Playboy, Shari Belafonte, September 2000
by Mark Moorstein
Category: Fiction

Everyone thinks George W. Bush won the presidential election in November 2000 and served two terms. But Bush didn't win-he didn't even take the Republican nomination. The winner was James Jefferson Jones, or J3, and he became the perfect president. But how did J3 accomplish such a colossal act of deception? The story of how he fooled the citizens of the United States as a modern-day "Wizard of Oz" is told by Smitty, a homeless man who is also one of the architects of J3's victory and term in office. What makes this incredible, of course, is that history books, television, and the Internet of the year 2020 say nothing about J3, his election or his service to the nation. Our entire country suffered amnesia and somehow overlooked J3's part in history. This satire of the presidency spans from the time J3 decides to run with Robert "Beelzebob" Fenster, the richest man in the world, to J3's premature withdrawal from office. From holograms that substitute for actual appearances to assassinations and torture as a way of conducting foreign policy, these events will make you wonder whether they are real or imagined