The bard was right: past is prologue, or at least it is in US politics. After George W. Bush, was hammered by 19 points in the snows of New Hampshire in the first Republican primary of February 2000, we had no doubt our campaign was over. We knew we would be fired, so we started packing our bags. That’s when the future president turned to us and said: “I take full responsibility for this loss. Voters will watch how we handle this to see if we have what it takes.” We unpacked and continued, winning 40 of the next state contests, the nomination and the White House.
莎士比亞說得對：過去的只是序曲。至少對美國政治而言是如此。在2000年2月的共和黨初選中，當喬治?W?布什(George W. Bush)在白雪皚皚的新罕布什爾州以19個百分點失利時，我們毫不懷疑，我們的競選結束了。我們知道自己將被解雇，于是開始收拾行李。就在這時，未來的總統對我們說：“我對此次失利負全部責任。選民將關注我們如何處理局面，看我們是否具備必要的質素。”我們解開行李，繼續競選，讓布什在接下來的州競選中，贏得了40個州，獲得了共和黨候選人提名，進而入主白宮(White House)。