(5 of 5)
$ Her rapid rise in the campaign hierarchy -- symbolized by her new title of deputy campaign chairman -- was not without political infighting and moments of drama. But her position is secure because of her deep allegiance to both Clinton and Hillary. During much of the 1980s, Wright spent half her life at the Governor's mansion with the Clintons and their daughter Chelsea. But beyond Wright the loyalist, there is also Wright the champion archivist: the computerized database on the Clinton record that she developed allows her to retrieve any crucial document in minutes.
When South Carolina's Republican Governor Carroll Campbell recently criticized Clinton as a typical tax-and-spend liberal, Wright dug into the files and found a 1989 letter from Campbell praising his Arkansas colleague, which was gleefully released to the press. When she hears about a new G.O.P. attack, Wright is apt to give a rich Texas chuckle, and then say with puckish enjoyment, "I think I've got something on that. Let me check." Likely as not, the result is another Clinton gotcha.
A winning campaign inevitably turns everyone associated with it into a political genius on a par with F.D.R. mastermind James Farley, an honor held only as long as the polls stay high. But the real tests for Carville, Stephanopoulos and Wright will come with the bruising fall contest. In the meantime, the campaigners can recline in their bus seats, roar down the highway and enjoy the cheering throngs. As Wright puts it for all of them: "I'm going to remember these days when things get tough."