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By Root 1049 0

that, the stage had filled up—Meryl Streep and Chevy Chase, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jessica Lange, Whoopi Goldberg and Paul Newman. The music for “This Land Is Your Land” started, and Cate and I smiled at each other. For this, we were prepared. But just as it started, a light came on above the audience, a big square of light, and the lyrics we had so diligently learned scrolled across, big enough for everyone on the stage to read. Diana Walker took a photograph that night of Cate and me. We are standing face-to-face, our arms on each other’s shoulders, and though the photograph cannot capture it, we are telling each other that we were the dopes, and we are laughing at our too-serious, overprepared selves. Once a square, always a square.

We continued to travel with the Kerrys for four days, ending with the largest and maybe warmest rally in North Carolina history in our home town of Raleigh. As we had stayed with the Kerrys at the Heinz farm at the beginning of this trip, we asked them to stay with us in our considerably more modest Raleigh home. My friends, if you haven’t figured it out already, are spectacular. Bonnie, Ellan, and Gwynn, Tricia and Sally, with muscle from Andrew Young and Ellan’s son, Joel, cleaned and rearranged, changed lightbulbs, and swept sidewalks. This was a house in which we lived only a few weeks a year now, and there were cobwebs in the corners, linens that could stand freshening, and more than a plant or two that needed replacing. They did it all. Our guest room, on the third floor with two single beds angled in the small room, would not be satisfactory for the Kerrys. Cate had a nice room with a large bed, so the Kerrys, my friends decided, could stay there. But it was a college girl’s room, with homemade posters and funny advertisements pasted to the walls. So they took down and threw out, they bought and moved things around. Bonnie bought new linens for Cate’s bed, and Sally made her take them back. No, that’s too expensive, she said, Elizabeth would never buy those. Go to Tuesday Morning; she shops there. Bonnie found something less expensive. And they absolutely transformed our house. It was like coming home and finding that Martha Stewart had been there: it looked great. It turned out the Kerrys used Cate’s room to change clothes and rest, but they didn’t spend the night. But now Cate has nice new bed linens. And we had an evening free to take those fantastic friends to dinner.

One night off and then John started campaigning again, nearly full time, and I went to Washington to start thinking about the next months, for me and for the children. The Kerry campaign assigned a sweet young woman, Laura Efurd, as my temporary chief of staff to put together a full staff for me; what they may not have told her was that there was no budget for the vice presidential candidate’s spouse. I was, rightfully, low man on the totem pole, although I had been campaigning on my own, doing town halls and televisions and even a little fund-raising for the past year. I sure didn’t want to start being window-dressing. Laura had some friends volunteer to help in the beginning, women as young as my daughter, who treated me as window-dressing, talking about me in the third person when I was standing in front of them. We should have Mrs. Edwards call…. Wait! I’m standing right here. Speak to me. It didn’t stop. After a few frustrating days, I chased them away to other parts of the campaign. Despite that, a staff was built. Petite and blonde, a gentle powerhouse, Lori Denham became my permanent chief of staff. Pretty Kathleen McGlynn, who was working on the Democratic convention, promised to join after it was over, but—having heard that I had chased two volunteers away—told no one about the job. If she was only going to have the job for a few days, why talk about it? She stayed for the whole campaign; I couldn’t have done it without her, she is unmatched in thoroughness, innate good sense, and good humor, and when John needed a scheduler for his poverty and political work after the Senate, Kathleen signed on with