Chapter 35

  President David Roberts was only sixty days away from being elected to a second term as the most powerful man on the planet. Roberts possessed an incredibly charismatic personality from an early age. He could light up any room he entered. He was the life of the party in college and could have had almost any woman he wanted. He grew up in an era of flower power and free love in San Francisco’s Height-Ashbury district. Roberts was raised by pot-smoking liberal parents who were staunch atheists who hated all religions but primarily Christianity. They tried to instill those same beliefs in David. But David was his own man. He was not easily influenced by any ideology, especially by those who were intolerant, and his parents were very intolerant of anyone who didn’t share their views.

  Roberts wasn’t the most handsome man, but he easily made up for it with abundant wit and charm. Smart and politically savvy, he knew how to play the political game and played it very well. Roberts earned a law degree at Berkeley and put his shingle out at the District Attorney’s office in San Francisco. After paying his dues and prosecuting some high-profile cases, he ran for Attorney General of California and won.

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  After only one term in office, he took the next leap and ran for Governor of California. During his campaign, he promised to fix the state’s financial problems, reform immigration laws, and deal with social and environmental issues. He won by a landslide over the Democratic incumbent who had failed miserably in his first term. One thing that his predecessor lacked was his ability to work with both sides of the aisle. Roberts was a master at it. Even his staunchest Democratic critics admired him when they stepped away from the cameras. The state still had significant problems, but overall, his controversial policies took the state out of financial ruin. He was re-elected to the highest office in California for a second term in a race that wasn’t even close. However, Roberts wanted something more. He wanted the White House.

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  He could see the handwriting on the wall. There would be no better time to run for the Presidency. Things weren’t going well for the current President, who just happened to be a Democrat. The party knew it was in deep trouble in the upcoming election and poured massive amounts of money and resources into the President’s re-election campaign. But with a stagnant economy, unemployment, and underemployment that was ripping at the backbone of the middle class, wars and unrest in the Middle East, a staggering national debt, and a shrinking dollar, it appeared to be a lost cause. Added to that, his wife was involved in a sex scandal with more than one of her many female staffers. Yet despite all that, the election was going to be close. Not only did Roberts have to run against his opponent, he had to fight the liberal bias of the mainstream media, Hollywood celebrities, and the global power brokers that were secretly behind them. It apparently didn’t matter that everyone’s personal wealth had dropped by thirty percent during his administration.

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  But the American public seemed to be blind. The president was a rock star with a forked tongue that had people mesmerized by his charm and good looks. He could do no wrong, and his blame game had always worked. He was just like John Gotti. His suites were made of Teflon, and nothing stuck to him. But even Gotti had his fall.

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  Despite his parents or more than likely because of them, Roberts floated his boat right down the middle of the river or just slightly to the right bank. The United States had always been right of center, but like a slow-moving glacier, the polar shift was slowly and steadily advancing. Roberts felt that he had to halt that change, or the country would slide into something the founding fathers of this great nation would never recognize nor condone. That November, Roberts won by a narrow margin. But he still won.

  As President, Roberts could play both sides of the aisle. With handshakes and backslaps, he persuaded his colleagues and enemies alike to see things his way. Politics, after all, was still the art of the deal, whether it was heavy-handed or softly caressed.

  Because of his policies, the business community started hiring and investing the vast amounts of cash they had been hoarding. Slowly, the economy turned the corner, and by the end of his first term, unemployment was at near-normal levels. The housing market had regained most but not all of its losses, and once again, the American public had confidence in the direction the country was headed, and they started to spend. At the end of his first term, Roberts was twenty points ahead of his Democratic rival, who didn’t have any of the former Democratic president’s charisma, nor was he hailed as the messiah, as was the former president. With everything going his way, no one in Washington was going to deny him a sure victory. Then tragedy struck. His Vice President died of a massive heart attack just sixty days before the November election.