Walking And Talking And Yelling At Clouds: The Midterms

I realize it's been nearly four months since we last gathered to talk about The West Wing. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It shouldn't happen again. I'm back now, baby! Let's continue with Season 2 -

Original airdate: October 18, 2000

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (24)

Directed by: Alex Graves (2)

Synopsis

As Josh recovers from his wounds suffered at Rosslyn, the administration pushes forward towards the midterm elections in November. Sam recruits an old friend to run for an open seat in Congress (with unexpected results). The psychological effects of the shooting linger, as Charlie turns colder towards Zoey (and the President), and Toby becomes obsessed with using questionable tactics to go after extremist groups. President Bartlet also finds himself obsessed with a school board election in New Hampshire. A meeting of media types in the White House ends in a verbal beatdown of a conservative radio host.

"Well, Toby, it's election night. What do you say about a government that goes out of its way to protect even citizens who try to destroy it?"

"God bless America."

Now that In The Shadow of Two Gunmen has concluded, and we've had the flashbacks revealing how the entire Bartlet gang got together, now it's time to deal with the present and the psychological aftereffects of that assassination attempt. Pair that with the onrushing midterm elections and the prospect of the Democrats actually taking control of Congress, and the White House staff has plenty on their plates in this episode.

I won't go into the timeline problems here, but you can read all about it in the next section (apparently time is pretty much meaningless in The West Wing universe). Aaron Sorkin decides to compress the calendar between the shooting (originally in the spring) and the fall election in order to create a sense of urgency and conflict on both the personal and macro/national levels.

As we begin, the lingering impact of the attack at Rosslyn is working on a couple of levels. The President's approval rating has shot up 30 points, and Ed and Larry in particular think this puts the Democrats in solid position to take over the House, add two Senate seats, a couple of governorships and a half-dozen statehouses. Toby, on the other hand, wants to use this temporary wave of good feeling to make an end-run around the Constitution and go after white supremacist groups like West Virginia White Pride, whose members mounted the assassination attempt on Charlie.

This actually fits what we're getting to know about Toby, as well as what we'll learn about him in the future. While he's mostly a prickly, standoffish leader of the Communications staff, when a topic touches him personally, his passion comes roaring through. He gets in a yelling match with CJ (as she and Sam try to be the voices of reason and defenders of the First Amendment), and even threatens to go above everyone's head straight to the President in order to bring the government's power to bear on white supremacist groups. That's when Toby and Jed have a meaningful discussion; after Toby asks for a leave of absence to deal with his personal demons regarding the psychological aftermath of the shootings, the President talks about his own nightly urge to send the Department of Justice and the FBI after West Virginia White Pride, and explains why he doesn't:

President: "Then I hang up the phone because I know it'll be better tomorrow, and better the day after that. We saw a lynching, Toby, that's why it feels like this."

Toby: "I'm not sure I'm gonna come out of the other side of this thing."

President: "I'm not sure I can either. But until we are sure, I think we should keep coming to work every day."

Charlie is dealing with demons of his own. Realizing it was his relationship with Zoey that led directly to the shooting, he pulls away from her, using his work to put distance between them in an effort to avoid putting others in danger. It takes Andrew McIntosh, an IT specialist working on Mrs. Landingham's computer, and his son to reach Charlie. As Charlie sees the little boy coming along with McIntosh as he works, he recalls how he asked his police officer mother to change shifts that fateful night a year and a half ago, when she was shot and killed on the shift she traded into at his request; and when McIntosh tells him the old adage "If they're shooting at you, you must be doing something right," Charlie realizes he can't hide from the consequences of dating Zoey. If he's going to be in, he's going to be in all the way, and he patches things up with her as he gets ready to go vote.

Another election subplot is Sam recruiting his law school friend (and current District Attorney) Tom Jordan to run for a House seat in some unspecified district. The Democratic incumbent, Grant Samuels, died in office in August, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thinks Jordan would be a good candidate to replace him. Sam brings Tom and his (pregnant) wife to the White House to convince them to run, on short notice, true, but he promises the full support of the White House and the Democratic party.

