She tilted her head to one side and studied Nick’s face as though she were trying to remember his name. “Believe me, we want it solved—and we want construction to resume on the Patriot Center just as quickly as possible. But there are aspects to this that you may not have considered.”

“Such as?”

“How much do you know about Virginia?”

“I’ve been here once or twice.”

“Did you know Virginia has produced more U.S. presidents than any other state?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Do you know why? We breed them here.”

“You breed them?”

“The very same way we breed show dogs and feeder cattle and thoroughbreds. In Virginia good breeding is everything, and breeding is all about appearance—it’s about stature and bearing and length of bone.”

“Are we talking about horses or presidents?”

“Both. My husband is about to become the next president of the United States. Do you know why?”

“As I recall, it has something to do with voting.”

“Voting is simply registering a decision that’s already been made. Do you know why people want my husband to be president? Because he looks like a president; he sounds like a president; he carries himself like a president. Johnny was born to be president, Dr. Polchak—it’s in his breeding.”

“And you were bred to be a First Lady?”

“According to the last Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans think so.”

“I hate to sound naive, Mrs. Braden, but I like to think the American public is a little more sophisticated than that. They care about substance too.”

“Substance is important, but let’s be honest: I have substance—I have degrees in business and political science—but substance didn’t get me on the cover of this month’s Vogue and Vanity Fair. And like it or not, that’s what people will remember on Election Day: my face—my evening gown—not my résumé.”

“Point taken.”

“Good breeding will put my husband in the White House, Dr. Polchak, and as I said, breeding is about appearance—that’s the aspect you may not have considered. I requested Nathan Donovan because it created the right appearance. It told the American public that we were willing to deal with this issue in a forthright manner—that we were willing to send in our best and our brightest. Unfortunately, Mr. Donovan’s current celebrity status seems to have attracted the wrong kind of publicity. Johnny is extremely cautious about negative appearances, so he requested Mr. Donovan’s immediate transfer. I considered the decision regrettable, but necessary.”

“I appreciate the position you’re in,” Nick said. “I still think it was a bad decision.”

“Perhaps, but it’s done—so let’s move on. The question now is: How do we deal with the situation at the Patriot Center?”

“Are we talking about appearance or substance?”

“You take care of substance—let me worry about appearance.”