So, join me in welcoming a man who is my hero, and a hero to the nation. Join me in welcoming CARL BUCKMAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”
Marilyn turned to face me and I could see her eyes were wet with tears, but she had a big smile on her face, and the audience was screaming and going berserk. I had asked her to stay at the podium while I came out, so that I could give her a nice PG rated hug for the cameras.
I walked out on stage, smiling and waving at the crowds, with flashes going off and pandemonium out in the crowd. I smiled at Marilyn and gave her a big hug, and then slipped my handkerchief out of my pocket and palmed it to her. She began to wipe her eyes, which set the crowd to cheering even louder. I just grinned and gave her another hug around the shoulders and waved. After a minute, I stepped to the podium, and Marilyn backed away, but I held onto her hand. She looked at me and I whispered, “Just stay with me a moment longer.” She gave a slight shrug and came forward to stand next to me. I motioned for the crowd to settle down, and it slowly calmed down.
“Thank you, thank you. Now, before I get started, I have something to say first, and it’s about this amazing woman who is standing here beside me. They say that behind every great man stands a great woman, but I am here to tell you that Marilyn Buckman has never stood behind me! No, Marilyn Buckman has always stood beside me, facing every challenge with me. For better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, Marilyn Buckman has stayed, not behind me, but at my side, and I couldn’t have accomplished a tenth of what I have without her. So, thank you, Marilyn, for taking that chance on me all those years ago, and going out with me on that first date. I have been thanking God for you ever since!”
Marilyn started crying again, and I gave her another hug, and then she kissed me and ran off the stage. I waited a moment for the audience to calm down, and then began.
“Well, now that I have the important stuff out of the way, why don’t we get down to why we’re all actually here. You know, electing John McCain the next President of the United States of America!”
There was a lot of cheering at that, and I went into my speech. My speech was mostly pointing out the various times in the last seven years that I had used John to get something accomplished, like legislation or foreign affairs. In most cases I was able to give some details that weren’t common knowledge, such as the role John had in keeping Erdogan and the Turks on board during the Kurdish War. After each item I mentioned I would hammer home the exact same phrase — “There’s a reason I hired this guy! He gets things done!” It was hard to keep a rolling cadence with this type of speech, but by the end, I was getting the audience screaming along when I hit the note about getting things done.
I skipped any of the spin sessions or political coffee klatches after my speech, and Marilyn and I headed over to the Saint Paul, where we were staying. The only people in the limo were Marilyn and me, and a pair of Secret Service agents. I just stared out the window while Marilyn held my hand.
“Penny for your thoughts?” she said.
“I can’t break a penny. Not worth that much.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just thinking about all of this. Would it have been better to just have gone off and been boring and predictable like you said?” I told her, looking at her face.
She shrugged and smiled. “Probably have been boring and predictable.”
I chuckled at that.
She nudged me in the ribs and laughed. “I’m proud of you. You are a good man.”
I had to smile at her. I waggled my eyebrows and asked, “And all these years I thought women didn’t want a good man.”
“You are so disgusting!” she laughed. Then I got another nudge. “Just how good are you?”
I waggled my eyebrows some more, and Marilyn laughed as we went inside. Later, at the Saint Paul, we spent quite a bit of time determining what was ‘good’ and what wasn’t before we finally fell asleep. I might have hit 52, but the plumbing was still working just fine.
The next day we flew home, and I watched the rest of the convention on television. My speech got some air time Tuesday evening, but that was about it. By Wednesday everybody was talking about Tuesday night’s speech by Mitt Romney, a ‘healing moment’ as he called it, and what this all portended for the future if John McCain won. Jeb did a marvelous job Wednesday night lighting up the fires under the base with a ‘What has Obama ever done?’ speech. He was the designated attack dog, and he did the job well. John gave a great speech Thursday, accepted the nomination, and thanked everybody before sending them all home. We picked up about a 4 % boost after the convention, about the same amount the Democrats had picked up.
I was given a chance to speak to the nation on the upcoming election in early September. I agreed to a meeting with several reporters and a couple of cameras in the Map Room, without too many limits on topics. We talked about current foreign policy and my plans for the balance of my term, and what I thought of how John McCain was doing. Once they began questioning me about politics, it got interesting. For the most part I toed the party line, that John was holding his own, that it was a tight election, and that John would be a far superior President. Some of what I said did not reflect well on Senator Obama.
Chuck Todd: “Senator Obama has been quoted as saying that your administration is behind the citizenship controversy as much as Vice President McCain’s campaign is. How do you respond to that?”
Me: “I heard that and I was somewhat surprised. Certainly none of this is coming out of either my office or that of the Vice President’s and I am personally familiar with most of the people in the McCain campaign, and can assure you the campaign isn’t behind it either. I have repeatedly stated that the Senator is a native born citizen and a Christian. What more does he expect out of me? Does he want me to personally track down every website and tell them to behave? That simply shows a surprising naiveté about the power of the Presidency on Senator Obama’s part! If he thinks that just because somebody is the President that they can shut down rumors and innuendo in a nation of 300 million people, he is sadly mistaken. If I had that power, I think I would have used it a long time ago, in my own life.”
Nothing like bitch slapping a candidate for saying something foolish out of exasperation. It is one thing to call somebody wrong, it is another to call them naïve.
Chip Reid: “It was reported recently in the Chicago Tribune that Senator Obama considers the Republican Party hidebound and antediluvian. How do you characterize the Democratic Party?”
Me: “As good and loyal Americans with a Presidential nominee not worthy of their votes. I like Democrats. I married one, remember!”
Chip: “What about the hidebound and antediluvian characterization?”
Me: “That simply shows how little the Senator knows about the Republican Party and what we stand for. I knew exactly what my party stood for when I joined it back in college. I don’t know what party Senator Obama is talking about. I characterize our party as very progressive.”
Thomas Friedman: “You consider the Republicans a progressive party?”
Me: “Very much so. You simply have to look at our history. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, ended slavery. That’s pretty progressive, don’t you think? That continued on with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Were you aware that the Republicans in both the House and the Senate voted for civil rights at a far higher percentage than the Democrats did? Again, pretty progressive. Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican when he broke up the trusts and monopolies, helped unions, passed laws protecting our food and drugs that are still in effect, and created the National Park system. Sounds pretty progressive to me! Dwight Eisenhower created the interstate highway system, a radical idea at the time. Richard Nixon passed the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the EPA, and OSHA, all progressive ideas. I would state that it’s the Republican Party which is the true progressive party in this nation.”