Oz sighed. He hoped she was right. This was the first moment in his campaign where it occurred to him that he cared about the result of the election. He'd started running just to prove a point, but somewhere along the way he'd started expressing his actual opinions about things rather than just what he thought politicians tended to say, and now he — well, he still didn't think he expected to win, and wasn't even sure if he wanted to win, but he did want some people to vote for him.

"I don't think I committed to it strongly enough to make any of the militant leftists happy," he said wearily. "But it's certainly enough to alienate the right. It's a lose-lose issue, and always has been."

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