Austin, TX
Over the years, I spent many Christmases — and many holidays — in various campaign headquarters around the country. Regardless, I always rationalized that’s “just what I do” — and one reason I had a ticket to the hottest GOP campaign in America: I go above and beyond, put work before all else, and that’s just the way it is.
But for the very first time, things felt different; like I had no life beyond campaigns. But it was true.
While merely a coincidence I had just turned 40 several months prior, the same minor unsettling feeling I had following the 1998 campaign cycle became more pronounced. But I shook it off and continued with my work through New Years in Austin.
The campaign was going well, and I was now in the morning senior staff meeting with Rove, Karen Hughes (calling in from the road), media consultant Stu Stevens, finance director Jack Oliver, research director Dan Bartlett, and several others. I couldn’t have been in a better place.