The Prodigal Daughter (62 page)

Over the
previous thirty minutes Florentyna had thought of many reasoni why her rival
might want to see her, but she had not been prepared for this.

“If you don’t
accept my offer and I win tonight, I’ll be giving the number two spot to Ralph
Brooks, who has already confirmed that he is willing to run.”

“I’ll call you
by two this afternoon” was all that Florentyna said.

Once Pete Parkin
had left with his aide, Florentyna discussed the offer with Edward and Janet,
who both felt that they had come too far to give in now. “Who knows what the
situation might be in four years’ time?”

Edward pointed
out. “You might be like Humphrey trying to recover from Johnson; and in any
case, we only need a deadlock at this time and Bradley’s delegates will push us
comfortably over the top on the fourth ballot.”

“I wonder if
Parkin knows that,” said Janet.

Florentyna sat
motionless listening to her different advisors and then asked to be let!
alone
.

Florentyna
phoned Pete Parkin at one forty-three and politely declined his offer.
explaining
she was confident that she was going to win on
the first ballot that night. He made no reply.

By two o’clock
the press had got hold of the news of the secret meeting, and the phones in
Suite 2400 never stopped as they tried to find out what had happened. Edward
kept Florentyna concentrating on the delegates and with each call she was
becoming more and more assured that Pete Parkin’s move had been made more out
of desperation than confidence. “He’s played his final card,” said Janet,
smirking.

At six o’clock
everyone in Suite 2400 was back in front of the television: there were no
longer any delegates left to speak to; they were all on the convention floor.
Edward still had his phone bank linked up to all the state chairmen, and the
early reports back from thein indicated that the feeling they had picked up
votes all through the day was accurate.

Exactly at the
point when Florentyna relaxed and felt confident for the first time, the bombshell
fell. Edward had just handed her yet another Perrier water when CBS flashed up
on the screen “Newsbreak” and a camera went over to Dan Rather, who told a
stunned audience only fifteen minutes before the roll call was due to start
that he was about to interview Vice President Parkin on the reason for his
secret meeting with Senator Kane.

The CBS camera
panned down on the florid face of the big Texan and to Florentyna’s horror the
whole thing was going out live on the vast screen in the convention hall. She
remembered that the Rules Committee had decided to allow anything to go up on
the screen that might affect the delegates; this was meant to stop rumors
spreading around the convention hall about what was really going on outside, to
be sure that what had happened between Ford and Reagan in 1980 over the picking
of a running mate could never happen again. It was the first time that the
delegates in the hall had been unanimously silent.

The camera
switched back to the CBS anchorman.

“Mr. Vice
President, we know you had a meeting with Senator Kane today.

Can you tell me
the reason you asked to see her?”

“Certainly, Dan,
it was first and foremost because I’m interested in the unity of my party and
above all in beating the Republicans. “

Florentyna and
her staff were mesmerized. She could see the delegates on the floor hanging on
every word and she was helpless to do anything except listen.

‘Van I ask what
took place at that meeting?”

“I asked Senator
Kane if she would be willing to serve as my Vice President and make up a
Democratic team that would be unbeatable.”

“How did she
reply to your suggestion?”

“She said she
wanted to think the offer over. You see, Dan, I believe together we can lick
the Republicans.”

“Ask him what my
final answer was,” said Florentyna, but it was no use; the cameras were already
switching to a halfcrazed convention hall ready for the first vote. Edward
phoned CBS and demanded equal time for Florentyna. Dan Rather agreed to
interview Senator Kane immediately, but Florentyna knew that they were already
too late. Once the voting had started the committee bad agreed that nothing
would go on that screen except the ballot tafly. No doubt they would have to
revise the rule by the next convention, but all Florentyna could think of was
Miss Tredgold’s views on television: “Too many instant decisions will be made
that will later be regretted.”

The chairman
banged his gavel and called upon Alabama to begin the roll call and the
Camellia State showed a two-vote switch to Parkin. When Florentyna lost one
delegate from Alaska and two from Arizona she knew her only hope was another
deadlock so that she could put her version of the meeting with Parkin on
television before the next vote. She sat and watched herself lose one vote here
and a couple there but when Illinois held firm she hoped the tide might turn.
Edward and the team had been working the phones nonstop.

Then the next
blow came.

Edward received
a call from one of his campaign managers on the floor to say that Parkin staffers
had started a rumor in the hall that Florentyna had accepted his offer. A rumor
he knew Florentyna would never be able to trace back directly to Parkin or have
time to rebut. Although as each state’s turn came to vote, Edward fought to
stem the tide. When they reached West Virginia, Parkin needed only twenty-five
more delegates to go over the top. They gave him twenty-one, so he needed four
from the penultiniate state, Wisconsin. Florentyna was confident that all three
delegates from Wyoming, the final state to vote, would remain loyal to her.

“The great state
of Wisconsin, mindful of its responsibility tonight” – once again the hall was
totally silent – “and believing in the unity of the party above all personal
considerations, gives all its eleven votes to the next President of the United
States, Pete Parkin.”

The delegates
went berserk. In Suite 2400 the result was met with stunned silence.

Florentyna had
been beaten by a cheap but brilliant trick. And its true genius was that if she
denied everything and gave her version of’

Parkin’s
behavior, the Democrats might well lose the White House to the Republicans and
she would be made the scapegoat.

Thirty
mimites later Pete Parkin arrived at Joe Louis Arena amid cheers and the
strains of “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
He spent another twelve minutes
waving to the delegates and when at last he managed to bring the hall to
silence he said: “I hope to stmd on this platform tomorrow’ night with the
greatest lady in America and place before the nation a team that will whip the
Republicans so that those elephants will never forget it.”

