A Preview of what is to come...
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It was amazing.
Just. Damn. Amazing.
The president was wrapping up his speech. I remember his exact words:
"For the last two years, I've served this nation to the best of my ability. And as this state's lieutenant governor for eight years, Clint Eastwood has served his state to the best of my ability. Eastwood is healthy for the state of California, so I want all of you to vote Clintwood for Governor and Schwarzenneger for Lieutenant Governor. Thank you very much, and God bless all of you."
I was applauding with everybody. I had always liked Eastwood, since I'd seen his first movies, and as a lieutenant governor, and I was already going to vote for him.
President Turtledove turned around to shake hands with Mr. Eastwood.
And a second later, it happened.
Three shots rang the air. Now, there had been this happy feeling in the air when the president was speaking, but the feeling shattered like broken glass. And happiness turned to surprise, and then to confusion, and then to horror.
I was startled by the shots, but I'm pretty sure everyone was.
(Laughs) I was trying to get to see the stage and see what had happened. Now, I never actually saw the president. What I did see were a bunch of policemen surrounding this one area on the stage, and Clint Eastwood standing with his hand over mouth. His face was pale.
I knew there had been an attempt on the life of the President of the United States.
I heard movement behind me, and when I turned around, I saw a man running away, and when I looked at his hand, I saw a
gun.
And then I saw two other men run after him, and they tackled him to the ground. Another shot was fired.
Another man dead.
It was at that point that the Lieutenant Governor had left, and President Turtledove was being evacuated to the White Memorial Medical Center - that was the nearest hospital, so everybody assumed that's where he was going.
- Anonymous Witness interviewed for The Presidency of Harry N. Turtledove, by David McCullough, 2011
Coming to AH.COM on August 10, 2010...
THE MAN WITH THE IRON HEART
I'm going to have a lot of fun with this.
