The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. President, by Stephen Arr

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Title: Mr. President

Author: Stephen Arr

Illustrator: Dick Francis

Release Date: June 6, 2010 [EBook #32719]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

Mr. President

By STEPHEN ARR

Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS

He had been overwhelmingly elected. Messages of sympathy
poured in, but they couldn't help ... nothing could.

* * * * *

George Wong stood pale and silent by the video screen, listening to
the election returns, a long-stemmed glass of champagne clutched
forgotten in his trembling right hand.

The announcer droned on: "--latest returns from Venus, with half of
the election districts reporting, give three billion four hundred and
ninety-six million votes for Wong, against one billion, four hundred
million for Thompson, one billion one hundred million for Miccio, and
nine hundred million for Kau. These results, added to the almost
complete returns from Earth and the first fragmentary reports from
Mars, clearly indicate a landslide vote for Wong as the next President
of the Solar Union. The two billion votes from Ganymede and Callisto,
which will be received early tomorrow morning, cannot appreciably
affect the results. The battle for the twenty-five Vice-Presidents is
less clear. It is certain that Thompson, Miccio, Kau, Singh, and
DuLavier will all be among those elected, but in what order is not
yet...."

Wong leaned over and snapped the video off. His shoulders sagged. He
leaned against the console as though too tired to move, a slight,
narrow-shouldered man with a very high forehead and thin receding
black hair. His large,