But then, as usual, complications ensue. A month later, CJ brings word that Jordan's history of jury selection may be a problem; he has a history of favoring white jurors when he's prosecuting African-American defendants. That alone wouldn't prove enough to sink him, but by October, when the fact that Jordan belonged to an all-white fraternity in college comes to light (coupled with weak polling numbers), Leo tells Sam the party and the White House are pulling their support to focus on other, more promising races. Tom's wife Sarah tears Sam a new one, probably rightfully so - they've now been tarred as racists, abandoned by their party and left to twist in the wind:

Sarah: "Not even a word from the White House; not even a word."

Sam: "That's how we do it."

Sarah: "Sam - any time we have the opportunity in the future to screw you - count on getting screwed."

All in all, though, this really illustrates the hard realities of politics, with Leo's "We can't afford all the things we want, Sam. It's over" a terrific shorthand description of the whole thing. Sam knows Tom isn't a racist, he knows him personally and knows he's a good guy, with a new baby on the way - but the realities of allocating party resources and ditching losing battles takes priority, no matter who gets hurt on the way.

Finally, let's go to the President and his seemingly irrational focus on a school board race in New Hampshire. When Jed discovers Elliot Roush is running for the school board in Manchester, he wants to pull out all the stops to defeat him. He gets a White House polling group to actually poll the school board race; he tells CJ he'd be willing to do an interview on the record to oppose Roush; it all seems kind of nutty when you're talking about a school board. It just so happens Roush was the guy Bartlet defeated in his first race for Congress, and apparently he was a real piece of work:

President: "CJ, I've known men of faith in my life. Towering men. Men of wisdom and compassion. Men of all faiths, of healing and peace. Pro-choice, pro-life, Republican, Democrat, men and women of God. Elliot Roush ...(long beat) ... is polling at 53 percent. He's polling at 53 percent. He's the front runner."

CJ: "Then that's the way it is. In a democracy, oftentimes, the other people win."

By election night, the President has come to his senses (thanks in no small part to a tasty egg cream). He tells Toby Roush is going to win, and he's fine with that. When Toby asks how he beat him in that first congressional race, Jed realizes he can't remember. Sam rolls in to invite the President downstairs to the meeting of radio talk show hosts (with crab puffs!):

President: "Toby. Go with us to this radio thing."

Toby: "Oh, God. Really, sir?"

President: "There'll be crab puffs. New England crab puffs, by the way, made in New England."

Sam: "Actually, it's Alaskan crab."

Toby: "Sam -"

President: "There's Alaskan crab in this White House?"

Toby (to Sam): "He would have known the difference?"

President (to Sam, narrowing his eyes): "Have you tried them?"

Sam: "I - Yes, reluctantly. I think it was clear the way I ate the crab puffs that it was a gesture of protest."

President: "Were they good?"

Sam: "Extraordinarily good, and going very fast."

President: "Let's get there."

So off they go, and that brings us to one of the highlight moments of early Season 2. One of the radio hosts is Dr. Jenna Jacobs, a conservative talk-show host modeled after Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who caused some controversy in the late 1990s due to her strong views against homosexuality and her reliance on the "Dr. Laura" title despite her degree in physiology (instead of any field of ethics, psychology or theology). A letter written to Schlessinger focusing on her hypocrisy went viral via e-mail about that time, and Sorkin admits this was the source of the scene where the President calls out Jacobs. I'm going to put a big chunk of the exchange here, because it's a great moment in West Wing history and needs the context around the hammer drop at the end. Firstly, when President Bartlet comes into the room all the guests stand, except for Jacobs (proudly wearing her crab pin, to go along with the delicious Alaskan crab puffs):

And then President Bartlet, attempting to make some remarks to the group, finds himself distracted by Jacobs and turns his attention to her:

President: "Forgive me, Dr. Jacobs, are you an M.D.?"

Jacobs: "A Ph.D."

President: "A Ph.D."

Jacobs: "Yes, sir."

President: "In psychology?"

Jacobs: "No, sir."

President: "Theology?"

Jacobs: "No."

President: "Social work?"

Jacobs: "I have a Ph.D. in English literature."

President: "I'm asking 'cause on your show people call in for advice and you go by the name Dr. Jacobs on your show, and I didn't know if maybe your listeners were confused by that and assumed you had advanced training in psychology, theology, or health care."

Jacobs: "I don't believe they are confused, no, sir."

President: "Good. I like your show. I like how you call homosexuality an abomination."

Jacobs: "I don't say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does."

President: "Yes, it does. Leviticus."

Jacobs: "18:22."

President: "Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or is it okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important, 'cause we've got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean, Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side-by-side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you? One last thing - while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building when the President stands, nobody sits."

