"Isn't this what we agreed on from the start?" Leo retorted. "You said we had to flip the board."
"No, those are two different things." Roosevelt shook his head. "I flipped the board because I was smashing it from the top down. I had that power, I had that capital."
"But you, you're charging up from the bottom."
"Going from the bottom up is worlds apart from going from the top down."
"You will bleed, you will get hurt, and you will face resistance more terrifying than what I faced back in my day."
Roosevelt paused for a moment.
"But, Leo."
"If you can really see this path to the end."
"Perhaps you won't become one of those successful politicians who's slick and plays all sides."
"But."
Roosevelt's voice turned solemn.
"You can be a great President of the United States."
"A president who truly belongs to the people."
Leo smiled.
His smile was free of its earlier anxiety, replaced by the relief of having a burden lifted.
