Karen Alexander, a 1993 graduate a Yale University, has been with me every step of the way on this project. Attempting to write a book about an ongoing presidential campaign is both an endurance contest and a high-speed chase. She brought unmatched intellect, grace and doggedness and an ingrained sense of fairness to this book. Karen was my collaborator on the reporting, writing, editing and thinking. She spent weeks in the home states of candidates, gathering research and doing vast amounts of original reporting. Each day she enriched both the project and the lives of myself and my wife, Elsa Walsh. We were able to confide in her and rely on her in every way. This book could not have been done without Karen, and it is hers as much as mine. As she leaves to pursue her own writing career, she falls into that rare category of “friend for life.”