This one is untypically long which made it a bear with recent schedule juggling, more often they will be more like Ch. 1 or perhaps slightly shorter if I can manage. There are a couple that I know of later on where work's already pretty much done that are this size, and a single one I know of that's longer. Otherwise Ch.1 -- somewhere in the 8k range -- is probably a good yardstick. Yes that has all the pluses and rather large minuses of a GRRM novel -- at least I'm thinner and have a little more hair on top, both of which are not permanent conditions....
McGoverning
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This one is untypically long which made it a bear with recent schedule juggling, more often they will be more like Ch. 1 or perhaps slightly shorter if I can manage. There are a couple that I know of later on where work's already pretty much done that are this size, and a single one I know of that's longer. Otherwise Ch.1 -- somewhere in the 8k range -- is probably a good yardstick. Yes that has all the pluses and rather large minuses of a GRRM novel -- at least I'm thinner and have a little more hair on top, both of which are not permanent conditions....
The main thing I think is that scope will change. Once we get through Ch. 4 -- the transition of administrations from the last-roll-of-the-dice Nixon endgame to McGovern setting up shop -- the topical span will widen out a lot. Length will stay similar as the chaps try to take in as much of that scope as possible, but in terms of ground covered, we start with this micro focus and then flare the lens way the hell out. Even then at least a few chapters will be shorter.
One of the iron laws of American political history is that, if you are fool enough to rouse Lyndon Johnson from his depths
1) He will fuck you, and
2) There is no Un-Fucker yet born who can cure what he'll do to you.
During the crisis over Selma at the start of '65, LBJ commanded that George Wallace, then in full schoolhouse-door mode, the executor of the bloody assault on the first march, come on up to Washington for a sit-down. Lyndon started in with his line of questioning, his voice terse and his questions pointed. Wallace prevaricated, and at one point Johnson clasped his hands together like he was praying, leaned them over his drawn-together knees on an Oval Office couch to bring his full size forward towards the bantam-weight Wallace, and through his teeth said, "Don't you shit me, George Wallace." The people in the room at the time remember genuine, primal fear that Johnson would reach down Wallace's throat, pull out his spleen, and beat him to death with it. LBJ was probably the only mainstream politician in America who Wallace actually feared. Now that this whole "Brookingsgate" mess has blown up, Johnson has reflected on the decisions made in the autumn of 1968 and decided he made the wrong call. If Johnson had even more of a sense of theatricality he'd have leaked it to Ben Bradlee first, then had Walt Rostow (who was squarely in the "end his shit" faction about Nixon and the Chennault Affair in October '68) walk into the Oval Office with an advance copy of the Post's banner headline, lay it on Nixon's desk, and say, "the Democrats send their regards."
And it's hardly the only "October surprise" in play. I count at least five, cards to be laid down in full in the next chapter. That unholy scraping sound in the background, like the gears to the gates of Hell itself? That's Pandora's box. Open for business.
As always it's both surprising and depressing how much suburban America will take this all as though it were sweeps week on the networks, but if you work for any of the three big presidential campaigns, October 1972 in this 'verse is not a place where you can just expect to get through to November without stroking out under the strain.
John Farson
Banned
I take it this TL there won't be presidential election winners dying in freak plane crashes...
It's good to know people these days still read the classics
Freak plane crashes, no, definitely not. There's enough to be getting on with just with what candidates have buried in their political backyards, so to speak. That gets plenty hairy.
McGoverning: Images From Chapter 2
Timely alliance: Presidential nominee George McGovern and Sen. Ed Muskie (D-ME) make an appearance amid the New York delegation at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami, FL
Breaking away: Gov. George Wallace of Alabama at a press conference held prior to the American Independent Party convention of 1972; the governor capped another dramatic break with the Democrats with the capture of a second presidential nomination with the AIP and his decision to run as a spoiler in the fall campaign of that year
Slow and steady: McGovern campaign director Frank Mankiewicz considers his answer to a reporter's question at a press conference in Chicago, IL, in early September of 1972; through the early weeks of the fall campaign the McGovern/Hart ticket concentrated on securing its base of Democratic voters and trying to make as few unforced errors as possible
Fateful moment?: George McGovern and Lyndon Johnson meet at Johnson's ranch in Texas near the end of September 1972; minutes after this photo was taken, in a private conference, Johnson delivered to McGovern the "X File" containing documentary evidence of the Chennault Affair
(NB: That's my absolute favorite picture of Frank, period.)
Bookmark1995
Banned
After the presidency, he REALLY went off with the wagon, smoking his lungs out and stuffing his face like crazy.
So yeah, it is astounding how decrepit he looks.
Has anyone read this The New Republic article: What Democrats Still Don’t Get About George McGovern
I'm conversant with the piece
Which is (from my personal POV apart from efforts to be the author of a responsible and at least moderately plausible TL) bang on the money more often than not. If it's missing anything that missing piece is what I would call the Wallace Factor (as in the other George so prominent in '72.) We've had to the Wallace Factor to deal with since Shay's Rebellion if not long before, it was a decisive factor in the 2016 presidential IOTL, and so that I don't get this all locked down for Chatliness I'll stop there. But all these elements, the ones raised in that New Republic longform and the "Wallace factor" part and parcel with them, will have ... reverberations throughout the life of this TL. Let's just say that among other things, much as he did IOTL, young Pat Caddell who can be a bit of a handful (well, let's be clear, he can be a self-absorbed prick who's impossible to work with when he gets up a head of steam) has seen something very important in his numbers. It's just, because of his own personality, what he brings to the interpretation, that he's misunderstood symptoms as causes.