Free The Frankenstein Candidate by Vinay Kolhatkar Page A

Tuesday before making their campaign contributions, but Katrina Marshella had done a great job of getting into corporate America quite early. Provided Spain won Iowa handsomely, she had another forty million or so lined up to bolster up the New Hampshire and Super Tuesday campaigns, and that pretty much meant a landslide nomination win for Spain.
    More importantly for Colin, Katrina had worked without friction with the old fox Larry and had accepted his role as the chief of strategy. She worked tirelessly on all the details and lining up the fundraisers. She was clever and confident. This was her first presidential campaign, and she knew she had a winning horse at least for the nomination, which meant riding that horse all the way to November 3. She also knew perfectly well that her organizational skills would not go unnoticed, win or lose, since Larry would take the fall should anything go wrong. Yet if Spain went all the way to the White House, she could ride that wave into a press secretary or even a communications director position, given Larry’s age. She was on a winner any way this turned out, and she knew it.
    It was nine o’clock at night on January 9 when Colin came by Katrina’s desk. The campaigning had finished and the staff had all gone home for a well-deserved rest, but here she was, still plugging away at the schedules and the numbers.
    “Hey,” he said.
    “Hello, Colin.”
    “You should go back to the hotel, get some rest.”
    “I should. But we need to plan for New Hampshire.”
    “What happens if we lose in Iowa?”
    “You won’t.”
    “I’m not just talking about beating Ganon and Rogers.”
    She looked at him with a blank stare.
    “I’m already thinking ahead. We need huge turnouts. What can we do to generate that extra spark?”
    “What does Larry think?” Katrina knew her place was number two.
    “He agrees that we need to do something out of the ordinary.”
    “What about Allen?” Katrina could tell she had surprised him.
    “Olivia? What about her?”
    “Vice president. I am just thinking aloud here.”
    “She has limited experience at this stage. But one never anoints a VP until after the nomination is certain. It’s way too early.”
    “I agree. But she is fresh and young, untainted. There must be a reason you brought her into this campaign.”
    “There is. It’s because she is fresh and untainted. The party needs to cultivate new talent. For the future.”
    “The future is now, Colin.”
    He reflected on that for awhile.
    “You are so damn right, Katrina. I’ll check with Larry. Ganon, Rogers…they are part of the old and the tired and have voted every which way on various issues. Untainted, wholesome, American mom…I like it.”
    Katrina smiled. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked even when she was tired and disheveled.
    “Let me drive you back to the hotel. You really need some rest before tomorrow,” he said.
    “So do you. By the way, I’ve lined up CNN tomorrow after the exit polls.”
    “And what are they saying?”
    “Right now, you are twenty points clear of Ganon. Rogers is not even in the picture. The message is working.”
    He smiled. They got in the car. Colin was driving.
    “What do you think of Stein?” he asked.
    “One theory is that he’s doing this to get what he wants from Kirby.”
    “You think he’ll carve a dent in the Republicans and then agree to back Kirby if he gets some bits thrown his way?”
    “It looks that way. There is just no way a Jewish-born, atheist billionaire who hates antitrust legislation can win even ten points, no matter how much money he pours in. But let’s say he gets four or five points…that’s four or five off Kirby, so they have to make a deal with him.”
    “Pity. When was the last time we had a loony candidate?”
    “In 2012,” she said. “But he was unelectable.”
    The GPS in his car told him he had arrived at their hotel.

    Back in his hotel room, Colin was restless. There was