Before Addis replied, Hanover drew a full breath and said, “I am going to be the next President of the United States, and I want you to be there with me.”

As with Addis’s previous positions—special assistant to the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, counsel to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and chief of staff for the majority leader of the U.S. Senate—he had not had to apply for the job Hanover was offering him. Since graduating from Yale Law School, one important person had always referred Addis to another: There’s this young man, the most capable, intelligent, young man I’ve met in years, who I think would be just right … . The jobs had come.

Although Addis did not know who had recommended him to Hanover, he had prepared himself for this moment. He had plowed through piles of clips on Hanover and his potential rivals in the party. He knew all the details of the Hanover story: born to public school teachers in Baton Rouge, Harvard’ 66, recon patrol in Vietnam, returned home with a commendation and appeared on Buckley’s show as a critic of the war, NYU Law, assistant professor at Tulane Law. Hanover ran for attorney general—practically on a dare—as a reform candidate. He attacked the machine hacks of his own party and was an unknown underdog written off by the political handicappers. Then a wing in a public hospital collapsed, killing seven children, the result of the shoddy work of a builder who had obtained the contract in the sort of sweetheart deal Hanover had campaigned against. The disaster brought him statewide and national notoriety. He won by fifteen points. As attorney general, Hanover successfully prosecuted those responsible for the hospital disaster and went on to become governor. It was a grand story, one of the best known in modern politics. Hanover even married the daughter of the businessman/fixer whose cronies had rigged the hospital contract. He was the only national political figure to be the subject of a made-for-television movie: For the Children: The Bob Hanover Story. Addis had watched it three times.

Weeks before his meeting with Hanover, Addis had pored over the results of the last presidential election, congressional district by congressional district. He had done the calculations: Louisiana had few electoral votes, but it was next to Texas. He had covered as many angles as he could imagine. The race would be close, he had concluded. Any one of several could claim the nomination. But the best chance, in his estimation, resided with Hanover. The call from Hanover was the one he had wanted.

Sitting behind his desk, Hanover had locked his gaze on Addis and passed his certainty to Addis. Yes, Addis thought, in a year-and-a-half, I’ll be in the White House, helping this man lead a nation.

“I’d be honored,” Addis told him.