Down to the Wire

Tired of toxic campaigns? Remember when seeking office was an often joyful enterprise? Take heart A whole different kind of candidate--and campaign--is at hand. When a tall, handsome, wealthy, young (and single) Texas Congressman, James Raymond Robertson Wire--Jim-Ray-Bob-Wire to his many friends--runs for president out of boredom, the political process changes--for the better. Humor replaces rancor, joy trumps drudgery and traditional campaigning flies out the window. Sailing in comes a cast of characters, handlers, advisors, groupies, rabid supporters and opposing politicians, all branded with the special imprint only a Texan and his ranch hands could produce. From an Austin bird-handling cult to rallies revved up by a fleet of purple garbage trucks to the support of the California Friends of Vegetables to an arcane Communist conspiracy to destroy the Long Island lobster beds, Down To The Wire has it all. Swell-headed minor pols to swell-bodied supermodels, New Hampshire snowstorms and avalanches, Country & Western superstars in concert and a mysterious former supporter now stalking the increasingly popular candidate who jogs every day, accompanied by thousands of fans in 10K races wearing t-shirts reading: 'I'm running for president with Jim Ray Bob Wire.' Can the charismatic Congressman make it past the finish line at the Democratic Party nominating convention? Will better-known Senators stop him inn his tracks? Or is the nomination within his grasp? Return with us now to those thrilling days of 1988 when everything came down to the wire