I nodded. “Yep. Let me tell you fellows something. I’ve had people tell me that my money has bought me a lot of things. I bought my seat in Congress, the VP slot, the presidency,” I grinned and added, “… a good looking wife… you name it.” I reached up and tapped the rank badge. “Say what you want. I earned this. One of the proudest days of my life was when I pinned on these bars. My money had nothing to do with them.” I then tapped my qualification badges. “Same with these. Bullets can’t tell how much money you have. No matter how much money I will ever have, or how much crap I have to take from people, I can stand in front of a mirror and honestly say, ‘I earned this.’ That’s something I will always be able to say.” Then I grinned and added, “The good looking wife I also earned, but that’s a whole different subject!” That got a lot of laughs, but I could tell the boys were thinking about what I said. Then I told them about the time a New York financier tried to take over the Buckman Group back in the early days, and when we politely rebuffed him, he made a threat to bankrupt us. I had dryly told him that I used to jump out of airplanes in the middle of the night and kill people, so it was going to take a whole lot more than a jackass in wingtips to make me nervous.
Over the winter school break, we made the official announcement I was running for reelection. We all flew out together, Marilyn and me, the twins, Charlie, and even Stormy, and flew into Oklahoma City. Frank Keating was out of office now, and I met with the Democratic Governor, Brad Henry. After that, however, he was sent packing, since there was no way he was going to want to travel with me to Springboro. I was doing my official announcement at the place that had put me on the national political map, so we took the motorcade to Springboro, and did the announcement in the school gym, which is where I was speaking when the tornado alarm went off that day.
That had been three years ago, and Springboro took me to their heart. It didn’t hurt that Marilyn and the girls were looking pretty, or that Charlie was a certified hero, or that Stormy was the big idiotic mutt from Springboro. I gave a nicely rousing speech about the can-do spirit of ‘Oklahoma Strong!’ and how I was going to take that spirit with me as I toured the country and spoke to great Americans just like them. Big on emotion, soft on details. Politics 101. The Torquist family was there, front row center, and we greeted them and I introduced them to Charlie. Tom Torquist had been a Marine, too, so he pretty much got the local American Legion to swear out oaths of loyalty to me. Afterwards we drove over to their new house and looked around. Maggie the dog had another litter of puppies; this time I refused!
Afterwards I went to Shawnee and did another campaign stop at the hospital and spoke about the wonderful things they were doing, and then we went to Oklahoma City, did a fundraiser and speech, and stayed the night. Once we were back on the plane flying home to Washington, Charlie immediately begged off the campaign trail. “How do you put up with it?” he asked.
“It helps if you drink a lot,” I told him, at which point Marilyn punched my arm. Then I added some fuel to the fire, by saying, “It helps even more if you can fly around with a cute White House intern.” My daughters started to squawk at that, and Charlie just laughed.
“Your father thinks he’s funny,” said my wife.
“Hey, it worked for Bill Clinton.”
“Keep it up! Your arms will be black and blue by the time we land!”
“I’m not worried. You all hit like girls, anyway.” At that, all three started punching me, so I escaped down the aisle and went back to the press section on the plane. Most of the questions were about the coming election, and who was going to be running against me.
There were at least a dozen candidates on the Democratic side. The front runner seemed to be John Kerry, who had run against me as Vice President with Al Gore, but had not been a factor in the race. The race last time had been George against Al, and me against Bill Clinton. Everybody had ignored John. Also in the running was Joe Lieberman, one of the senators from Connecticut, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, former Governor of Vermont Howard Dean, and even Dick Gephardt, the former Congressman and a perennial favorite in the Midwest. At least another half dozen names were tossed out, but nobody thought any of them had a snowball’s chance in hell.
It was an interesting field, and my entrance into history had probably changed the calculus. Kerry was a certified hero, and one of the few Dems with military experience. The historical perception was that the Democrats were weak on defense, so Kerry countered that. He was also better looking than me, and had blue blood credentials. Joe Lieberman also had foreign policy experience and was very conservative, but looked and talked like Droopy the Hound Dog. John Edwards, on the other hand, was devastatingly handsome, a smooth talking southern boy with solid liberal credentials and big supporters in the unions. Even Howard Dean came off well, with a youthful appeal and a freshness about him. Which of them would self-destruct first?
I refused to allow myself to be baited into saying something I shouldn’t. Instead, I parried a few questions about using my own personal fortune to bankroll my reelection. “It’s more complicated than that. It’s not just about the money. When people donate to a campaign, they aren’t just donating their money, they are donating their time and their interest. It’s not just the cash you get; you get to hear what they have to say, they can tell you what is important to them. I won’t lie to you and say the money isn’t important, because we all know it is, but even more important is to make that donor want to work for you. More important than their money is their time!”
“And you think you can do that.”
I shrugged and smiled. “I think so. The Maryland Ninth thought so, and they’re not so different from people everywhere else. They have local concerns, but they love this country just as much as the people everywhere else. No reason I can’t deliver the message that we are all in this together, and that I’m the guy to lead them.”
“Will your family be campaigning for you?” came up.
“Maybe. Marilyn will be helping me out, I know that already, and that’s good. Even the people who don’t like me, they love Marilyn!” That got a few chuckles. “The girls are in school, so they might not be able to help until the summer. We’ll have to ask them. I’m not sure about Charlie, though. He missed out the last campaign, and doesn’t seem too thrilled about the idea. Besides, he has his own life now.”
“What is he doing? Is he out of the Marines?”
“Yes, he is a civilian again. He and a friend of his are putting together a motorcycle racing team. Charlie was a nationally ranked motocross racer when he was a teenager, and wants to give the pros a shot.” There were a couple of questions related to that. “You’ll have to ask Charlie about that sort of thing. His mother and I don’t know which is worse, him getting shot up in the Marines, or him racing motorcycles!”
Afterwards, I went back up front, and sat down next to my son. “Don’t be surprised if you get some reporters asking you questions about going back into motocross. Some of them were asking and I told them you were getting back into the pros.”
“Works for me. Bucky was hoping to line up some sponsors. Maybe somebody will read about us.” He waited a moment, and then asked, “Is the fact that I saw a counselor going to come out?”
I sighed and nodded. “Yes, eventually. It won’t be from me, but sooner or later, some reporter is going to find the right person to pay off and it will come out. Trust me on this, but if you have any deep and dark secrets, they won’t be secret much longer.”
“Is that going to hurt you? I mean, in the election?”