Off the Reservation: A Novel by Glen Merzer

Off the Reservation: A Novel by Glen Merzer

Author:Glen Merzer [Merzer, Glen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vivid Thoughts Press
Published: 2014-12-01T06:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER THREE

The Speech

Madam Chairwoman, delegates, Mayor Reed, fellow Democrats, fellow Americans, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.

I’ll be honest with you now. Come to think of it, I’ll always be honest with you. You may note the lack of a teleprompter. My campaign manager told me I’m a fool if I try to give a convention acceptance speech without one. He said it can’t be done. I said, hey, Monty, you only get one chance to find out, maybe two if you’re lucky. So while I’m not overly worried about giving a nomination acceptance speech without a teleprompter, I admit that it gives me some pause that my own campaign manager thinks I’m a fool. Thanks a lot, Monty.

What was I saying? Uh-oh. Shoot. Where was I? Wait a minute, it’ll come to me. Hold on, hold on. Just give me a minute here. Oh, yeah, I’ll be honest with you: I was looking forward to going back to teaching. My youngest daughter, Nicole, of whom I’m very proud and whom I love with a love that any man with a daughter understands—I’ve been blessed to own a double dose of this most tender of loves, the essence of which is, in your heart you don’t want them to grow up—I’m sure the love for a son must be an equally precious thing but I suspect that the sons you want to grow up as soon as possible—my daughter Nicole said to me once, when I announced that I would be leaving Congress, she said, Dad, isn’t teaching sort of a step down from being a congressman? Let me answer that here and now in front of the world. Should the nation take a daring leap into the unknown, honoring me by electing me as your president, teaching would be even a step up from that. If I become your president, I can only hope it will make me a better teacher in the years that follow. There is no higher calling. There is no particular point in learning or achievement if it is not passed along. Q.E.D.

My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight to declare my fondest hopes and deepest concerns, and it is your choice alone, and your choice collectively, to join me in those or not. I will not take it personally if I lose. Really, it will not change at all my high opinion of my fellow Americans. There might be, in my bones, actually, even a tinge of relief. But I have looked closely at the challenges we all face, at the problems that confront the nation and the world, and at the approaches that I would pursue in comparison to those that my opponent, Governor Benneton, would pursue, and I will tell you honestly, with no reservation whatsoever, that I will be voting for me. There are certainly some tough choices facing us, but for me, that’s not one of them. My wife, Caroline, has given me permission to



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