"Never be a target, Madam. You would be mourned by everyone, both parties. Uh, if I may say so, you are even more beautiful in person than you are on the screen."
"Not mourned by everyone, I'm certain, or I would not nave to be cautious about assassination. As for that other, I'm not beautiful and you know it. I know what
I have. I project. But it's not physical beauty. It's something that a pro - a professionally competent actress - does with her whole being. Her voice, her expression, her hands, her body. A gestalt, with regular features the least important factor. Or not present, as with me."
The President smiled, got up and went around the big desk, leaned over the Admiral, kissed his forehead. "But you are an old dear to have said it."
He cleared his throat, noisily. "Ma'am, what is your opinion in the matter against that of millions of men?"
"We've dropped that subject. Now to work! Admiral, why is it that there has been so much difficulty with nuclear power plants ashore but never any trouble with your nuclear submarines?"
The President slapped her desk, glared at the leader of the delegation. "Stop that! Handkerchief head, you've come to the wrong church. In this office there are no Blacks - or Blues, Whites, Greens, or Yellows - just Americans. Besides that, you claim to be a Black representing Blacks. Hmmph! That's a phony claim if I ever - "
"I resent that, Mrs. Ni - "
"Pipe down! 'Madam President,' if you please. And one does not interrupt the President. I said your claim was phony. It is. I'm at least three shades darker than you are.. . yet I'm smooth brown, not black." She looked around. "I don't see a real sooty black in your whole delegation. Mmm, I see just one darker than I am. Mr. Green, isn't it? That is your name?"
"Yes, Madam President. From Brooklyn."
"Any white blood, Mr. Green? Perhaps I should say 'Any Caucasian ancestry?'"
"Possibly. But none that I know of, Ma'am."
"We're all in that boat - . . including all whites. A person who claims to be absolutely certain of his ancestry more than three generations back is accepting the short end of a bet. But since you are from Brooklyn, you can help me pass a word. An important word, one that I'll be emphasizing on the networks tonight but I'll need help from a lot of people to let all the people know that I mean it. A Black who gets elected from Brooklyn has lots of Jewish friends, people who trust him.
"That's right, Madam President."
"Listen to my talk tonight, then pass it on in your own words. This nation has split itself into at least a hundred splinter groups, pressure groups, each trying for a bigger bite of the pie. That's got to stop! - before it kills us. No more Black Americans. No more Japanese Americans. Israel is not our country and neither is Ireland. A group calling itself La Raza had better mean the human race - the whole human race - or they'll get the same treatment from me as the Ku Klux Klan. Amerindians looking for special favors will have just two choices: Either come out and be Americans and accept the responsibilities of citizenship ... or go back to the reservation and shut up. Some of their ancestors got a rough deal. But so did yours and so did mine. There are no Anglos left alive who were at Wounded Knee or Little Big Horn, so it's time to shut up about it.
"But race and skin color and national ancestry isn't all that I mean. I intend to refuse to see any splinter group claiming to deserve special treatment not accorded other citizens and I will veto any legislation perverted to that end. Wheat farmers. Bankrupt corporations. Bankrupt cities. Labor leaders claiming to represent 'the workers' ... when most of the people they claim to represent repudiate any such leadership.
Business leaders just as phony. Anyone who wants the deck stacked in his favor because, somehow, he's 'special.'"
The President took a deep breath, went on: "Any such group gets thrown out. But two groups will get thrown out so hard they'll bounce! I'm a woman and I'm Negro. We've wiped the Jim - Crow laws off the books; I'll veto any Crow - Jim bill that reaches this office. Discrimination? Certainly there is still discrimination - but you can't kill prejudice by passing a law. We'll make it by how we behave and what we produce - not by trick laws.
"I feel even more strongly about women. We women are a majority, by so many millions that in an election it would be called a landslide. And will be a landslide, on anything, any time women really want it to be. So women don't need favors; they just need to make up their minds what they want - then take it." The President stood up again. "That's all. I'm going to devote this term to those 'unalienable rights' - for everybody. No splinter groups. Go tell people so. Now git.. . and don't come back! Not as a splinter group. Come back as Americans."
They moved toward the door. Their erstwhile leader muttered something. The President demanded, "Mr. Chairman, what did you say?"
"I said," he answered loudly, "you aren't going to have a second term."
She laughed at him. "I thought that's what I heard. Burr head, I'm not worrying about being reelected; I worry only about how much I can do in four years."
(Editorial in the Springfield Eagle)
LIFE INSURANCE?
The President's surprise nomination of the House Minority Leader for the vacant vice - presidency has produced some snide theories, one of the nastiest being the idea that she fears a plot on her life by the wheeler - dealers who put the late President into office, so she is spiking their guns (literally!) by rigging things to turn the presidency over to the opposition party should anything happen to her....
prefer to take her at her word, that her objective is to get the country unified again, and that a woman and a man, a Republican and a Democrat, a White and a Black, could be the team to do it.
The Speaker of the House has still not commented, but his floor leader and the nominated minority leader appeared with the President when she announced her choice. The Senate President Pro Tempore said, "I see no reason why confirmation should not go through quickly. I've known Don for thirty years; I trust that I am not so narrow - minded that I can't recognize presidential caliber in a man of another party.
customary to be of the same party, there is a custom just as long standing (and more important) that a President have a Vice President he (she) trusts to carry out his (her) policies.
Let's back them to the limit! Let's all be Americans again!
"Thanks for coming."
"Madam President, any time you send a car for me, then scoot me across the country in a hypersonic military jet, thanks should be the other way. My first experience above the speed of sound - and my first time in the Oval Office. I never expected to be in it."
She chuckled. "Nor did I. Especially on this side of this desk. Let's get to work." She held up a book. "Recognize this?"
"Eh?" He looked startled. "Yes, Ma'am, I do. I should."
"You should, yes." She opened to a marked page, read aloud: "' - I have learned this about engineers. When something must be done, engineers can find a way that is economically feasible.' Is that true?"
"I think so, Ma'am."
"You're an engineer."
"I am an obsolete engineer, Ma'am."
"I don't expect you to do the job yourself. You know what I did about fusion power plants."
"You sent for the one man with a perfect record. I've seen the power ship moored off Point Sur. Brilliant. Solved an engineering and a public relations problem simultaneously."
"Not quite what I mean. I consulted the Admiral, yes. But the job was done by his first deputy, the officer he has groomed to replace him. And by some other Navy people. Now we're working on ways to make the key fission - power people - safety control especially - all former Navy nuclear submariners. But we have to do it without stripping the Navy of their Blue and Gold crews. On things I know nothing about - most things, for this job! I consult someone who does - and that leads me to the person who can do it. Since I know very little about how to be President, I look for advice on almost everything."