The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hail to the Chief, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: Hail to the Chief

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: John Schoenherr

Release Date: July 22, 2008 [EBook #26109]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAIL TO THE CHIEF ***

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[Illustration]

HAIL
TO THE
CHIEF

+-----------------------------+
| |
| BY SAM AND |
| JANET ARGO |
| |
| A great politician need not |
| be a statesman ... but it |
| is inherently futile to be |
| a great statesman, and no |
| politician. Except, of |
| course, for a miracle ... |
| |
+-----------------------------+

The tumult in Convention Hall was a hurricane of sound that lashed at a
sea of human beings that surged and eddied around the broad floor. Men
and women, delegates and spectators, aged party wheelhorses and
youngsters who would vote for the first time that November, all lost
their identities to merge with that swirling tide. Over their heads,
like agitated bits of flotsam, pennants fluttered and placards rose and
dipped. Beneath their feet, discarded metal buttons that bore the names
of two or three "favorite sons" and those that had touted the only
serious contender against the party's new candidate were trodden flat.
None of them had ever really had a chance.

The buttons that were now pinned on every lapel said: "Blast 'em With
Cannon!" or "Cannon Can Do!" The placards and the box-shaped signs, with
a trifle more dignity, said: WIN WITH CANNON and CANNON FOR PRESIDENT
and simply JAMES H. CANNON.

Occasionally, in the roar of noise, there were shouts of "Cannon!
Cannon! Rah! Rah! Rah! Cannon! Cannon! Sis-boom-bah!" and snatches of
old popular tunes hurriedly set with new words:

_On with Cannon, on with Cannon!
White House, here we come!
He's a winner, no beginner;
He can get things done!