I’m one of these guys that often say, “What if a particular event happened?  And if it did happen then what?”  And then I wonder, “How would people react if it did?  What would happen next?”  And then I make some guesses, try to think how I would react, take my word processor and write the story to see if what I project would be the outcome. 

This novel talks about conservatives and liberals.  I have little but disdain for either side if they put politics or their dogmas above the good of the country.  This happens in this novel and is not far from what goes on daily in the halls of Congress.  I generally feel less kindly to liberals because they want to expand the role of government which always makes it bigger and more invasive and oppressive.

In the last hundred and fifty years we have seen the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy and FDR died in office.  As an aside, of the five, the country was worse off with the successor two times of the five.  Johnson and Johnson screwed up the country badly after Kennedy and Lincoln were shot.  Andrew Johnson’s policies helped foment hatred in the south and failed to put any teeth into emancipation.  He set the stage for the next hundred years of southern oppression of blacks.  In a sense the south won the war because of his policies.  Lyndon Johnson had no grasp of the military, quite like Clinton and Obama.  He directed the war with the advice of MBA’s not Generals.  No MBA has ever won a war in fact I know of no MBA who has ever done anything but screw up companies.  They make money in the short term and get the MBA his bonus money.  By then the companies are such hollow shells that they get taken over. 

Garfield’s successor was Author who was one of he better presidents.  Teddy Roosevelt who succeeded McKinley served the country well.  If we look at the men who succeeded presidents that died in office or was assasinated only Harry Truman is a shining star.  But this is not about presidential succession but the subject is broached in another way.

In this story I asked, “What if mood of the country got so bad that not only the president but also the members of the first family were targets?”  “What would happen if they were targeted and in fact badly injured?”  “What if the injuries were so massive and the mood of the country so bad that the president tried to keep the extent of them from the country?”  “And finally, what if a couple of reporters learned the secret?”  And I tried to answer these.  This was written early in the Bill Clinton dark ages so there are some things that will not be historically accurate in the lead up to the event but bear with me.