Peter was a salesman, though others gave him many other titles to himself he made no qualms about his truest function. He held no allegiance to his product and was rewarded for his successes rather than his ideals. In this way he was honest with himself, able to function amid a myriad of self-delusion and deception.
Peter laid his smartphone down onto the desk in front of him with added care. His conference call was running long and he felt the afternoon sapping at him as he reached for his coffee. His computer, muted, blinked with another email request adding to the pile of perceived crisis waiting for him once it ended.
“They are 2 down with women under the age of 25. It is one of our biggest weak points.” Said Paul Christophson. “If they can’t find a way to be a solid four points up in every demographic we can’t turn the damn geographic bias.” Peter could hear Paul take a long pull from his cigarette.
“It’s manageable, what sort of budget do we have?” Peter asked, his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
“Thirty thousand for target counties.” Paul answered.
Peter lead forward making a note on his computer, then running a quick price check online. “How much of it is coming from the party?”
“Ninety percent, the local field office hasn’t been able to raise anything thanks to the genius.” Paul said referring to his ever failing candidate. “We are going in on this in order to try to shore up control of the House. Honesty we are going to lucky if they don’t lose 30 seats.”
“Well yeah, you let the platform get drug away from your base. You have no broad spectrum support, hence the extra spend.” Peter said and Paul had no reason to deny it. Neither of them were candidates, constituents, or ideologues. They belonged to the obscure class of campaigners, who through the expression of communications as an art form were able to drive the outcomes of an election. While Paul served the party Peter served himself in the name of the party as a perpetual consultant. It was a common arrangement designed to reduce costs and limit collateral in the event of an issue. After three years together they possessed a strong friendship, but neither had any real sense of professional loyalty to the other. Business was business, and so was politics.
There was a buzz on the other end of the phone, “Peter hold on a second.”
“Okay.” Peter said just before the line went silent. On hold he pulled up an analytical model to project ad buys, click through rates, conversion rates, and potential voter returns in varying counties. The margins were thin. There was a path to victory there, against all odds with the right strategy they could do it. The win would put them on track to hold the House, in turn it could help the force a certain degree of bipartisan cooperation. The alternative would be unilateral control of Congress, certain to only drive a deeper partisan wedge into the heart of US politics.
A crack came over the line when Paul returned a moment later. “Never mind, shut it down.”
“Ha-ha that was quick I hadn’t even finished working up numbers, what happened?”
“Idiot got caught in sexting an intern, couldn’t keep it in his pants till he was on the Hill, were dropping support. It will hit the press in a couple hours.” Paul said nonplused.
“Gotcha, thanks for the heads up.” Peter highlighted the last few minutes of notes then with a button deleted it along any chance of holding that district. Neither had any illusions of the political process. After all their jobs were to sell the product not endorse it or even believe in it. “Okay so who’s next?”
Paul turned a page in his notebook, the shuffle of paper crackling over speakerphone. “Junior Senator from Georgia.”
Peter type a new header in his notes. “Got it alright so where are you and what are you thinking?”
Evanescent: tending to vanish like vapor
Author’s Note: Day 18/365 I wanted to really get into the business of politics with this post. In a highly partisan political climate I find it interesting that behind the scenes there is a class of people working to elect candidates, many of whom do not share the candidate’s views or even really care about them beyond their own business. Not limited to either party this is an interesting trend in global politics on par with the rise of crisis communications, really elevating the communications methodologies of elections.
The Flask/Pen 