back from the microphone to huge applause. He pulled Kate and Peter forward, and they all waved at the crowd.
When the applause had finally died, Vance Calder came to the microphone again. “Now that you’ve gotten your money’s worth, dinner is being served. We’ve felled a large number of oxen, and for those of you who are California vegetarians, we have denuded the San Joaquin Valley for your dining pleasure.”
Will, Kate, and Peter walked down the steps and onto the huge lawn where the guests were gathered.
Peter whispered into Will’s ear. “Now can I break off and talk to my date?”
“Sure,” Will whispered back, “but don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the Los Angeles Times tomorrow.”
Peter fell back and took Astrid Bergson’s hand.
Will did his level best to shake every hand at the party. He and Kate wandered through the crowd, talking with the guests, laughing at jokes, and thanking everyone. Outside of Washington or Georgia, Will had never been to a party where there were so many familiar faces, faces that he had watched hundreds of times at the movies and on television. He posed for pictures with most of them.
Then there was a tug at his elbow, and Charlene was there. Kate had fallen back into the crowd.
“We need to talk alone,” Charlene said.
“Not even if you have a gun,” Will said, sotto voce, through a smile. “Not here, not with everyone taking pictures. I hope you understand.” He turned and grabbed an actor’s outstretched hand, thrilled to be saved from a tabloid fate.
46
If Will had felt busy before, the tempo of his existence increased markedly with the beginning of the convention. The delegates gathered and caucused, the platform committee met and argued, while Will’s representatives fought for his positions; deals were being made at every opportunity; and promises were made that would never be kept.
Will’s parents arrived. Billy and Patricia Lee were housed in a suite adjoining Will’s, and both began working the telephones, calling delegates in their hotel rooms and on their cell phones, extracting assurances where they could. On the evening of the first ballot, Billy called a meeting in Will’s suite. He looked grim.
“All right, listen up,” he said, and the two dozen people in the suite grew quiet. “We’re not going to win the nomination tonight,” he said, and there was a collective gasp. “I’ve counted and re-counted, and we just don’t have the delegates. The good news is, George Kiel doesn’t have them either.” The room burst into babble again.
Will stood up. “Everybody shut up and listen to Dad,” he said.
Billy looked around, then continued. “I make it that Kiel is twelve to fourteen delegates short, and we’re about thirty-five short. What we have to do this evening is to make sure we don’t lose even a single delegate on the first ballot. If we can do that, then we’ll have a better shot on the second ballot, I think. It’s important that, after the first ballot, we pick up some delegates, even if it’s only half a dozen. I want instructions to go out to our people on the floor to tell our delegates to hold fast, and not expect to walk away with this thing. If we can get through two ballots tonight without losing, and maybe pick up a few votes, then we’ll have a real shot at winning tomorrow night. Now you’ve all got your lists of people to call. Will and I will be calling the delegation chairmen on the floor, shoring them up, and I want each of you to make sure that every one of our delegates with a personal phone gets at least one phone call on the floor. It’ll make ’em feel good. Now go to it!”
Most of the campaign workers left for a meeting room in the hotel where a phone bank had been set up. Each of them had a list of names and numbers to contact.
“Will,” Billy said, “what worries me most is California. They’ll hold on the first ballot, because they’ll have to, but on the second ballot, we’re going to lose some people.”
“Because of the Castle Point naval base?”
“That’s right. I’ve heard from some friends that Kiel’s people have been promising some of the California delegates that, if he’s elected, he won’t close the base.”
“But he’s already committed to following the commission’s recommendation on Castle Point, just as I have.”
“Right, and we have to hammer that home with every California delegate. When they call the roll, California is the fifth state to be called, and the first big state. If there are significant defections, it could start a snowball effect for Kiel. But if we can hold, it may give a lot of other delegates some backbone. So you and I are going to personally contact every California delegate we can.”
“Let’s get started,” Will said. By tradition, he couldn’t appear at the convention until after the balloting, so he began working the phones.
Zeke was under the convention platform with two Secret Service agents. It was the third set of agents he’d given the tour, and this pair was being very meticulous. He went through every under-platform installation, working from a detailed set of drawings, pointing out the wiring plans for lighting, sound system, TelePrompTers, and telephones.
The agents knew what they were doing, Zeke realized. These guys were technically oriented, and they understood everything pointed out to them.
“How many telephone lines?” an agent asked.
“Six to the podium,” Zeke said. “Another six to the rest of the platform and the green rooms. It’s a Lucent Partner Plus office system, with a max of twenty-four extensions, and they’re all in use.”