Chapter 46

Thursday, March 5, 1998.

The first hints of spring were in the air. After what had been a very cold winter so far, the temperature was finally beginning to rise. It was suppose to reach the mid 50s today and reach the low to mid 60s over the weekend. The sky was clear without a cloud in the sky.

President Kathleen Lehrer was excited. Not only had she spotted the first robin of the year sitting in a tree outside the Oval Office, but her son Marty was finally coming home from the hospital. He had been hospitalized for over five weeks after being critically wounded in the assassination attempt on his Mother. His doctors had been amazed by his progress, but they warned him not to try too much too soon. They told him that it will still be several more months before he was completely recovered.

Marty's sister Sara was getting stronger every day, and was still undergoing physical therapy. She was up and around much more than she had been before, and she did not tire as easily as she had when she was first discharged from the hospital. She too was happy that Marty was being discharged from the hospital.

Sara and Marty had always been very close, and there were subjects that she could talk about with Marty that she did not feel comfortable speaking about with anyone else. She wanted to talk with Marty about his relationship with Sheila King, and whether he was really serious about her. She had quietly begun researching information about previous White House weddings, and she wanted to discuss some of the things she had found with her brother. And, she wanted to talk with someone nearer her own age than Steve or her Mother, someone who would be better able to understand the problems that a young person in her late teens would have.

Kathy and Steve were planning to announce their engagement the following day. Kathy had wanted to delay the announcement until after Marty had come home from the hospital so she would have both of her children present. Now that Marty would be coming home, the happy couple could announce their engagement to the world.

Kathy was also recovering from the wounds she suffered during the assassination attempt. The doctors had removed the cast from her right arm two days earlier and were hoping to remove the walker cast from her leg the following week. She couldn't wait!

Steve was keeping busy studying the briefing materials before leaving on his trip to Tucson in less than two weeks. He had talked with his Father several times since Raul Rodriguez had visited him at the White House two weeks earlier. He had told his Father about his engagement to the President, but made him swear that he wouldn't tell anyone.

Although they had voted by absentee ballot in the primary, Steve, Kathy, and her children planned to go to Philadelphia on the 17th to vote in the elections for their new Congressman and two U.S. Senators to replace those who had been killed in the Capitol bombing. They would then meet with the governor, the mayor and other local and state officials before coming back to the White House that evening. The next morning, Steve would take a limo from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base for his flight to Tucson and his reunion with his Father and aunt.

The February 24th primary elections for the new Congress had decided who each party's candidates would be in the general elections that would be held on March 17th. The primary featured a number of upsets that saw a large number of party endorsed candidates go down to defeat. Candidates who ran negative campaigns tended to lose, while some of their lesser known opponents who seriously discussed the issues tended to win. Voters sent a clear message that they wanted problems addressed and not just pushed aside as had been the practice for far too long. The people now seemed to understand that by avoiding the hard problems, they just festered and became worse. They sent the candidates the message that they clearly wanted a change in politicians' attitudes and that they would vote for candidates who were willing to take political risks if it meant that the problems would finally be addressed.

Many of the victors in the primary were supporters of the President's policies, even some of her more controversial policies such as the legalization of drugs and the U.S.O.P. Polls were showing the President's approval rating between 75% and 80%. Many candidates who had opposed her policies were asked by the voters what they would do differently to solve the dilemmas the country faced. Those that had coherent alternatives to the President's policies gained some support from the people. Those that didn't were largely dismissed as being more business as usual and rapidly lost support.

The President had said that she would not be able to actually campaign in person for any candidates, but she did keep her word and made a number of radio and television commercials for candidates of both parties who supported her positions. Although she was registered as a Democrat, Kathleen Lehrer had never been radically partisan, and tended to vote for the best person when she entered the voting booth. She felt that she should do the same as President and run a government of national unity, similar to what Abraham Lincoln had done during the Civil War. She felt that that policy would give her the best chance of getting her program through the new Congress once it was elected because she would then be able to say that she had worked for people in both parties and that her support cut across party lines.

At 3:00 P.M., President Kathleen Lehrer, Dr. Steven Stone, and President Lehrer's children, Martin Johnston and Sara Johnston, entered the White House Briefing Room. They were followed in by Fred Valentine and a large part of the White House staff. The President approached the podium with Steve at her side.

"I have an announcement to make. Unlike many of the announcements we have made from here in the past six weeks, this one is good news."

The President paused before she dropped her bombshell.

"Several weeks ago, Dr. Steve Stone proposed to me and I accepted. After talking it over with my children, we decided to wait until after they were both out of the hospital before we made a public announcement. As you know, Marty was discharged yesterday, so we are making the announcement today."