Chapter 367

Clark Atwater never touched a check all during the event. Jim Green took care of that. Clark held intimate discussions with his well-heeled donors, espousing his views on the role of government in the private lives of its citizens, its role as the world's police force, problems with the nation's infrastructure, the federal deficit, social security, and many other problems facing the nation. He told them what was fixable, what was not, and why.

These people were not used to such frank discussions. They were used to politicians, who danced around the edges of problems, and promised to fix everything within the first 100 days of their administration. They paid their $5 million to hear this kind of discussion, and they were very pleased with it.

At the end of the day, Jim Green calculated the amount of money that was collected, and smiled. Every other Democrat would fall out of the race once Clark announced his intention to run. With this one event, he had garnered