It was eight thirty. PM. Eleven-twelve, twenty fifteen. In my mind it is as clear as a picture. Advisers and staff swarmed around me, blackberries and iPhones clutched in their hands, babbling a swarm of social media statistics and poll numbers. A part of me slices through the numbers, filing away the essential and discarding the rest.
They're nervous. I can hear it in the way they speak a little too quick. See it in their eyes. Its natural. Today is a big day. Super PACs have millions locked and loaded in my name. My campaign staff passed up jobs in silicon valley and TV deals to work for me. Months of preparation, thousands of hours and millions of dollars could fizzle if I blow it. The RNC doesn't believe in me and only gave me a few minutes to speak.
I am not nervous. I am untouched by fear. I do not doubt.
My music hits. Born in the USA. Bruce Springsteen. My fingers tingle with excitement and I glance in a mirror as I walk up the steel stairs to the stage. Deep blue pants suit. White blouse. Black pumps. In my heels I'm six two. I smile at the crowd as I walk to the podium. I look great.
The crowd is a blur in the light and heat of the spotlights but I can see the red dots of TV cameras across the press pit. Cameras flash like machinegun fire. I speak.
"My friends my name is Kelly Coltaine and I have come here today to speak with you about the long and troubling issues that now confront us. Today I would like to begin with surveillance.
The NSA budget is classified; the American people are buying a service and cannot even see the bill. Most experts consider it to be around ten billion dollars a year. Of 227 cases of terrorism charges since 9/11 only 17 resulted from NSA surveillance. Only 1 of those 17 was convicted. A member of the White House review panel recently revealed that the NSA has not been instrumental in preventing a single act of terrorism.
This program costs us ten billion dollars a year in money but its cost in freedom cannot be counted. It is a right and honorable thing to defend ones nation. But the tighter the fist around the sands of liberty the more grains slip between the fingers.
And for what? A little protection against the dangers of the world, as fragile as an umbrella in a hurricane. Alexander Hamilton once said that a nation which prefers disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one. Ladies and gentlemen a surveillance state is a disgrace to a great people.
Direct spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by the Department of Defense is 757 billion. Experts tell us that the eventual cost in veteran care and equipment may reach 4 trillion. Detroit receives 108 million a year but Egypt 1.5 billion. Even Pakistan receives over 1 billion dollars a year annually.
But I suppose Detroit should consider itself lucky; Gothic City received 0 dollars and a kick in the behind on the way out the door.
Are we the kind of nation that takes from its citizens in the form of taxes and gives to dictators to prop up their corrupt regimes? This is a policy of taking from the needy and giving to the greedy.
How then is our national debt 17 trillion dollars, if we have so much to spare? It is because our politicians spend as if money grows on the money tree. It is, after all, easy to spend other peoples money. And what is government revenue if not other peoples money? It is taken from the people, should it not be spent on the people? And should responsible limits not be in place to decide how much money can be taken from the people in the first place?
The people of america are not a piggy-bank in which one can dip ones hand and take from whenever one wishes to give to a dictatorship or special interest group. People of America, your paycheck belongs to you, not a government bureaucrat.
On July the 4th, 1776 the Founding Fathers wrote the words which have guided me my entire life.
'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.'
We are the people. You and I. Government has become destructive of the rights of the people. It has become destructive to the rights of mutants; their right to life, their right to liberty and their right to the pursuit of happiness.
With the passage of the Registration Act these rights were endangered. In the beginning I was in favor of its passage and enforcement. But time has revealed the truth, to me and many others; that a government bureaucrat cannot legislate safety into existence. All the laws in the world did not protect Gothic City. A law only controls the law abiding. A criminal is not bound by the law and thus not effected. The only purpose of the Registration Act is to give government control over the law abiding.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to repeat myself. The government has become destructive to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the fundamental right of the people to alter it. Government is created by the people. It does not rule the people, it serves the people.
For these reasons I announce my candidacy for President of these United States under the Republican ticket.
If I am elected I will see what is taken from the people returned to the people. No government should spend more propping up dictators than it does on its own people. And if I am elected I will strengthen our armed forces to defend us against against terrorists like Satar and Brahma Bull. For too long have madmen be allowed to pillage at will inside our borders.
But strength is not an end unto itself. Strength exists only to protect the inalienable rights of the people. Terrorists threaten the right to life but organizations like the NSA and laws like the Registration Act threaten our right to liberty. Therefore I pledge to see the Registration Act repealed and the NSA defunded and abolished.
I am the candidate with the strength to do what we need and the principles to do what is right.
My fellow Americans, thank you for hearing what I have to say. Have a good night."
I walk off the sage. The applause is thunderous. It shakes the concrete under my feet and I can feel the rumble of the roar in my chest. I cannot fly any more but I feel like I could.
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