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By Root 991 0

or leave out the fire, because no one’s luck is this bad. The fire turned out not to be serious. The battery for a large video camera had exploded, setting a seat afire briefly and causing a lot of smoke. There was an alarming degree of disorganization, and it was Ryan who finally grabbed the extinguisher and Ryan who finally insisted that we land the plane to make certain there wasn’t unseen damage. We made an emergency landing. Fire trucks surrounded the plane and firemen rushed on board. Jack was ecstatic, as any four-year-old boy would be, asking them questions as they were stuck four and five deep in aisles filled with camera equipment and laptops and duffle bags. The Secret Service was hesitant to take us off the plane, because they had made no alternative arrangements. There were no waiting SUVs here. So we waited for the all-clear in the front of the plane, with the television on, watching CNN’s live shot…of the plane. Meanwhile, the office was trying to find Cate or Adam before she saw a television screen, to tell her that her family was all right. And everyone was scrambling to figure out where to stay. The winning hotel was the worst of the general campaign. It smelled like smoke and sewage, and there was a dampness to everything. But I was there with John, and I didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Having Emma Claire and Jack on the plane changed the dynamic for everyone, I think. The following day the press and crew, afraid that Emma Claire and Jack were going to miss Halloween, decorated the plane and bought candy so they could trick-or-treat down the aisles. I had brought their costumes with me—the only problem was getting Jack not to dress as a red Power Ranger every day—and they happily collected their goodies. Emma Claire is devoted to her father, and when I was not on the plane she claimed the seat next to him. Jack, on the other hand, would get on the plane and head to the press section, high-fiving the Secret Service on his way to see his friends. His friends set up a basketball hoop in the rear of the plane and taught him some sort of simple gambling game that might have worried a mother of a child with an allowance. When we were in hotels, he would come in early—Jack is our early riser—and say, “It’s okay if you want to sleep. I’ll go see my friends. What room is Dave in?” Dave has no idea how many times we protected his sleep. We had no better ambassador than Jack Edwards.

We left John and the children on Saturday morning and went on with our schedule. Hargrave was continually asking me whether I didn’t want to stop altogether or just join John. The night before she had asked again, asking whether we should just join John. There would be less pressure on me. “No,” I said, “and since we have to drive to our event in the morning, we need to leave earlier, don’t we?” I couldn’t contemplate stopping. She said, “So we’re going to do the whole deal? Your schedule as originally planned?” Yep. I found out later she went to Karen and Ryan and said, and I can just hear her mother/teacher tone, “There will be no whining from any of us from here on out. I don’t want to hear it from anybody. If she can do this, we are not tired. Whatever she wants to do, we’re there.” Typical, wonderful Hargrave.

The next days weren’t difficult anyway. I thanked people in phone banks and rallied with get-out-the-vote workers. I appeared at a couple of events with the serenely lovely Annie Glenn, John Glenn’s wife. An extraordinary high school student, Molly Dickson, spoke at one. I went to two lovely Cleveland churches on Sunday. It was pleasant and easy. It was no longer about convincing; it was about making sure people voted. With forays into Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, I crisscrossed between Iowa and Ohio—two states we apparently lost, I have to point out, in case you are wondering about my effectiveness. Three places stay in my mind, Stephanie Tubb Jones’s extraordinarily beautiful and intimate church, Bethany Baptist in Cleveland; the well-loved and well-worn William McKinley Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, where we had