The Senator Ch. 02 - The Campaign Manager

This is Part 2 of the Senator. You must read The Senator to know what this part is about.

Several wanted to see how the story of the Senator continued. I stopped where I did because I didn't want to get political. I found a way around that - tell part two in the voice of the campaign manager.

I don't know much about campaigns or their management, but I presume the role of the manager is to get 51% of the votes. These people are not involved in governing - just in getting their candidate across the finish line, in order for them to govern. So, I have made the manager amoral in the sense that he is neither for nor against anything, per se - all his opinions are based on getting a voting block of 51%.

This particular manager is also unlikable, in my view, because in addition to (or perhaps, because of) no moral compass on the campaign trail, this manager has seduced his married client.

The complication in telling the story from a third person's point of view is what he says is not a fact, instead it is what he wants someone else to believe. Sadly, he is so focused on the end he wants - he doesn't even need to believe himself. He has no "opinion" - he only wants to influence the opinion of others.

The Campaign Manager is a way to describe how things between Paul and Doris got where they are. He is not a likable guy, and this segment of the story is likely to draw a more negative reaction - forgive me. It does set up Part 3, in which Doris gets to explain her mess and what she intends to do about it.

The Campaign Manager

Have you ever watched a train wreck - in slow motion? I was watching one right now. What made it important was it was my train. I knew better than to trust her husband. He is the worst sort to deal with. He has morals, ethics, and absolutely no understanding of the greater good.

Doris thought she could control him. As bright as she is she has a blind spot, her husband. Doris has enormous political ambitions; she understands adjusting what she says to get herself elected. Unfortunately, she would not compromise her basic beliefs but found it possible to say a supportive word about this or that, to get another block of people to vote her way.

Her trouble was her husband believed her actual opinions were more important than getting elected.

What kind of an asshole believes that?

But asshole, or not, what Doris just could not grasp is her husband's beliefs were likely to get her unelected...

Hence, the wreckage. He just told the world his wife is a liar. Bless her heart, she is doing what I've taught her - blame her mistake on the other guy. But now we have major work to do.

<<<<>>>>

Doris was crying. I hate emotion. It gets in the way of swaying public opinion. Fortunately, she had not become the sobbing mess she is now in front of the public. People don't like whiners.

I felt badly for her. As much as it surprised me, I had fallen for her. Fortunately, I could put my own emotions aside - my love was secondary to getting her elected President. I was holding her - it would help us get to what was important.

As I held her, I thought about the romantic entanglement in which we now find ourselves. I wish I could have put off romancing her - but it just was not possible. As long as her husband had her ear, she would stay true to herself and being herself was not enough to be elected. I had to get her ear.

Getting her ear meant winning her heart and claiming her body. Not that winning her heart was a good or bad thing, just necessary to get her to move my way on some of the important issues. Oh, the sacrifices one makes.

"Doris, sweet Doris, don't fret so. We can still recover. You did very well out there."

"Very well!?! I just lost my husband."

"I told you. He is an anchor which is holding you in place. You need some flexibility, or you will never go as far as you can go."

"Paul keeps telling me I need to be myself - I am what people love."

"Doris, dear Doris. You are naïve. Paul loves you because of who you are. For John and Jane Public to love you, you must be on their side. If you are not on their side, they really don't care about your moral compass - they care about their own.

She calmed down. She was considering what I said. This is bullshit. She keeps going back and forth between how her husband feels and what I know to be true. I must get him out of the picture.

She looked resolved, "I need to talk to him. We can work this out."

Well, fuck! This is going in the sewer, rapidly. If she goes to him, he'll fuck up her mind to believe the truth will set us free. "Doris, if I may suggest, it is not wise to talk with him. He has shown he is not trustworthy."

"John! You'll pardon me, we have shown we are not trustworthy."

Well, shit. This is going to involve more work than I thought. I don't like the set of her jaw. She means it. Arguing with her will make what he says even more important. I need to accept that she is going to talk to him. Then I need to do damage control. I'd like to avoid those two steps, but she is determined. "Okay. Go talk to him. But do it in private. Make sure he doesn't record what you say. See where you are. Then, based on what you want to do, we'll put together our strategy." Based on what she wants to do my ass.

This is the hard part. I will admit it is difficult to walk the line which keeps voters on your side. Voters are so fickle - it is not enough you say what they like, they want you to follow through and do what they like. Fortunately, the other side always provides help - my candidate may disappoint them, the other candidate will definitely disappoint them.

