We never do get any serious detail on what Dana Wells’ positions are. That’s a pretty big giveaway that the election part of the storyline isn’t going to amount to much.
I go back and forth over whether I wish it had gotten a bigger role. On the one hand: better suspense, more opportunities for political comedy. On the other: takes up space in a comic already full of subplots, might feel anticlimactic or disappointing when Bennett loses and the whole arc gets dropped.
Possible compromise: maybe I should’ve just given Wells more characterization. Make her a specific archetype, or a recognizable takeoff on some real political figure. Then she could’ve been a source of material, not just a foil for Bennett-centric material.
Post-debate analysis time.
Sparrow: Why isn’t anybody outside our little Being discussion comm talking about how suspicious that was?
Miranda: Why isn’t anybody talking about how suspicious that was?
Bennett’s media manager: There’s hardly anybody, in the news or on the blogs, talking about anything except how ridiculous your thing with flag pins has gotten.
Bennett: Really? Score!
Bennett’s media manager: . . .
Bennett: I mean . . . it’s great that the biased media isn’t using this time to tell people how Dana Wells’ positions are more “substantive” and “coherent” than mine. Thank you for catching me up. Would you mind stepping out now? I’d like to spend the rest of the flight reviewing a bill.
[Painfully obvious lie. Nobody in Congress actually spends any time reading bills.]
Bennett: Okay, my media manager is gone. What happened in there? Did that woman have a Being?
Cybele: I don’t know! She’s the one who saw us leaving Cohen’s. Maybe she’s working with him?
Bennett: And if she had made that a real Being-challenge, is there a way to get out of it without making it obvious what I’m doing?
Cybele: . . . You could turn it down in ancient Sumerian?
Bennett: A realistic way?
Cybele: I’m really sorry, boss! You’ll have to be extra careful. You’re getting spied on more than an NSA staffer’s ex!
