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By Root 2133 0

one of the issues I might be asked about, so I was going to be learning on the road. These policy advisors knew the governor’s position on everything from nuclear waste and education reform, to Social Security and faith-based initiatives, and would make sure my operation and his were always on the same page. Tim Adams was a sharp and reliable hand, who later went on to become undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department. Joel Kaplan was a marine with a law degree from Harvard and a great sense of humor. He came from a family of Democrats, but somewhere along the way he’d figured things out. He later became deputy OMB director and then deputy chief of staff in the White House. And Stuart Holliday combined serious knowledge of every domestic and foreign policy issue that might come up in the campaign with a great ability not to take himself too seriously. Stuart later became an ambassador to the United Nations for special political affairs.

The staff at campaign headquarters in Austin decided my first solo stop on the campaign trail should be in Florida, where I’d participate in what they had dubbed “Education Week.” My assignment was to unveil the Bush-Cheney school bonds program at a Fort Lauderdale elementary school, which sounded fine to me, but when I walked into Croissant Park Elementary on the morning of August 31, I realized that my audience was going to be a bunch of third graders. Because I’m a team player I went ahead and gave my speech, covering the complexities of school financing for eight-year-olds sitting cross-legged on a library floor. I’ll never forget the confused looks on their faces as I talked about the importance of local bond initiatives. I am sure they were thinking, Who is this guy, what is he talking about, and how much longer before recess?

After the Fort Lauderdale fiasco, I decided to use my own judgment. I’d do what the campaign staff in Austin wanted—but only if I felt right about it. When they sent me a speech about abstinence education to be delivered at another event, I tossed it out. This wasn’t a subject I’d pronounced on before, and I couldn’t see a compelling reason to begin now.

Governor Bush and I met up again over Labor Day weekend in Illinois, where we spoke at a rally. I introduced him and he made some brief remarks to the enthusiastic crowd. Afterward, as we stood onstage alongside the podium waving to the crowd, we didn’t realize that a directional microphone was picking up our words. When the governor recognized a reporter whose coverage had been particularly unfriendly, he pointed him out to me. “There’s Adam Clymer,” he said, “major-league asshole from the New York Times.” I nodded my agreement: “Big time,” I said.

Our exchange was played over and over again on TV and radio, totally blocking any other messages we wanted to get out—particularly the one about restoring honor and dignity to the Oval Office. But the story finally died down, and the only lasting result—aside from burnishing Clymer’s reputation with his colleagues in the press—was that I became known as “Big Time” around campaign headquarters and beyond.

If you asked my traveling campaign staff, they’d probably tell you that my next Illinois campaign stop was even worse. We went to the Taste of Polonia street festival at the Copernicus Foundation Plaza in Chicago, where I made some brief remarks to the large crowd gathered to celebrate Polish cultural heritage and then handed the microphone back to the Illinois state treasurer, Judy Topinka. She grabbed the mike and enthusiastically announced that “Secretary Cheney will now dance a polka with Miss Polonia!” That was news to me, but I didn’t have much time to consider my options because Miss Polonia was right there and ready to dance. So we polkaed—pretty enthusiastically, as I remember. As we whirled around I could see my daughter Mary offstage in the staff section watching in horror. She told me later that her only comfort was the knowledge that Governor Bush’s and my description of the New York Times reporter at the previous stop would