Kowolski turned on the radio. The news anchor, a woman, was interviewing a military expert on the occasion. Both were gushing in their praise of the President who had landed on the aircraft carrier earlier in the day. ‘I thought he looked real, well… manly as he stepped from the plane in that flying suit,’ the anchor swooned. ‘Well, of course, it was just amazing, landing like that at one hundred fifty miles an hour on the deck of the aircraft carrier. The President is no stranger to airplanes, of course. Don’t forget he was in the Texas Air National Guard…’ The anchor interjected, ‘We must point out to listeners that, on this occasion, the President was in the co-pilot’s seat and did not land the plane himself. But he was loudly cheered by the crew of the Abraham Lincoln when he got out of the cockpit… it was a scene straight from the film Top Gun.’ Having snatched a few hours’ sleep on a camp bed in the corner of his office, Kowolski put in a call to a White House press assistant who was on the Abraham Lincoln, having landed there several days earlier on one of the helicopters ferrying in the many members of the media.
