Reader: now it can be told.  In the aftermath of the campaign season and the election, many citizens had been left perplexed at how the nation came to choose the leader it elected.  This writer spent months within one campaign as an assigned journalist, from the time of his party's nomination to the final decision back in November.  I honestly believe I had a unique advantage, having been able to see the candidate from within the campaign, and now that the election is past, I can freely share the account of the things I saw and heard.

I have covered four Presidential campaigns now, and I must say this is the most unusual one in which I have taken part.  To be honest, I was part of the attached press following a competitor in the primary, and I had thought it a dream assignment; by my own request, I accompanied the candidate for whom I was voting.  When my man was eliminated late in the primaries, it was only then that I was reassigned to the campaign that the following story will relate to you.

Segments of this story, of course, are not entirely first-hand; the parts that I dramatized were drawn from the accounts of other writers and eye-witnesses, and I pledge to you that those sections are faithful to their observations.  I hope you will forgive my dramatization, which I did solely to make this narrative flow more smoothly and more readably.

Further introduction would only be a waste of your time.  I give you, for your own edification, the insider's view of the Presidential campaign of Leonard "Len" Renard.


David Hinshaw turned off the television.  "That's it, friends," he announced to his collected advisors.  "Governor Renard has enough of a lead to lock the nomination for the Republicans.  He'll be our opponent in the November election, and I don't think he'll be very difficult to beat."  He found himself tempted to run around the room high-fiving all the others.

As a sitting Vice President at the end of a quiet two terms, he'd been the front-runner to receive the Democrat nomination and succeed the current President.  Even though there had been a few other candidates, they had been weak single-issue hopefuls.  The Republican campaign, on the other hand, had pitted three ambitious moderates against the upstart Renard, and their primary had been marked by strong words.  Renard had run as something of a firebrand, dismissed by some pundits as a crackpot.  Renard had cornered the conservative wing's vote, while the three moderates, all of whom wanted the Presidency too much to bow out of the race and defer to one of the others, had evenly divided the moderate vote.

Hinshaw and the Democrats had recognized this as a gift.  Running against Renard, a relative newcomer with no national experience, would clearly be easier that taking on any of the three others - two of whom were sitting Senators and all three of whom had run four years previously.  Renard, in contrast, was a two-term Nevada governor who had served briefly in the Nevada state legislature, and before that, in a few local offices in a rural part of the state - and those had been part-time offices to boot.

"So, do we open the champagne now?" came a voice from the back.

"No, it's late," Hinshaw answered.  "We've all stayed up watching to confirm the results of the primary.  I say we get some sleep, and meet bright and early to frame issues for the general election.  I want to revisit all of Renard's weaknesses, so we can start stressing them in the media."

"'Whores and poker for everyone!'" came a shout from a young aide, a reference to one weakness they had already decided they would exploit - Nevada's legalized gambling and prostitution, out of touch with most of America.  General laughter filled the room, and they began to exit, and the last to leave killed the lights.


"... and you know that the results in today's primaries," boomed the big voice of Len Renard, "put us over the top in the delegate count.  Because of your hard work, and everything you've done, we will be going into the Convention to receive the nomination, and as will be competing in November for the Presidency!"

The hall erupted into cheers, and it seemed like a hundred flashes from a hundred cameras seemed to fire in unison.  The light played off the bouquet of microphones, each representing a different broadcaster.

"This," Renard resumed, "has been a journey like no other, and you and I have made it together.  But it's not finished.  We still have a long way to go."  More cheers came; it seemed they would never end.  It was already late into the night, but Renard had stayed up waiting for the day's projections to be called, well after the polls had closed, and of course, the faithful had stayed up with him, sure that the day's primaries were the ones that would seal the nomination.  They had been right.

"Before I go any further," Renard continued, "I need to express my thanks to my remaining opponents: Senator Windell of Ohio, Senator Sarnecki of Wisconsin, and former Speaker Audell of Mississippi.  I hope I can count all three of them for their support in the coming months.  I know we have agreed on a lot of issues and disagreed on a lot of others.  But they are good men, and they have campaigned hard and honestly.  Support them, keep re-electing them, and give them all the encouragement they deserve."

Renard continued for perhaps another three or four minutes, mentioning twice that he knew how late everyone had stayed up for this event.  He then quickly brought it to his final point to wind it down.

"And as I promised, this will be a different kind of campaign, far from the manipulation and corruption that you and I have seen in previous elections.  Even now, I have sent my offer to Vice President Hinshaw to agree to a new kind of campaign.  And you want to know something?  It's not really new - it's old, and honest, and American.  Let me tell you the kind of campaign we're going to offer to run..."


An assistant at Hinshaw's headquarters picked up the fresh output from the fax machine.  As always, he scanned it quickly to get the main point and who it should go to.  Halfway into the second paraphaph, he stopped, tracked upwards again, and restarted.  He read two more paragraphs, and then skipped to the bottom.  It wasn't just from Mr. Renard's campaign; it was from Governor Renard himself, and he's signed it by hand.  It opened with friendly greetings and good wishes for the upcoming Democrat convention, and then announced himself as the putative nominee, something most everyone at the office had expected for weeks; in fact, it was an open secret that Hinshaw's speeches were laden with bullet-points that were meant to attack Renard's opponents, with a goal of making the volnerable Renard the nominee.

It was in the second paragraph that Governor Renard began laying out a proposal for a jointly agreed-to campaign plan.  As he realized what was being proposed, he broke into a canter to track down the overnight operations manager.  That manager in turn read the fax, then read it again.

"This is just nutty, that's what I say," the manager finally announced.

"What will Mr. Hinshaw say?" the assistant asked.

"He's already left the building and gone home.  I'll bet he's asleep by now."

"Do we wake him?"


More to follow...