King of the Mountain:
Part 35


Lynn Jepsen


Our numbers haven't been great. Oh, they've been okay - high forties -
but not great. Tomorrow, they're going to be great. Sam just thumped
Glasscock in the debate. He completely drilled him with arguments he
couldn't answer. That's not the best part though. No, the best part was
when Ken Glasscock, statesman and President of these United States,
decided to call my husband unfit to be President and unprepared to lead.
I thought Josh was going to pop a vein, and I could feel my hands
clenching so tightly the arms of the chair were quivering. Sam didn't
even break a sweat. He also didn't take a breath for the three minutes
and twelve seconds he lambasted Glasscock. Everyone in the spinning room
shut up. That was the moment the campaign shifted from maybe to
definitely.

When it's over, and the camera zooms in on Glasscock's face, Josh mirrors
his look of panic, and then we're screaming and launching ourselves into
this group hug. Our numbers have to go up. They have no where to go but
up, and after this, I'm putting money on a ten point jump. I can't wait
to get back to the hotel and talk to him.

"Hey beautiful." You're delirious. Come here. Sam closes the distance
between us, and then I kiss him ten times, counting off the number of
points I think we're going to jump. I'm a mess, and I know it. We both
are. It's been a long campaign, and the weeks left until the election
might as well be a year, but there's really only three weeks left, and I
want to remember these last moments of the adrenaline rush, and the
complete insanity, because if I have anything to say about it, we're
never doing this again.

*

"Ma'am! Help me out here! What's another way to say patriotism?" Diana's
perched on the edge of a desk in the bullpen inside the gubernatorial
offices as we count down the last few minutes until polls close on the
East Coast. Snagging a chair, I straddle it while Toby amuses himself
with Josiah and Donnatella. Public spirit, love of country, citizenship,
altruism, nationalism, social consciousness, Americanism.... Diana
wrinkles her nose at those. "I'll think I'll stick with patriotism." Good
idea. Is this the concession speech or the victory speech? "I'm not
writing a concession speech. I'm an optimist. Besides, Toby already had
one written. It was Bartlet's." Good grief, Toby. Don't you ever get rid
of anything?

Josh shouts at Lily to turn up the television, and hangs up the phone
loudly. They're calling New York for us, and New Hampshire. Massachusetts
is a moment later, and we got both Carolina's. Glasscock won Virginia and
West Virginia, and Toby shouts something about West Virginia White Pride
overthrowing sane voters. My, aren't we rabid in here.

Four and a half hours later, we're holding our breath waiting for five
undecided states. We need three more electors. Three. The only problem is
we didn't expect to win any of these states. What we expected was to win
Florida. Who would have guessed an entire state was schizophrenic? Sam
has locked himself in Josh's office - mostly because Elle has decided
Josh's coat makes a great substitute for her blankie. He left it on the
floor, and when she got tired, she crawled on top of it and zonked out.
Margaret walks through the bullpen carrying Styrofoam cups and a pot of
coffee. Josh scowls when I tell him it's off limits, but the announcer
comes back on, posting a map - Oregon just turned red. Damn! Four states
to go. Surely we'll pick up one of them.

Josh lays down on the floor then, and the staff keeps moving, just now,
they have to step over him. "Hey, Josh, what's another word for
patriotism?" Diana is peering down at him, and he rolls his eyes in her
direction. "Just use patriotism." She sits cross-legged on the floor next
to him then, with a legal pad perched on her knee and scratches out a few
more lines of the speech. I think I'm going to go check on Sam now,
'cause if I stay out here, I'm going to be tempted to stick my nose in
where it doesn't belong.

It's nearly four am when Sam shuts off the TV and crawls into bed. Elle
and I curled up in the master bedroom an hour ago. Blinking sleepily, I
try and decipher whether we won or lost from the look on his face. I'm
failing miserably. Sam? "It's down to Kansas. The last liberal to win in
Kansas was LBJ. Glasscock isn't as scary as Goldwater." Ouch. Stretching
my arm out, I watch as he drops his tie on the floor and touches my
fingers with his own. We'll start up the business of running the state
tomorrow, or maybe Thursday. Tonight, just come to bed.

I feel his arms settle around my shoulders, and Elle shifts in my arms,
waking up and snaking her fingers through Sam's hair while she asks for
"dadda". He pulls us both a bit closer and for now, the sour taste of
defeat is beaten back by the comfort of family.

King of the Mountain: Part 36

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