Who Are These People And What Do They Want? Part 4

I originally modeled Henry Pratt after George H.W. Bush, but he quickly became his own character. He’s in his late fifties, and here’s his description:

    Henry Pratt looked like a generic president out of Central Casting. He was tall — either six-two or six-three, Rome made a mental note to look it up. His hair was iron-gray frosted with white around the ears — possibly the most presidential hair of anyone in Congress. His face was equally skilled at stern expressions and reassuring smiles. He was wearing a navy-blue wool suit, which had been tailored to fit him but was otherwise identical to what every other man in politics was wearing. His one concession to personality was the reading glasses on a string around his neck, with a bronze frame that matched his tie.

Pratt is married, with no children. The former CEO of an international hotel chain, he sought the Republican nomination at a moment of weakness for both parties. Pratt’s agenda is a mixture of centrism and libertarianism. His goal is to bring an end to the drug war, cut back on government regulations of private business, and otherwise leave things as they are. He is neither corrupt nor incompetent, but he isn’t ready for the things that start happening in his term, and he sees them as a distraction from his own agenda.

That’s the thing about Pratt — somewhat libertarian in his politics, he is a control freak about his immediate circumstances. (He doesn’t see it that way, of course. As far as he’s concerned, there’s a right way to do things, and things must be done in that way, and although he sees that way, he did not create it, and it isn’t his fault if everyone else has to be told what it is. This is what being a control freak feels like from the inside.) He got elected because he was able to become the dominant force the primary and general elections, but if he’d had a real challenger he would have been in trouble. He’s at his best when he’s working according to his own plan, not so much when he’s trying to adapt to changing circumstances.