Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt-Chapter 74 - 56: Blinded Eyes

"And get us some pizza! I want the largest Italian sausage pizzas, get five... no, ten of them!"

"And coffee! I want the largest cup of black coffee. We need caffeine—a lot of it!"

"No one sleeps tonight!"

As Karen’s commands echoed, the frozen atmosphere shattered. Desperation gave way to frantic activity, and the entire campaign headquarters came alive once more.

Frank returned quickly.

He was hauling two enormous cardboard boxes, filled with string-bound notebooks whose covers were worn and pages had yellowed with age.

Those were the membership rosters for the Pittsburgh Steel Union from the past thirty years.

Every page was densely packed with names, addresses, and phone numbers.

Some of the handwriting was blurry, and some pages were stained with grease and coffee.

But every name recorded on them belonged to a steelworker who had once shed sweat and blood for this city.

Over by Sarah, the printer was also working furiously.

Thousands of pages of Excel spreadsheets were printed out. They were the interaction records of the fifty thousand subscribers to the Pittsburgh Heart. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Margaret arrived too, bringing several thick sign-in books from community events.

A dozen or so young volunteers sat around the massive conference table.

Piles of paper were stacked in front of them.

The air was thick with a tense but passionate, battle-ready atmosphere.

"Name: John Smith. Address: 402 Freedom Street. Occupation: Retired welder. Notes: Frank’s old workmate, a die-hard supporter."

"Name: Emily Chen. Address: 15 Pine Street. Notes: ’Pittsburgh Heart’ donor, left a message saying she hopes to improve community education."

Piece by piece, the data was manually extracted and entered into the newly created, rudimentary database.

Leo also joined the data entry team.

He looked at the names and saw the living faces behind each one.

The database could be cut off, but the people were real.

However, reality remained cruel.

Even though they were giving it their all, the speed of manual data entry was still far too slow to meet the campaign’s needs.

Several hours passed, and they had only organized information for less than two thousand viable voters.

And Pittsburgh had hundreds of thousands of voters.

At this rate, by primary election day, they might have just finished organizing the voter data—and even then, it would be far from complete.

This kind of manual labor was only a stopgap measure; it couldn’t fundamentally reverse their disadvantage.

At that moment, Ethan Hawke walked over to Leo’s side and placed a hand on Leo’s, which was tapping on the keyboard.

"Leo, stop for a second."

"This spirit is moving, really. I admire you for coming up with this method."

"But this doesn’t solve the fundamental problem."

"Carter Wright is spraying us with a heavy machine gun, and we’re throwing stones back."

"We can’t win with this kind of brute-force approach."

Leo looked up at the elite aide from Washington.

"Then what else can we do? They already control the local party committee."

"Leo, there are some things you need to understand." Ethan’s voice was calm. "On this country’s political map, there isn’t just one road to the finish line."

"The VAN System is the official lifeblood of the Democratic Party, and its access permissions have a strict hierarchy."

"At the bottom are local committees like Pittsburgh’s, above them is the Pennsylvania State Committee, and at the very top is the Democratic National Committee in Washington."

"Within this official bureaucratic system, Carter Wright has indeed used the rules to get a chokehold on you."

"But in the last two presidential elections, to fight back against suppression from the Establishment Faction, we Progressives secretly built a ’Shadow Data System’ that is completely independent of the official Democratic National Committee system."

Ethan’s meaning was clear: they could use this "Shadow Data System."

Faced with this sudden turn of events, Leo didn’t immediately show any excitement.

He narrowed his eyes, studying Ethan.

"Ethan, did you just get off the phone with Senator Sanders?"

Ethan shook his head. "No, I haven’t spoken with the Senator."

"I have only one mission: to help you through this crisis," Ethan explained calmly. "When I left Washington, the Senator gave me full authorization. When a potentially fatal administrative obstacle like this appears, I have the authority to use the necessary resources to put out the fire."

Leo looked at Ethan.

He didn’t completely believe him.

’Mr. President, do you believe him?’ Leo asked in his mind.

Roosevelt’s voice rang out, tinged with a hint of amusement.

’Excellent, Leo.’

’That look in your eyes, that suspicious stance... it means you’re finally starting to grow up.’

’You’re no longer the naive kid who believes whatever he’s told. You’re starting to think like a real politician, to scrutinize the motives behind every ally.’

’This is good. Maintain this vigilance. It’s the skill that will let you survive in the jungle.’

Roosevelt paused for a moment, then began to break down the situation for Leo.

’As for whether Ethan is lying, it doesn’t really matter.’

’If he’s lying, it means Washington is watching this place closely. They’re anxious to protect you as their bargaining chip.’

’If he’s not lying, it means Sanders trusts him implicitly, and it also means they anticipated this situation and already had a contingency plan.’

’In either case, the result is the same. You need this data system to save your skin, and Ethan has served it up to you on a platter.’

’A starving man shouldn’t inspect the baker’s fingernails. Just eat.’

’Take it, Leo. As for what Ethan’s true intentions are, there will be plenty of time to find out later.’

Leo withdrew his scrutinizing gaze.

His doubts didn’t disappear; he just pushed them to the back of his mind for the time being.

"Alright." Leo looked at Ethan and nodded. "If the tool is at hand, let’s use it."

Ethan took out his phone, dialed a number, pressed the speakerphone button, and placed the phone in the center of the table.

The phone rang three times before it was answered.

"Ethan?" A deep, raspy middle-aged man’s voice came from the other end. "Calling so late. Trouble in Pittsburgh?"