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Chapter 25
The next few weeks of speeches went
well. We had the big cheers,
the audiences growing with every venue, and the press was not knocking at
our RV door every morning, the commotion waking us up at a pretty early
hour. Momentum was growing
now, as we were approaching the registration day to formally file for the
office, formally claiming the Republican Party as our party.
We have actually avoided those suggestions to this point, keeping
to topics in our speeches such as environment, global warming, the
Iraq
war,
Afghanistan
, the economy, issues everyone seemed to be interested in.
The questions that came in to us guided our speech topics.
We found that was what people were interested in hearing about,
typically were the first ones asked. We
followed that as our lead in our primary topics and statements at
speeches, and was now becoming a formal platform that most politicians
have when they run for office. Monies
kept pouring in too. We are
amazed each week as we are tallying the campaign contributions, as gross
donations we were approaching an astounding 4.5 million dollars. Folks
just kept sending money as fast as the mail carrier can bring it.
Dwayne and the postmaster had virtually become good friends over
the conversations of what all this mail had in it, as anyone that came in
contact with us through any means was hungry for information, as we were
as hot as a top actor after a top box office movie release.
Most of all I could not believe how
much I just plain felt loved! The
amazing thing was the amount of support from the churches we were getting!
They all were in support of this new politician with faith based
values and no dirty laundry. That
kind of support was funding a large amount of the monies coming in.
The remarks that we heard were astonishing to Marge and I, the
biblical references I was getting, even being compared to Jesus!
Jesus! Common!
What is that? Not in my
comprehension! None the less,
the ball was rolling in a rather large and positive way with the amount of
support across the board from the business sector, the religious sector,
the actors and actresses were in on it with positive political statements
supporting me, the news commentaries were in support, the momentum was
growing at an astonishing rate in all directions.
I was popular, more so now than the President himself, the news
more likely about me in the evenings when we got home, and the mornings
when we got up, and the current President as a lame duck was covered like
a retired President with a few passing activities.
I had always watched as periods of time would give the President an
unbelievable amount of press, the topic of every newscast, depending on
what else was going on in the news. Now
it was happening to me, and it was coming into my world in a very large
way, daily, hourly, and the phones kept ringing, as we still had no formal
campaign office, just us in an RV, giving a few speeches, and the
conversations went from there like wildfire.
It seemed like I could do no wrong!
Senate Majority Leader Ben Noble was positive in his statements
about us and was calling me daily now.
He sometimes acted like he had a live one on the hook, and didn’t
want that keeper fish to get away. The
Democratic Party seemed like they were in a defense mode, rather than
giving their political views and positions; and the money, the money kept
pouring in, faster and in greater amounts as each week past.
We are not doing anything to raise money, it is just happening.
All of this is just happening.
We were collecting money for the campaign and we have hardly spent
a thing! The news coverage was
so thorough on our campaign that we have not done any advertising.
We have been staying in RV resorts and putting gas in the truck,
but are barely spending six hundred dollars a week.
It is almost a roller coaster ride, and has been down hill ride
since Margie set that first speech after my meeting with Senator Noble.
At this point, what could we do wrong?
I am always waiting for that first day of bad news, but it just has
not happened, yet.
Registration day had come and passed
without a hitch. The press was
there in full glory, and the band was playing with colorful red, white and
blue banners all over the place, me standing next to Senator Ben Noble and
claiming our position of Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates,
coming out from the registration together like we had just signed a
permanent world peace treaty that sealed the deal for the entire globe.
We smiled together as the filming rolled and still cameras
clicking. The full support of
the Republican Party, which was the majority in the Senate, was behind us
with the opposition of a very few, and not verbal at that as my running
mate was reporting to me. We
just had some unknowns that Senator Noble expressed concerns over, which
he said in confidence to me that “he would work on” as he would say.
He had the Senate down to a first name basis, and was reviewing
every possible Senator as a possible, a hopeful, and a “shoe-in” as
most all of the republicans were his friends and avid supporters.
From the Senate side of the Congress, we had the majority electoral
votes “sewn up” as he stated, with a few stitches that he had to tie
in. He was now reviewing in
his head, the House of Representatives members, which he stated he had
“friends in high places”, to help him handle that.
“Just keep doing what you are doing” he would say.
“I will take care of everything else.”
My confidence in Senator Noble had grown over these past weeks, as
it seemed he was more than just a running mate, but an insider that I
would need to get the election won. I
often wondered what a struggle it would have been without him, but then he
stated to me too that he felt the same way, as I had shed the light on the
ailing Republican Party and helped them get the attention that they badly
needed. We were succeeding in
the polls against the Democrats, as they were trailing at 24 percent and
we were running a healthy 69 percent.
The remaining few candidates had the rest, with the typical few in
any pole that were undecided. The
polls were swinging more in our favor every week, gaining 9 points in the
last four weeks. The
television was all about us, now that we had registered as official
candidates for the election with our party and the entire country seeming
real upbeat, the stock market even climbing at the site of something good
to come. It all seemed like a
euphoria of good things, and I, Golden Simms, average Joe, was being
carried into the spotlight and bringing the entire world with me.
It seemed surreal in every waking hour.
Margie loved every minute of it.
She was busy on her own cell phone too, with two cell phones going
strong, she was as happy as any woman running her own business and success
was being realized with every effort.
Any speaking venue she wanted to book was a done deal at first
phone call, and they had an audience waiting for us that a rock band with
top hits would envy. We both
went to bed each evening as tired as we could possibly be, discussing last
minute details as our heads hit the pillows, with an attempt to make sure
we didn’t miss something we were supposed to remember as we woke up the
next morning. We had no
problem sleeping because it was so tiring, and the worries seemed to fade
away with the amount of positive success and reinforcement we were feeling
and experiencing, finances were more than ample for that point in time of
the campaign, and the support from the important Electoral College members
of Congress was all being handled by Senator Noble.
It just all seemed too easy, too perfect.
How could we loose?
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