All I could do is wait until she came back, find out what she talked about, and build from there.

<<<<>>>>

"Well, what have you decided?" She talked to Paul last night and told me she did not want to talk about it until we met this morning. I tried to talk her out of that - all that got me was sleeping alone in a hotel room. She wanted to leave the possibility of spending the night with her husband open.

"We misjudged him."

"Really? How so?"

"When I talked with him before our appearance together, he knew you and I were discussing what he'd said before I would tell him what I thought. He considered that more a betrayal than sleeping with you. I had lost him, then. He just said we would work on our marriage so that he could embarrass me publicly."

"The lying bastard."

"John! That is not going to work. Damn it! Paul is true to his beliefs, I know that. In fact, I knew it when he and I talked - you, on the other hand, convinced me to lie to him and that my lies would carry the day. My lies got me here - no husband and no candidacy."

"Great!" Something I can work with. Time to get beyond a failed marriage and on to running for President. "In your heart you knew all this before you went to talk to him. Remember, you wanted to have a sham of a marriage, maintain our relationship, and be a candidate - all we must do is change to the loss of a bad marriage."

She looked at me like I had lost my mind, "No, John, you wanted me to maintain a sham of a marriage. Worse yet, it was not a bad marriage. I let my ambition destroy a great marriage. No, maybe that is not right. Paul wants me to consider I let you destroy a great marriage."

Well, that is a kick in the teeth. I may need to make a choice here - Doris the candidate or Doris the lover. Who's kidding who, that's not the choice - the choice is can I keep her as a candidate and lover or do I give up the lover. "Doris let's get grounded, please. We are where we are. You are still loved as a candidate, let's not lose that. Sad as it makes me to say it, if you and I are history, then we're history. But don't let that influence our work on your candidacy."

She sat, looking at me. If there is such a thing as you can see the wheels turning in someone's mind - I could see hers. I wanted to say more, but sometimes you just need to wait. Finally, she reached a decision.

"John, much as it hurts me to say it - you are right. I burned a bridge. I am sorry, but sorry doesn't repair the bridge. What can we do?"

Bingo! Paydirt! "'I burned a bridge' is a bad strategy. It conveys a lack of control. People want their leaders to be in control. He burned the bridge."

"John, you keep thinking you are dealing with some regular guy, who doesn't give enough of a shit to fight back. With that guy, we can say what we want and when the public hears no opposition, we eventually form our own truth. That is not going to work here."

Wow! She is right. I started thinking out loud. "You're right, I think. Burning a bridge is a loser, we need to find another way to spin it. What about you are contrite, he is an unforgiving asshole?"

"Better, but if we make him the heavy he is going to fight."

"What if you beg him to let you have a little room to get by this situation?"

"He doesn't give a shit about my situation. He cares I blew up a wonderful marriage on bad advice."

Not bad, not bad at all. Let me think that through. We don't make him the heavy. So, she isn't flighty, she has good judgment - she just acted on bad advice. That has a ring to it. We can make that sell.

OH SHIT!

She can make that sell. To sell bad advice, I become the disease which must be cut out, for the patient to survive.

I looked at her face. She was watching me figure things out. She saw me get to the right answer.

"So, that's it?" I looked at her and knew it was.

"I am afraid so. John, I'm sorry I listened to you. It is easy to fall into a trap of trying to appease various blocks of voters to find 51%. Paul always told me it was the wrong thing to do. You were so persuasive professionally, I let myself believe you were more in my corner than Paul. Then, I let it get personal. It cost me my marriage; I won't let it cost me my political career."

"I can change! If you want to be limited to who you are..."

"John, you can't change. I am not limited by who I am - I am who I am. I am limited when I start pretending. Let's spend the next two days finding a new manager and a new candidate - I'll announce we are both moving on. I owe you that. It also fits nicely with the truth - which is where I see myself headed."

I looked her in the eye. I was truly past tense. Time to smile, agree, and move on.

<<<<>>>>

I prefer stories in which both husband and wife show reasons for their behaviors. I thought Part 2 to be important to show how a person might let a great opportunity impact their personal life - at the hands of one who cared about the result and not her, as a person.

Part 3 - The Candidate is in the voice of Doris Russell. It is about her personal resolution. A couple of commenters said there was a double standard, male candidates had survived such scandals - but a woman would not. I suspect that might be true, but not a story that belongs in Loving Wives.

I hope you enjoyed the first two parts.