Anthony said goodbye and left, and Hardy came to the casino. The casino was very lively with many customers. It was time for the lottery draw again. The jackpot for this draw was more than 90,000 US dollars, and a large group of people gathered around waiting for the draw.
The lucky draw begins.
A Las Vegas television camera trained on the raffle prize machine.
After three rounds of draws, the winning numbers are announced.
The people at the investment agency cheered. This time, the big prize was won by a client of the investment agency again. There were envious people and amazed people at the scene.
Hardy suddenly thought of something.
Stop a waiter.
"Mr. Hardy, what can I do for you?" the waiter asked respectfully.
"Go get Manager Appleton."
"Yes Mr. Hardy."
Not long after, the casino manager Upton came trotting over. "Mr. Hardy, you're looking for me?"
"I plan to open a betting market to see who will win and become president this time. Ask the casino's actuary to calculate the odds. By the way, there are not only Presidents Dewey and Johnson, but also all the other candidates," said Hardy.
The casino manager opened his mouth in surprise. The boss was really daring to bet on who would win and become the president.
"Okay, I'll have someone prepare it."
After two days of preparation, Las Vegas TV stations began broadcasting advertisements and Hardy's Casino opened a betting market for who would win the election. There were 11 candidates in total. Of course, President Johnson and Dewey were definitely the biggest favorites, and the other candidates were at most just runners-up.
But running as a runner-up also has human rights, and they are all on the gambling list.
President Johnson, odds 1.46.
Dewey, odds 2.16.
Hawkins, odds 5.35.
Perot, 6.88.
Hughes, ...
The odds get higher towards the end because the higher the odds, the lower the casino believes the chance of that candidate winning is.
As soon as Hardy's Casino opened the betting market, it instantly attracted the attention of people all over the United States.
Opening the bet on which president will win is something that no one has ever done before. This is the first time in history, and Hadi has set a precedent.
However, people can also see something from these odds. It is obvious that Hardy Casino is more optimistic about President Johnson's re-election because Johnson has the lowest odds.
As soon as the market opened, many people placed bets, naturally through investment agencies. At one time, a lot of large funds entered the market.
After a week, the amount of bets reached more than 30 million US dollars, and the most people bought President Johnson and Dewey. The other candidates were just runners-up, and the third place only received a few tens of thousands of dollars.
......
The newspapers updated the amount of bets placed on the presidential race every day. Johnson smiled and said to his campaign team, "Look, the most people are betting on me to win. What does this mean? It means that people are becoming more and more confident that I will win."
Indeed.
Dewey's reputation was ruined by the incident of accepting foreign political donations. Hardy also made a documentary "Black Gold", and Dewey's approval rating plummeted. The last opinion poll showed that Johnson had surpassed Dewey, which made Johnson very happy.
Johnson picked up the phone and called Hardy. After the call was connected, Johnson smiled and said, "Hardy, I will be in Los Angeles tomorrow. Is everything ready there?"
"Haha, of course I'm ready. Don't worry, this Los Angeles speaking tour will be the most grand speaking event in history." Hardy said with a smile.
President Johnson is preparing to continue his national speaking tour, and this stop is Los Angeles.
Hardy made a lot of preparations in advance.
The location was chosen on Hollywood Avenue.
ABC TV released an advertisement several days in advance to inform the public of the date of President Johnson's speech.
There will also be many guests supporting the event on that day.
Including the four mentors of the 'Super Idol' talent show and the 32 finalists, they will perform on stage.
At the same time, a large number of celebrities will be present to support the event.
ABC TV will then broadcast the speech live across the United States.
HD Security is responsible for on-site safety.
There is another benefit: all the people who come to the scene on that day can get a bottle of Pepsi for free.
At that time, the team expected that the number of people would exceed 100,000.
But these people still underestimated the appeal of celebrities. On the day of the speech, the entire Hollywood Avenue was packed with people. The crowd was so dense that there was no end in sight. One hundred thousand bottles of Pepsi Cola had already been snapped up, and 100,000 bottles were urgently transported.
Later I found that it was still not enough.
"Keep running. Don't worry about the large number of people. Just come and get them repeatedly. It's just some Coke. There's no better advertisement than this." Walter Mack, Chairman and President of PepsiCo, gave the order again.
The show begins.
Ava Gardner was the first to appear on stage and instantly won countless cheers. Ava sang her most famous song "Scarborough Fair", and the cheers of more than 200,000 people at the scene resounded to the sky.
Several other mentors came on stage to greet the audience, followed by the contestants of this year's "Super Idol" talent show.
The most popular program this year is undoubtedly "Super Talent Show", and the cheers from the audience are just as loud as those from the mentors.
Especially when the sexy American sweetheart Marilyn Monroe came on stage, the cheers from the audience were even louder. After Monroe sang a song, she stepped back to the stage. Many Hollywood stars also came on stage to cheer for the speech.
ABC TV station is broadcasting live at this moment. Today is Saturday, a holiday, and most families across the United States gather in their living rooms to watch this show. It is rare to see so many stars at one time, so how could people miss it.
There are also many people who envy the opportunity to go to the scene, because if they go there they can drink free Pepsi.
Finally.
President Johnson takes the stage.
Johnson waved his arms gently with a sunny smile on his face, "Hello, people of Los Angeles, I am your President Johnson."
“Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
There was a burst of cheers from the audience.
President Johnson began his passionate speech, talking about future policies, improving people's livelihood, developing the country and international relations.
In terms of international relations, Johnson specifically mentioned the leader of a certain Eastern country, "In order to defeat France, we provided them with a lot of support, but after we won the Second World War, their greedy and corrupt nature began to be exposed."
"I would not continue on the wrong path, so I stopped providing them with aid immediately because all that aid was the property of the American people. They felt they could not get any benefit from me, so they turned to Dewey. You probably know what happened next. I've seen the documentary "Black Gold," which is really exciting."
Hahahaha~~~!
The square was filled with the laughter of hundreds of thousands of people.
Johnson did not forget to step on his competitors during his speech, but this kind of tactic of stepping on opponents often happens in presidential campaigns, and people do not think that Johnson is petty and uncultured.
Finally, the speech ended with warm applause.
The entire lecture lasted for more than four hours. According to incomplete estimates, the number of people who attended the event may have exceeded 300,000.
Dozens of Hollywood stars showed up to support the event, a lineup that was more grand than any other performance.
As soon as the speech was over, reports began to spread from all sides.
Global Times, "This was a 'speech of the century'. President Johnson came to Los Angeles and the crowds lined the streets to welcome him. There were more than 300,000 people in the venue. President Johnson spoke for two hours and received dozens of rounds of applause."
Los Angeles Times, "The speech was attended by dozens of celebrities, with great fanfare and great enthusiasm from the public. According to the latest data from a polling company, President Johnson's approval rating has surpassed Dewey's, and the balance of victory is now tilting towards Johnson."
Los Angeles Illustrated, "At President Johnson's speech yesterday, more than 500,000 bottles of Pepsi were consumed, all provided free of charge by Pepsi-Cola. It must be said that the president of Pepsi-Cola is really good at advertising. With this opportunity, Pepsi-Cola has once again made a big advertisement in front of the American people."
President Johnson was still excited when he returned to his residence. When he saw Hardy, he came up and gave him a hug.
"Hardy, you know what, I feel like I'm back to when I first entered the White House three years ago. At that time, my approval rating reached 80 percent. The American people liked me. They said I led everyone to end the war." Johnson said with emotion.
"But slowly, as time went by, people seemed to forget my efforts. They no longer liked me and wanted to find a new president. I didn't have any negative news, so they said I was stubborn, couldn't get along well with members of Congress, and had failed foreign policies, etc."
"Haha, but today, I once again felt the feeling of being loved by the people," Johnson said, looking at Hardy and hugging him tightly again, "Hady, I know who helped me."
After saying that, he patted Hardy's shoulders twice.
The two sat down, and Hardy handed Johnson a glass of wine. Johnson took a sip, suppressed his excitement, and continued:
"Hardy, when you came, I was asking the Secretary of State to prepare the 'White Paper on the East'. I want to completely abandon them. They are ready to join Dewey, which is unforgivable. In my opinion, they are indeed no longer worth investing in."
Johnson just said it casually, but Hardy was moved.
If this white paper comes out, it will probably be a devastating blow to the bald guys. Previously, Johnson asked the National Academy of Arts and Sciences to make a statement that it no longer supports it. Those are just words and can be changed at any time. If they really make a white paper that lists the other party's problems in detail, it will really be a split.
"I plan to focus on Europe in the future. Hardy, do you know the Marshall Plan?" Johnson looked at Hardy and asked.
"Of course I know."
How could Hardy not know about such a big thing? In his previous life, he had read a book about the Marshall Plan and knew a lot about what happened later. Now the European countries are having a very difficult time, and it is precisely because of the Marshall Plan that Europe can recover.
Of course,
The United States also has its own plan, which is to gain world discourse power through aid and compete with Britain and France for the position of world leader.
Johnson and Hardy were the only two people in the room. Johnson looked at Hardy and said, "In April this year, I officially signed the Marshall Plan and approved the establishment of the Economic Cooperation Administration. In the next three years, we will provide assistance to more than a dozen Western European countries."
"The aid includes funds, industrial products, technology, equipment, food, etc., with a total amount of about 4 billion US dollars per year."
"The economic team predicts that those countries are now in a state of disrepair and lack of supplies. It is estimated that more than 80% of the funds supporting them will flow back to the United States and then be converted into various goods and shipped to Europe."
Hardy's eyes lit up and he immediately realized the huge business opportunities involved.
"The Marshall Plan has just started, but I have discovered some problems. I think it is still insufficient to rely solely on the government's power. I am going to organize a private business delegation, led by the government, to visit various parts of Europe."
"Some members of the delegation have funds that can be used to lend to those countries, goods that can be sold to them, and technologies that can be used for cooperation. Those countries have also promised to open up some projects. If anyone in the delegation is interested in these projects, they can consider investing. This is definitely a win-win situation."
Hardy looked at President Johnson and thought that he was indeed a veteran politician and that he would be able to win over many financial groups this time.
Of course.
Given Hardy's relationship with Johnson, he definitely has a piece of the pie.
"Hardy, I plan to set up three teams for the first inspection group, and you can form one team," said Johnson.
The investment in Johnson is starting to pay off.
Moreover, they were the first inspection team and the first people to sit at the table, and they all ate meat. After they had eaten, the people who came later would probably only be able to eat bones.