Once again the
delegates roared their approval. During the next hour Florentyna’s staff crept
back to their rooms until just Edward was left alone with her.

“Do I accept?”

“You have no
choice. If you don’t, and the Democrats lose, the blame will be placed at your
door.”

“And if I tell
the truth?”

“It will be
misunderstood; they will say you’re a bad loser after your opponent had held
out the olive branch of reconciliation. And don’t forget, President Ford
predicted ten years ago that the first woman President would have to have been
the Vice President before the American people would find the idea acceptable.”

“That might be
true, but if Richard Nixon were here today,” said Florentyna bitterly, “he
would be on the phone to Pete Parkin congratulating him on a trick far superior
to any he pulled off against Muskie or Humphrey.” Florentyna yawned. “I’m going
to bed, Edward. I will have made a decision by the morning.”

At eight-thirty
Pete Parkin sent an emissary to ask if Florentyna had made up her mind. She
replied that she wanted to see him again in private.

This time,
Parkin arrived with three television companies in tow and as many reporters who
could get hold of red press passes. When they were alone, Florentyna found it
hard to control her temper even though she had decided not to remonstrate with
Parkin but simply asked if he would confirm that he intended to serve one
term.”

“Yes,” he said,
looking Florentyna straight in the eye.

“And at the next
election you’ll give me your full backing?”

“You have my
word on that,” he said.

“On those terms
I’m willing to serve as Vice President.”

When he had left
the room, Edward listened to what had taken place and said, “We know exactly
what his word is worth. “

As she entered
the convention hall later that night, Florentyna was greeted by a cascade of
noise. Pete Parkin held her hand up high and the delegates once more roared
their approval. Only Ralph Brooks look~d sour.

Florentyna felt
her acceptance speech as
Vice
Presidential candidate
was below her best, but they cheered her just the same. However, the biggest
cheer of the evening was raised for Pete Parkin when he addressed the
delegates; he had been introduced as their new hero, the man who had brought
honest unity to the party.

Florentyna flew
to Boston and retreated to Cape Cod the next morning after a nauseating press
conference with the Democratic Presidential candidate, who kept referring to
her as “that great little lady from Illinois.”

When they
parted, in full view of the press, he kissed her on the cheek.

She felt like a
prostitute who had accepted his money and found it was too late to change her
mind about going
,to
bol.

T
AKING ADVANTAGE
OF THE FACT that the campaign did not start until after Labor Day, Florentyna
returned to Washington to catch up on her neglected senatorial duties. She even
found time to visit Chicago.

She spoke to
Pete Parkin on the p hone every day and certainly he could not have been more
friendly and cooperative about fitting in with her arrangements. They agreed to
meet at his White House office to discuss the final plan for the campaign.
Florentyna tried to fulfill all her other commitments before the meeting so she
could devote herself entirely to electioneering during the last nine weeks.

On
September 2, accompanied by Edward and Janet, Florentyna arrivcd at the west
wing of the White House to be greeted by Ralph Brooks, who clearly remained a
trusted lieutenant of the candidate.
She was determined not to be the cause
of any friction between herself and Brooks so near the election, especially
be(
ause she knew that Brooks had expected to be the Vice
Presidential candidate hiniself. Senator Brooks took them from the reception
area through to Pete Parkin’s office. It was the first time Fiorentyna had seen
the room she might occupy in a
t(
:w weeks and she was
surprised by tht~ warmth, with its yellow walls and ivory molding. Fresh
flowers sat on Parkin’s mahogany desk, and the walls were hung with Remington
oil paintings. Parkin’s love of the West, Florentyna thought. The late sumnier
sun flooded in through the south-facing windovvs.

Pete Parkin
jumped up from behind his desk and came over to greet her, just a little too
effusively. Then they all sat around a table in the center of the room.

“I think you all
know Ralph,” said Pete Parkin with a slightly uncomfortable laugh. “He’s worked
out a campaign strategy which I am
SUre
you’ll find
most impressive.”

Ralph Brooks
unfolded a large map of the United States on the table in front of them. “I
feel the main consideration to keep uppermost in our minds is that to capture
the White House 381 we must have two hundred and seventy electoral college
votes. Although it is obviously important and satisfying to win the popular
vote, as we all know it’s still the
electoral college
which selects the next President.

For this reason,
I have colored the states black that I feel we have least chance of winning,
and white those that are traditionally safe in the Democrat column. That leaves
the key swing states, which I’ve marked in red, which between them make up one
hundred and seventyone electont college votes.

“I believe both
Pete and Florentyna should visit all the red states at least once, but Pete
should concentrate his energies in the South while Florentyna spends most of
her time in the North. Only California, with its massive forty-five electoral
votes, will have to be visited by both of you regularly. During the sixty-two
days left before the election, we must use every spare minute on states where
we have a genuine chance and make only token visits to those fringe areas we
captured in the 1964 landslide. As for our own white states, we must be
prepared to visit them all once so that we cannot be accused of taking them for
granted. I consider Ohio a no-hoper as
it’s
Russell
Warner’s home state, but we mustn’t let the Republicans assume Florida is
theirs just because Warner’s running mate was once the state’s senior senator.
Now, I’ve also worked out a daily routine for you both, starting next Monday,”
he continued, handing the candidate and Florentyna separate sheaves of paper,
“and I think you should be in contact with each other at least twice a day, at
eight o’clock in the morning and eleven o’clock at night, always Central Time.”