One More Time, One More Job

[Odinson]

Private

MARYLAND
Camp David
September 1, 2004
7:31 P.M.

​

It was 69 degrees outside, nearly perfect weather at Camp David. The Secret Service had the perimeter of the premises under very careful surveillance as well as a constant watch on President Gore, but here they were able to keep a bit more distance from him and give him some more breathing room. The White House, with all of its trappings and history, was sometimes described by presidents past as more of a prison than a stately home. While Gore didn't get to visit Camp David as much as he would have liked during his presidency, he reminded himself that he got to be there more often than President Clinton. Gore was walking the grounds near the primary cabin as a breeze drifted between the trees and past him. He made his way between two paths and past a few dozen trees before he was near the home again. It was the first time that he had felt alone in a long time. Gore was wearing hiking shoes, khaki pants, and a light blue button down shirt that was meant for working outside more than looking nice. A Secret Service agent, who was also much more casually dressed the usual, approached the President.

"Mister President, the Vice President is here," the agent said quietly and clearly.
"Thanks Sam," Gore said.

The President dusted off his pants and walked to one of the back doors of the cabin that went directly into the living room. Gore opened it himself and found Vice President Sinclair sitting on one of the sofas in a comfortable position. The Vice President, who was in his 80s now, was always seemingly well-dressed, but to him there was no other way to dress. Some of his nicer clothes were decades old, handmade when Maine was still the textile capital of the United States. Sinclair remembered a time when a man could drive to the mains street of his town, park, walk around, and find a place that will make a new pair of tailored pants, or a shirt, from scratch. Today, that was an extreme luxury. It was becoming increasingly uncommon for a man to have clothes for every conceivable occasion, but Sinclair did. Though he was slightly overdressed now, as was his style, he still fitted in with the surroundings. He was wearing a pair of gray-tweed pants and a matching suit-vest, along with a dark green shirt. Sinclair didn't have a tie on, but his gold pocket watch was tucked into its pocket on his vest, and the chain hung down ornately. He was wearing his reading glasses as he looked through a Cigar Aficionado magazine that was sitting on the coffee table. Sinclair stood up when he noticed Gore walking in.

"Mister President," Sinclair said.
"Mister Vice President," Gore said back as he closed the door behind him, approached Sinclair, and shook his hand. "You didn't need to get up," he added.

Gore walked over to the sofa and took a seat, so Sinclair followed.

"Thank you for making your way out to Camp David," Gore said. "I know that you wanted to get back to Maine today or tomorrow."
"I'm always here for you, sir," Sinclair said, like a father would say to his son.

Sinclair pulled out an ivory pipe from his pants pocket and a pouch of tobacco as well. He made sure the pipe was clean and then started adding the tobacco and stuffing it in. Sinclair looked at Gore, who was looking back at him skeptically.

"I'm sorry, do you think the owner would mind if I smoked my pipe in here?" Sinclair asked as he continued to stuff the pipe.
"Tipper isn't here, so I doubt the owner would mind," Gore said and then chuckled. Yeah, screw it, me too, Gore thought to himself as he got up, walked over to a small cupboard and pulled out a box of cigars. He chopped the end off of one and brought it back to the sofa.

"You know, we still have an embargo on Cuba," Sinclair said. He could smell Cuban tobacco from a mile away, it was the good stuff.
"I'm pardoning myself," Gore said. He picked up a brass lighter from the coffee table and started to light his cigar. Within a few puffs it was perfectly lit. Gore handed the lighter to Sinclair who lit his pipe. The President reached over to a drink cart that was almost always placed next to the sofa. He popped open a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue and poured them both a few fingers of the blended whiskey.

Sinclair smelled the scotch inside the crystal glass that he was holding and then let out a sigh. "Breaking out the good stuff?" Sinclair asked, a bit skeptically. Gore raised his glass and Sinclair followed. "What are we toasting to?"

"The United States."
"The United States," Sinclair responded, and then glassed clinked together before both of them took a drink.

Sinclair sat back and sighed as he kept his pipe in his mouth and enjoyed the taste of the scotch. Both of them were quiet for a few minutes.

"You know, I think Jackson is going to lose this election," Gore said. "He's eleven points behind in the polls right now."

"Republicans have been in office before, they'll be in office again," Sinclair responded indifferently, though deep down he had stronger feelings than that.

"That's easy for an independent to say."
"It should be easy for an American to say."
"We've worked well with the world since '97," Gore said, "Things haven't been perfect, but they've been good. We've been able to set aside our differences with a lot of countries. I mean look at the Russians, this is probably the first time in modern history that we aren't at each other's throats. General Sharp's a step away from a nationalist," Gore said.
"Patriotism is a step away from nationalism," Sinclair whipped back.

Gore remained silent. Both of them took a sip of their drinks.

"Mister President, you know just as well as I do that our political system is a pendulum. It swings back and forth and that maintains some kind of balance. Your party has enjoyed twelve years in the White House now. The pendulum has to swing back to the right eventually, otherwise when it does it will go much further than you would like it to."
"I don't accept that," Gore said. "The Democratic Party, under my leadership, has been anything but radical. We've been... American, I don't know how to describe it. We've made bi-partisan accomplishments. The domestic troubles that Bill was facing are gone, or they at least are not as bad as they were before. Under my presidency, and the Clinton Administration, we have worked closer with congress than almost any administration in modern history. You have to admit that's true, right?"

"Yes, sir, that is true. But that doesn't change the fact that the Republicans want to win, you can't take that away from them," Sinclair said.
"I think that the Republicans are having an identity crisis right now, and I don't want Sharp to be the identity that they choose. I'm not even sure if he is fiscally conservative, all I know is that he'll be bombing another country the first chance he gets in office to show how strong and in charge he is."

