this stuff to the point that you don’t even think about it. It has to become as natural as zipping your pants after you take a piss. You still have no idea how well you’re doing.” And maybe that’s a good thing, Arnie added to himself alone.
“Forty percent of the people don’t think I’m doing a good job.”
“Fifty-nine percent do, and some of those forty percent voted for you anyway!”
The election had been a remarkable session for write-in candidates, and Mickey Mouse had done especially well, Ryan reminded himself.
“What am I doing to offend those others?” Ryan demanded.
“Jack, if the Gallup Poll had been around in ancient Israel, Jesus would probably have gotten discouraged and gone back to carpentry.”
Ryan punched a button on his desk phone. “Ellen, I need you.”
“Yes, Mr. President,” Mrs. Sumter replied to their not-so-secret code. Thirty seconds later, she appeared through the door with her hand at her side. Approaching the President’s desk, she extended her hand with a cigarette in it. Jack took it and lit it with a butane lighter, removing a glass ashtray from a desk drawer.
“Thanks, Ellen.”
“Surely.” She withdrew. Every other day Ryan would slip her a dollar bill to pay off his cigarette debt. He was getting better at this, mooching usually no more than three smokes on a stressful day.
“Just don’t let the media catch you doing that,” Arnie advised.
“Yeah, I know. I can get it on with a secretary right here in the Oval Office, but if I get caught smoking, that’s like goddamned child abuse.” Ryan took a long hit on the Virginia Slim, also knowing what his wife would say if she caught him doing this. “If I were king, then I’d make the goddamned rules!”
“But you’re not, and you don’t,” Arnie pointed out.
“My job is to preserve, protect, and defend the country—”
“No, your job is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, which is a whole lot more complicated. Remember, to the average citizen ’preserve, protect, and defend’ means that they get paid every week, and they feed their families, get a week at the beach every year, or maybe Disney World, and football every Sunday afternoon in the fall. Your job is to keep them content and secure, not just from foreign armies, but from the general vicissitudes of life. The good news is that if you do that, you can be in this job another seven-plus years and retire with their love.”
“You left out the legacy part.”
That made Arnie’s eyes flare a bit. “Legacy? Any president who worries too much about that is offending God, and that’s almost as dumb as offending the Supreme Court.”
“Yeah, and when the Pennsylvania case gets there—”
Arnie held up his hands as though protecting against a punch. “Jack, I’ll worry about that when the time comes. You didn’t take my advice on the Supreme Court, and so far you’ve been lucky, but if—no, when that blows up in your face, it won’t be pretty.” Van Damm was already planning the defense strategy for that.
“Maybe, but 1 won’t worry about it. Sometimes you just let the chips fall where they may.”
“And sometimes you look out to make sure the goddamned tree doesn’t land on you.”
Jack’s intercom buzzed just as he put out the cigarette. It was Mrs. Sumter’s voice. “The senators just came through the West Entrance.”
“I’m out of here,” Arnie said. “Just remember, you will support the dam and canal on that damned river, and you value their support. They’ll be there when you need them, Jack. Remember that. And you do need them. Remember that, too.”
“Yes, Dad,” Ryan said.
You walked here?” Nomuri asked, with some surprise.
“It is only two kilometers,” Ming replied airily. Then she giggled. “It was good for my appetite.”
Well, you went through that fettuccine like a shark through a surfer, Nomuri thought. I suppose your appetite wasn’t hurt very much. But that was unfair. He’d thought this evening through very carefully, and if she’d fallen into his trap, it was his fault more than hers, wasn’t it? And she did have a certain charm, he decided as she got into his company car. They’d already agreed that they’d come to his apartment so that he could give her the present he’d already advertised. Now Nomuri was getting a little excited. He’d planned this for more than a week, and the thrill of the chase was the thrill of the chase, and that hadn’t changed in tens of thousands of years of male humanity ... and