Nuclear proliferation was a problem facing the whole world. Technology had advanced to the point that if you could get the fissile material, anybody could build a bomb. It might be big and bulky, but it would work. Shrinking the package down to a size you could put in a missile warhead was a separate issue, and was much trickier, but you could easily make something that would fit in the back of a minivan, and with a little practice, something that could be made into a bomb suitable for an airplane to deliver. In addition to the original five nuclear powers of America, England, France, Russia, and China, the nuclear club now also included India and Pakistan. Israel was known to have nukes, but they wouldn't confirm that publicly. South Africa under apartheid also had nukes, but had dismantled them before the blacks took over, so there wouldn't be a "Black Bomb." Otherwise, there were probably another dozen Western European and Asian nations who had the ability to create a bomb in anywhere from six months to two years.
Generally speaking, these nations were all considered relatively sane places. Even Pakistan had strong controls on the nukes, and weren't about to let the nut jobs get their hands on one. That didn't apply to Iran and North Korea, where the governments were controlled by crazies. Iran was a major supporter of Islamic terrorism, and in poll after poll, at least of third of the population thought nuking Israel and America would be a good idea. In my first life, Iran eventually got the bomb, and within a matter of months had turned one over to Hezbollah, with tragic results for everybody.
North Korea was a different matter. Completely sealed inside its own borders, with about zero contact with the rest of the planet, the world's only Communist monarchy actually seemed to believe the nonsense they spewed out. They constantly provoked South Korea and the United States, lobbing shells over the border or harassing ships and planes. If they had been another country, I would have smashed them years ago, but if I responded to them appropriately, they would attack South Korea. There were tens of thousands of artillery tubes and missiles aimed at Seoul, which was close enough to the border that North Korean troops could walk there in a day. Throw in nuclear weapons, and it gets very dangerous indeed. The South Korean administration wanted us to tread very lightly. They were in the midst of an appeasement mode, hoping their pleasant actions would pay dividends. I couldn't see any, and I knew the next few South Korean administrations would take a considerably different tone.
For seven years my response to the demands that I do something were the same. Ignore them! Behind the scenes, diplomatically I made sure that the Buckman Doctrine was well known to both countries. Yelp all you want, but if you actually attack us or our allies, you'll never do it a second time. It was questionable whether the North Koreans believed me or their own press clippings more. To my critics, I simply refused to get into a debate. I didn't issue challenges or warnings, I didn't draw red lines or lines in the sand, and I refused to get caught up in hypothetical scenarios. Ambiguity could be quite useful.
As I was leaving office, my inevitable conclusion was that the world was somewhat stable, but massively fucked up in a lot of places. On more than one occasion I wondered what, if any, effect I had on things. Sooner or later, in an awful lot of these places, the locals were going to get sick and tired of the assholes running things, and they would revolt. Generally that led to wholesale slaughter and civil war. The assholes running these countries were often the only people holding things together! Some days you just couldn't win!
In America, which at times I considered as screwy as any third world shithole, the Republican and Democratic primaries slogged on. John McCain rode his Super Tuesday wins to glory. Mitt Romney dropped out a few days after Super Tuesday, and gave a speech calling for unification of the party under John McCain. Mike Huckabee decided to keep going, betting that he could grab enough Southern and Western states with his religious and socially conservative message. It worked, too, but not to the level that was needed. Mike picked up a few small states, but John picked up the 'Potomac Primary' of Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., and then ran the board on 'Super Tuesday II' at the beginning of March. That gave John a mathematical lock on the nomination, and Huckabee dropped out. John was the official Republican nominee.
On the Democratic side, things just dragged out. I thought the damn thing was going to go right up to the convention, something that hadn't happened since 1980, when Ted Kennedy tried to screw with Jimmy Carter's re-election run. It didn't work out that way. While Obama and Clinton were essentially tied after Super Tuesday, Obama ran the board in all of the February primaries, generally beating Hillary two-to-one all month long. The March primaries went back to the draw that the earlier primaries had been. The whole damn thing dragged on into June, with Obama slowly gaining ground on Clinton, using crazy 'super delegate' rules to pick up more votes. Eventually Barack Obama clinched the number necessary, mid-June, and Hilary dropped out. There had been huge amounts of bad blood shed by then. The odds that Obama would pick Clinton for his running mate were too low to be meaningful. Meanwhile, reports of John Edwards' zipper problems were slowly surfacing, despite his repeated denials. Within the next few months he was going to self-destruct disastrously. He would not be the V.P. candidate.
Amidst all the sturm und drang of the primaries, my personal life continued forward. Holly's romance with Jerry (whose last name I had now learned was Spicoli) was moving forward. They were now sharing an apartment in Princeton as they finished up their doctoral work. It wasn't clear to me what would happen after they graduated. They both had a couple of years to go before that would happen. Would they stay together? Split up? For what it was worth, Marilyn and Holly had dragged Jerry to Philadelphia and bought him some decent clothing, and then had taken him to get a haircut and trimmed his beard. He actually looked human now, and not like something from a homeless shelter. I still didn't think he was happy with me, but I could live with that.
Bucky and Molly had bought a house in Columbia, Maryland, in January. That was halfway between his operations with Tusk Cycle (four sales locations now and Bucky was the company's executive vice president) and her job at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. (Yes, I made a call. The Director took a look at her resume and agreed that she was qualified. That was the extent of my involvement. Nepotism is not always a bad thing.) She was also working on her doctorate at night. They were even beginning to talk about children, which certainly made Marilyn giddy with delight! I smiled and told Marilyn I already knew my job with the coming generation - load them up with sugar and give them back to the owners! My wife laughed heartily and agreed completely. Grandchildren are a grandparent's revenge!
Charlie was healing quickly, but even after months of physical therapy, he was still only about 80% back to where he had once been. He was out of racing this year, and whether he would ever race again was questionable at best. Megan and he were living together in the 30th Street house, and she was working for Brewster McRiley, as a receptionist/assistant. (She was the perfect girl – gorgeous for Charlie, Catholic for Marilyn, and Republican for me!) Charlie was now able to get around on his own quite well, and was driving, although he was delaying motorcycle riding until his doctors gave him the go-ahead. That happened in early March, and he took to riding a Honda street bike that Bucky rode over for him; it was smaller and less powerful than his usual Harley. Charlie was disappointed in his performance, though, and I could tell by the scowl on his face later. He was in some pain, and not moving the way he wanted to. He had a lot of metal in his right leg and that seemed to be a real issue.