The Ides of March Page #2

and I don't care if he happens

to have all the right tools.

The truth is, he's the only one

that's gonna actually make a

difference in the people's lives.

Even the people that hate him.

If Mike Morris is president,

it says more about us

than it does about him.

I don't give a f***, if he can win.

He has to win.

Or what? What?

The world's gonna fall apart?

It won't matter, not one bit,

to the everyday lives

or the everyday f***ers

who get up, and work,

and eat, and sleep,

go back to work again.

You know, if your boy wins,

you get a job in the White House.

He loses, you're back at a

consulting firm on the K Street.

That's it.

You used to know that

before you got all goosebumpy

about this guy.

Mike Morris is a politician.

He's a nice guy.

They're all nice guys.

He will let you down,

sooner or later.

'Scuse me

While I

Disappear

- This is off-off-off the record.

- What?

- Franklin Thompson.

- Seriously?

Off the record. The only people who know

are the governor, Stephen and me.

My lips are sealed.

Tomorrow l have a meeting

at Thompson's house.

- He's going to endorse?

- After l'm done talking to him.

That's huge.

More than huge.

He has 356 pledged delegates.

They all travel with him.

Puts us over the top.

He said publicly he's not

going to endorse anybody.

Yeah well, that's what they all say

untill you get them alone in a room.

- So this is for real.

- Yep.

Just about in the bag.

When are you

going to announce?

Nope, that's all

you get for now.

Okay, listen up.

These are your new cell phones.

Shelly's pre-programmed

your numbers. Thank you Shelly.

No personal calls, Kevin.

If you lose them,

the DNC will come to your house.

- New phones. Give me your old one.

- I'll give you later.

l gotta believe we can do it.

We have enemies. We have to understand

why our enemies are our enemies

and see if there's something

we can do about that,

besides just using force.

As we know from history,

the answer to extremism

can't be extremism.

F***ing kill me.

- Whoever throws their hat in.

Whoever decides...

- Where did we get this?

Some town-hall meeting

in Pennsylvania before the announce.

Thank God it wasn't overseas.

Just get rid of it.

- Hey, what I mean, if it plays to his base,

why would this bother us?

- Are you fuking stoned?

This is the exact same piece

the Republicans are gonna run

against him in the general.

We don't need to brag about it.

I'm Neville Chamberlain.

I'd like to be your commander in chief.

Then if it's gonna come out anyway...

Then it's gonna come out,

but it's not gonna come out

paid for by us, pal.

You think there's any truth

in this Pullman having investments

in a diamond mine in Liberia?

- Still checking on it,

but we got it from a blog,

so who the f***...

I don't care if it's true.

I just wanna hear him denying it.

If it is true, great. Find out.

But if not, let them spend

the day telling the Post

that he doesn't own

a diamond mine in Liberia.

- Win-win.

- Okay.

- We gotta counter this Christian sh*t

we take him from last night

- Got it.

I need the new 30

and 60-second spots.

We can show him in the

staff meeting this afternoon, so...

- Hey.

- Hey.

Ben wanted me to get you to sign off

on this before the staff meeting.

Okay. Thank you,

I've been waiting for this.

Anything interesting?

This is some white paper

I have to hand out tonight.

What's white paper?

Negative sh*t.

Our oppo guys do research,

we feed it to the press,

and we see what sticks.

What kind of negative sh*t?

- You'll read the paper tomorrow.

- Which paper?

- Any. Any paper.

- So it's something big?

I wish it was something bigger.

It's just these

transportation numbers.

I'm gonna have to spin pretty hard

to make it stick.

- That's what you're good at, right?

- I guess.

Tell him it's fine.

- Did you get your new phone?

- Mm-hm.

It's really exciting, isn't it?

What are you, a Bearcat?

Am l a what?

Cincinnati Bearcat?

Oh, no. l'm not from here.

I worked with you in Iowa, actually.

Oh.

That's right.

But you changed something.

- My hair?

- You changed your hair.

No.

Oh. l see.

Bet you I look like

a real dumb-ass right now, huh?

No, not at all.

You're the big man on campus.

I'm just a lowly intern.

Oh, it's not like that.

You get to stay at the Millennium.

- Ok? They put us in a motel

in the other side of the river.

- You're right.

- I am the big man on campus.

- Now you're starting to see.

Mm-hm.

- We do have a better bar, though.

- I've heard that.

You should come by one night.

Have a drink with the worker bees.

I might do that. I might do that.

What's a good night?

- Tonight's good.

- Tonight? Tuesday night?

- Yeah. lt's quiet.

- Quiet's good.

Well, you have my number.

I do?

It's programmed right there

in your phone.

Aha.

- Under "Mary."

- I know your name's Mary.

My name is Molly.

Yep.

That's what l'm hearing.

Since Super Tuesday,

all of a sudden,

I'm a very popular guy.

What are your polls

telling you?

That Pullman's negatives

are high. Mid 40s.

Senator, we have an open

seat in the White House.

The Republicans have dick.

They're disorganized.

They can't find a nominee

that's not a world-class f***-up.

They look like Democrats.

No Republican's gonna

show up to vote for their guy.

But if Pullman gets the Democratic nod,

they will show up to vote against him.

And you think they won't for your guy.

You think Morris gets the independents.

I sure do.

Senator, I'm a bit confused.

We need your delegates.

We need you.

Your fund-raising.

And l guess

it was my understanding

that your endorsement

a week before Ohio

would win this for us.

- Thank you.

- Estella.

Hand me that ice bucket.

- Is this Paul, or is this you?

- Paul knows and Paul agrees.

Ben, where's my op-ed piece

on national service?

- It's easier for me to work off of that.

- Got it right here.

- Give me a hard copy,

I hate those fuking things.

- Can we print it out?

- Molly, can you grab it a print for me?

- Yeah, One second.

- So if you wanna change or refresh--

- Just give me a second, will you?

Your national service isn't polling

the same as the rest of your policy.

I don't give a sh*t about the polling, Stephen.

I'm not gonna play this game with you.

This is your good-cop,

bad-cop act with Paul.

Good-cop, good-cop.

I'm not changing it.

Here we go.

All right, let's see.

It says we're gonna help people

get an education,

we're gonna create national unity,

we're gonna teach young people a trade,

and we're gonna to get them out of debt

for their college loans.

- Now, where does that fail?

- All of that's exactly right, governor.

Just, if you're gonna do it, do it.

Make it mandatory, not voluntary.

- Now, that'll poll well.

- Mandatory.

Everybody who turns 18

or graduates high school

gives two years of service

to his or her country.

It can be in the military,

Peace Corps, planting

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