I went to high school with a perceptive girl, and when I asked her who she liked in the 1980 election, she was livid. She said it was a private matter. When I noted that, unlike in some nations, thousands were campaigning openly for their favorites, she relented, but only on the condition I never tell anyone. She said she despised Reagan and thought him stupid. But, she said, now that Bush had joined his campaign, she would vote for him, because Bush could use his CIA connections to get things done unhindered by Congress, and that he could also arrange for one of his three most eligible sons to win later. She said, "I'm probably the shallowest person you'll ever meet. All I want is to have nice things." She explained that a pro- business dynasty was in her interest, if not the nation's. She planned to become a corporate lawyer, which also came true, along with the next thirty years of history, just as she had predicted. She was only eighteen.