Dana wrote:

<Actually, it's the people of Lindor I'm worried about - we have no canonical evidence that they want Sarkoff back. As I remarked on another occasion, perhaps "Sarkoff" is Lindorian for "Bill Clinton.">

And are you *so* sure that the USA wouldn't have voted Clinton in again had they had a choice? <veg> from the outside, it still looked like he was bloody popular ...

But back to Lindor - no, it's not canon, but it's fairly heavily implied that he should have won the elections (why rig them otherwise?). And remember what the Lindor Strategy involved:

"The Lindor Strategy. That's what they called it. It began with the rigged elections which removed you from power and will only end when you return to your planet as the puppet leader of a subjugated people." (Blake, Bounty)

i e, he's going to be have go back *anyway*, if not now by Blake, later by the Federation. The 'peaceful retirement' is a myth, as is the idea that Sarkoff has a choice at all (rather nice point, that, echoing the other times in the series when supposed choices turned out to be ephemeral).

The difference is that if he goes back now (it is again implied) enough people *will* rally around him to prevent the war and thereby remain out of Federation control (again i e, that the majority would want him back). If he doesn't go now, the Federation will take over Lindor, then return him at a more savage metaphorical gunpoint than Blake does.

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