Sinclair puffed on his pipe a couple of times, and then exhaled. "Jackson and I have had our disagreements in the past, but I think you can also admit that he isn't the most likeable person in the room. I mean, Sharp clearly isn't either, but you can't just rely on Jackson's good looks to get him to the White House. The entire country knows that Jackson has a temper, but the general does too. Jackson's campaign has done an awful job of framing him the right way. Polling shows that women think he is handsome, but they are also concerned about his temper. Outside of New England, male voters see him as disconnected from the struggles of everyday Americans - that's really where Sharp is shining. While I'm not going to vote for Sharp, I can definitely see his appeal. Free trade is hurting middle-class America more than helping it, and trying to appease people that hate us... well, it's not always the best strategy," Sinclair concluded.

"I know that you don't like Jackson personally, and you don't like most of Sharp's politics. So tell me," Gore said, "what policy objectives would you have if you were trying to win the White House?"

Sinclair puffed on his pipe and shrugged his shoulders. He thought for a few moments and then started speaking off the cuff, "There are good ideas I would take from both of their campaign, and some of my own that I think could stand on their own two legs. Jackson is right about the geopolitical, diplomatic approach of working with the world, with our allies like Britain of course, but with other countries like Poland and Australia. But really... I don't think you are Jackson would necessarily agree with me here, but I think that we need to turn back and reflect where we are as a country, domestically. We need to spend billions here. We're the wealthiest country in the world, but we still have poverty in places like Louisiana and Appalachia. Your 'Restore America' projects have been fantastic, but we need more of them and on a larger scale. What I would envision is us having some kind of an American Renaissance.

"Sharp is right that we need a stronger military, but he and I don't exactly agree on where we need to improve things. He wants to focus on the amphibious units in the Marine Corps, but I don't think we're going to be doing any D-Day style amphibious invasions any time soon. We need to move back to the idea that the Marine Corps is a full, operational armed force that can operate totally by itself, if necessary, with the exception of naval transport. That's going to cost some money, but that is what we need to do. The real bulk of our focus needs to be on the Air Force and the National Guard, though. They have been neglected and underfunded, and that needs to be turned around.... I would also bring back two more of the battleships, just in case I'm wrong and we ever need to do one of those marine invasions. Sharp hates the Coast Guard, while I think we should double the size of it and provide more funding to the Lighthouse Service.

"We need to be more conservative on trade partnerships so that we can bring some manufacturing back to our country, or at least keep the little we have left. We also need to bring back trade programs to the high schools and encourage young men and women to go there instead of going straight to college and studying basketweaving. A tradesman doesn't have to be a plumber or an electrician, mind you, he could also be a watchmaker or a craftsmen. These jobs still exist in America, and they pay well. I would go as far as to support people with these kind of jobs with some kind of basic social safety net... There's a lot more than that, but that's all assuming that either one of the parties would want to even work with me as an independent. Luckily, that's not my problem," Sinclair said, and then puffed his pipe again.

Gore took a pretty big sip of his scotch and then puffed his cigar a few times. He set down his cigar on an ash tray and his drink on the coffee table in front of the two leaders. Gore took out an ink pen from his pocket and held down a napkin on the coffee table as he wrote down two words in all capital letters on it, and then handed it to Sinclair. Sinclair looked at the napkin, which read, "AMERICAN RENAISSANCE".

"Your country needs you; one more time, one more job," Gore said.

Sinclair puffed on his pipe a few times and then set it down as he looked at the napkin, "Mister President, I've given more than my share of my life to my country. America doesn't need an old man in the White House, it needs someone young and hopeful like Fitzgerald. They'll rip me to shreds if I try running," he said, and then patted Gore on the shoulder.

Gore picked up a folded piece of paper from the coffee table and handed it to Sinclair. The Vice President opened it up, it was polling data.

"National polling says that if I were running for a third term, and you were running against me, you would beat me. National polling says you would beat Fitzgerald and Sharp. In a three-way race you would take almost evenly from both of them. Conservative elements from Sharp admire your military background and what you did at the Capitol, and college-educated voters under Fitzgerald think that you are intelligent and have an ample amount of experience in government. You're the perfect candidate."

"I'm 79 years old," Sinclair said.

"You have a family tree full of centenarians, no family history of Alzheimer's, the last medical report from the Surgeon General said you had the cognitive function of a 50-year-old man and the physical health of a man half your age. You can address every one of those concerns easily, and probably turn it back on one of the other candidates," Gore said.

Sinclair still looked unconvinced, but he at least looked like he was thinking about it. "Al," Sinclair said - that was the first time that Gore could remember Sinclair calling him anything other than Mister President, "I want to retire, go live in my lighthouse in Maine, read books, write books, eat lobster, and spend time with Olympia. I don't need to be the President, I don't want to be the President."

"That's why you would make such a fantastic President," Gore responded.

Sinclair set down the polling data and the napkin, and took hold of his pipe again which he puffed on again. He would be lying if he said he had never thought about being the President - every senator probably does. He'd sometimes fantasize about it when he was younger, but the longer he had stayed in the senate, the longer he decided that being the chief was not a place that he wanted to be. He had seen many presidents come and go. He had seen scandals and misfortune strike all of them in some way, and he wanted to be spared of that.

"What if I don't win?" Sinclair said, and then looked at Gore.

"Then you get to retire, and I'll come up there and eat a lobster roll with you."

Sinclair quietly pondered his own mortality and the meaning of his life as he wagered what decision he should make.