Snafu: A Tale of Presidential Election and a Girl

What happens in a Presidential Election year when a major political party takes a greeting card sentiment . . . EVERYBODY COUNTS . . . runs it through a Washington focus group and turns essentially a smily face into a campaign slogan? Nothing happens, up to that point, except politics as usual. But when people are forced to take the bumper sticker seriously, as a strict rule of Constitutional Law . . . SNAFU! . . . that's what happens. And with the U.S. Supreme Court otherwise engaged, unable to decide things for a confused electorate, the news media look to the strangest of places for guidance . . . namely to a rural county in Oklahoma, where . . .

* John "Buzz" Hunter, a campaign coordinator for the Democratic Party National Committee, finds that Oklahoma state politics mirror the national picture, or maybe vice versa. Along with his young nephew and protege, Bobby, he learns that ---- like they say ---- when you get right down to it, all politics is local.

* Virgil Carter, on the other hand, throws his hat into a race for County Commissioner ---- with no hope nor desire to win ---- and finds himself in the national spot light. The New York Times calls the local election a contest of proxies for the Presidential candidates, and names Virgil ---- a door to door pots and pans salesman ---- the new darling of the Democratic Party.

* Professor Alexander Lehough, an expert on almost everything ---- notably including the common fly ---- reluctantly agrees to take on an analysis of the Electoral College system for the Republican National Committee. Though a longtime PIP ---- "Progressive Independent Professor" ---- he becomes increasingly conflicted about almost everything, notably including his wife and fellow academic, Charlene.

* Henryetta Hebert, reporter for a small town newspaper based in Okmulgee County, is assigned to the "locally national" story of the County Commissioner Election. In the process, she gets drawn into coverage of the concurrent Presidential Election, puzzles over this and that, points her readers here and there ---- falls semi-in-love ---- and in the end, makes a last ditch effort to rescue a gripping story about a national crisis.

SNAFU ---- a word for muddle ---- is the apt title of this epic Tale of Presidential Election and a Girl by Simon Plaster.