(Note: while footballs have colloquially been called "pigskins" for years, perhaps because very early footballs were animal bladders and sometimes pig bladders, footballs today are actually made out of cowhide. So the strictures of Leviticus 11:7 wouldn't apply to the Redskins, Notre Dame, Army, or anyone else.)

And then, Jed turns to Toby and says, "That's how I beat him." Which is followed by Sam taking a crab puff right off Jacobs' plate:

The episode wraps up on Josh's stoop, with the staffers stopping by to hang out, drink beer, and await the election results. Josh, at the end of his recuperation and just about ready to return to work, shows off the pajamas CJ gave him (keep a close eye, you might see these again):

And in a very anticlimatic finish, Sam brings word that the last 12 close House races all ended with the incumbent losing, but the nature of the parties in those races meant the Republican/Democratic split in the House remained exactly the same. After a summer and fall of optimism, hard work, and plenty of money spent, nothing changed as far as the balance of power in Congress.

And that's the real theme of the episode. Life goes on, events come and go, we have some influence on the outcome of some things, but by and large - the world grinds on. Democracy continues to work. The people keep on making their voice known, and the best these public servants can do is keep on serving the public in the best way they know how. The Constitution lives. The rights of the citizenry are protected. And that's, well ... the blessings of America.

God bless America, indeed.

Tales Of Interest!

- Let's get right to the timeline issue. It seemed clear back at the end of Season 1 (What Kind Of Day Has It Been) that the Rosslyn shooting happened in May, or at least sometime in the spring. The first season episodes kinda-sorta matched the calendar with when they aired, there wasn't any obvious reason why the finale would jump in time, and, perhaps most revealingly, President Bartlet was anxious to get back to the White House after the MSNBC town hall in order to watch an NCAA women's softball game; Sacramento State vs. the University of the Pacific, to be exact. The NCAA softball season runs from February to May, with the national championship series in mid-May (in reality in 2000 Sacramento State actually played Pacific in softball on April 21 and 22). That little nugget alone firmly plants the shooting in the spring, either late April or early May.

So here, the cold open shows us that Josh is still in the hospital at George Washington University. We don't know the exact date yet, but we find out Congressman Grant Samuels died the night before. A bit later, when we're told it's August 12, we hear Samuels died "a few days ago," so Josh was still in the hospital in August. In general, gunshot victims stay in the hospital, at most, a couple of weeks. President Ronald Reagan, seriously injured in the attempt on his life in 1981, left the hospital 13 days after being shot and undergoing surgery. Considering the seriousness of Josh's injuries, let's give him some more time ... but three months? Seems excessive.

Then let's get right to the timeline as told by the characters themselves. On August 12, talking about the President's 81 percent approval rating, CJ says, "A week ago the job approval's at 51, we get shot at it's 81." Later that day we hear, "It's been a week and the high noon's about to be over. We want to be sure it doesn't look like we're taking advantage of the situation" (meaning, the assassination attempt). On election night in November, the President says, "Every night for the last 12 weeks" he's been wanting to send the FBI after West Virginia White Pride; that same night Josh says, "Everybody should have to stay inside for three months so that they truly appreciate the outdoors." Again, that puts the shooting and Josh's hospitalization/recovery starting in August, because if it were in the spring as the show itself led us to believe in Season 1, he'd actually be talking about six months and the President would say he's been struggling with the decision for 24 weeks.

There's a definite attempt by Sorkin to fix the time of the Rosslyn shooting a week or so before this episode opens, so early August. This ties into the temporary bump to President Bartlet's approval ratings, Toby's obsession at going after West Virginia White Pride, and Charlie's raw-edged relationship issues with Zoey. However, there's no way to make that fit the timeline of the actual events that occurred in What Kind Of Day Has It Been ... so this becomes an irreconcilable timeline/continuity glitch.

- We see in the background of the cold open TV news broadcasts with a "Hate Crime" graphic. It's not a stretch to say this is continuing reporting on the Rosslyn assassination attempt and coverage of white supremacist groups (which continues to rile Toby throughout the episode).

- We see dates on the screen during this episode to show the passage of time from August to Election Day. These dates match up with the 2000 calendar: August 12 was a Monday 12 weeks (plus a day) before Election Day; September 5 was exactly 9 weeks before Election Day; October 20 was a Friday 2 1/2 weeks before the election (not three weeks, as the graphic shows); and November 7 was Election Day in 2000 (and what a fateful Presidential election that turned out to be ...).

