Discusses the campaign of John Kerry, including behind the scenes information and strategies for the presidential campaign from July to November.

Paul Alexander is a biographer, political journalist, and cultural reporter whose work has appeared in Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, New York, The Village Voice, The New York Observer, and The Guardian

1. "Mission Accomplished!"	3	(8)
2. "Bring It On!"	11	(20)
3. The Next President of the United States	31	(40)
4. The Turnaround	71	(18)
5. Iowa	89	(50)
6. The Secret Weapon	139	(10)
7. New Hampshire	149	(18)
8. Super Tuesday	167	(44)
9. The Candidate	211

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1"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"TThe S-3B Viking jet descended from the cobalt-blue sky at somewhere between 125 and 150 miles per hour and approached the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. On its way home to Everett, Washington, after an almost ten-month-long tour of duty as part of the operations in Iraq, the aircraft carrier was positioned in the Pacific Ocean thirty miles off the coast of California near San Diego. The pilot of the snub-nosed, 53-foot-long four-seater, Commander John Lussier-a "mature" flyer, to quote a navy colleague-was known for his smooth landings. Carefully, Lussier guided the jet in its descent until it touched down, still zooming ahead at full speed, onto the flight deck, catching its tailhook on a metal cable stretched across the deck and coming to a dead stop so abruptly that it produced a g-force twice that of gravity. The local time at touchdown was 12:16 p.m. The date was May 1, 2003. Today's flight was no ordinary mission. There were clues to its unique status on the aircraft itself. navy 1 was painted on its rear. Just underneath the cockpit window, george w. bush, commander-in-chief was painted in script. The two seats behind Lussier were occupied by a Secret Service agent and a spare pilot, and sitting beside Lussier in the copilot seat was the President of the United States himself, dressed in a regulation flight suit topped off with a white helmet. Earlier in the day, Bush had flown on Air Force Onefrom Washington, D.C., to the Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, where he had replaced his civilian clothes with the green flight suit, undergone training for a possible emergency landing on water, and boarded the Viking jet that would fly him from San Diego to the Abraham Lincoln. According to press reports, Bush, a trained pilot who had served in the Texas Air National Guard in the Vietnam era, flew the jet himself for about one-third of the trip. This could have been why he appeared exuberant and confident as he climbed out of the cockpit and jumped down onto the deck, helmet tucked under one arm. The image was striking. The moment was historic. It was the first time a sitting president had flown in a jet that landed on an aircraft carrier. Bush shook hands with the sailors who approached him on the flight deck. "Thank you," he would say, or "_'preciate it." When a group of reporters asked if he had flown the jet himself, he answered, "Yes, I flew it. Yeah, of course, I liked it." Before long, crewmen were posing for pictures with Bush, who gladly complied, often throwing one arm around the sailor's shoulder or slapping him on the back. "Good job," Bush said, smiling broadly. He meant, one must presume, the crew's participation in the military operations in Iraq. For, hovering above the scene as it was broadcast live on television-a shot that would be replayed on the news that evening and in the days and weeks to come-was a massive banner that read mission accomplished! That night, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, Bush was on television again, this time to deliver a speech that marked the end of principal military action in Iraq. Dressed in civilian clothes, Bush stood at a podium and spoke to an audience of officers and crewmen from the Abraham Lincoln, who often interrupted him with applause. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush announced. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Applause! Listing those allies as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, Bush thanked the Iraqi citizens "who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country" before he declared: "We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. . . . And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi peopl