time. The man was dead but didn't know it. Soon, it was said with confidence, a true heavyweight would emerge to rescue the party from another inglorious defeat, from the Republican incumbent who had sworn to do whatever it took to be reelected. But the would-be saviors stayed home, the rivals faded, and the unbeatable president ran a hapless, unfocused campaign. In the end only the dead man lived, his long march a triumph of preparation, tenacity, and drive. Luck, too, played a role--it always does--but as the baseball mogul Branch Rickey once observed, luck is often "the residue of design.''
All campaigns have their moments and many are remembered for decades. But "Bill and Al's Excellent Adventure'' was special, proof of H. L. Mencken's assertion