- The final straw ending the Democratic and White House support for Tom Jordan's campaign is the news that he belonged to an all-white fraternity while an undergrad at Oberlin College. It turns out in reality Oberlin doesn't allow fraternities on campus.

- Zoey must have earned some college credits while she was still in high school; she just started at Georgetown in the spring semester, yet by November (in what would be her second semester of college) her father mentions she's a sophomore.

Quotes

CJ: "You know anything about theoretical physics?"

Sam: "Ah, the great Unified Theory."

CJ: "You know anything about it?"

Sam: "No."

-----

CJ (at press briefing): "And as a special treat for our friend Josh Lyman, who is recovering very nicely at GW, the President's science adviser is telling us that psychics at Cal Tech and the Fermi National Accelerator Lab ..."

(Cut to Josh in his hospital bed, banging his head against the headboard)

CJ (voiceover): " ... you know what, I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be physicists."

-----

Sarah Jordan: "When we were out in the lobby it seemed as if you didn't know that Tom was married and that there was a baby on the way, and now it sounded like you already had that information."

Sam: "Sarah, there's very little information about your husband that I don't have. And tell your mom happy birthday for me."

-----

President: "This is real. And a man who makes the Spanish Inquisition look like a Barbara Walters special is now polling at 46 percent in your school district (pointing at Zoey), for which I have personally baked things to raise money. (to CJ) You can go, too."

CJ: "You baked things?"

President: "You can go."

-----

Josh: "Well, Toby, it's election night. What do you say about a government that goes out of its way to protect even citizens that try to destroy it?"

Toby: "God bless America."

Sam: "God bless America."

CJ: "God bless America."

Donna: "God bless America."

Josh: "God bless America."

-----

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

Sam's law school friend Tom Jordan is played by Jamie Denton, although he hardly has any lines as Jordan's wife ends up with them all. While he had a recurring role in The Pretender and appeared in many TV series, he's probably best known as Mike Delfino on Desperate Housewives.

We are back to seeing pagers, just as we did in Pilot when Sam and Laurie got theirs mixed up. Here CJ is paged just outside President Bartlet's bedroom. Admittedly, it appears pagers may be used in certain situations when cellphones may not be as secure or reliable, so this could make sense in the White House (even though pagers were on their way out by 2000 and Motorola actually stopped making theirs in 2001).

Zoey says, in the August 12 section of the episode, that she and Charlie have been dating for nine months. That puts their relationship starting in December, which fits fairly close with what we saw in Season 1 (it's in Lord John Marbury where Charlie asks the President if he can date Zoey. That aired the first week of January).

Charlie also mentions his mother's death as being "a year ago June," so June of 1999. In A Proportional Response, when he was first being interviewed to work at the White House, he said she had been killed "five months ago." With that episode airing in October 1999, that's pretty close for the timeline.

We all remember Sam's disastrous effort in Pilot to tell elementary students about the history of the White House, because he doesn't know any of it. There's a little callback to that as he welcomes the Jordans to the White House:

Sam: "This is the Mural Room."

Sarah Jordan: "Oooh. Can you tell us anything about it?"

Sam: "It's called the Mural Room."

Gail's fishbowl has a ballot box in it, reflecting the theme of the midterm elections.

DC location shots

I personally doubt the production went to DC to film the final scene on Josh's townhouse stoop, but I'll be damned if that street doesn't look like some of what we've seen in earlier DC location shots. I did try to use Google Street View to look at the blocks in Northwest DC/Georgetown that still have streetcar rails, but I did not find anything that matched this stoop. I'm pretty sure this was a Warner Brothers backlot shot, but I could be wrong.

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing

We find out Sam is a graduate of Duke Law School, annually ranked as one of the top law schools in the country (and also where my son earned his law degree. Oh, and Richard Nixon, too ... they have his portrait tucked away in a corner of the law library).

Tom Jordan is referred to as a graduate of Oberlin College, in Ohio.

The President sports a Notre Dame coffee mug.

The Pendleton Act is mentioned, a law requiring civil service jobs to be granted on merit and not patronage, and named after Senator George Pendleton of Ohio.

There's a Dunkin Donuts cup on a cart in the hallway as Sam and Toby walk by.

Toby also lambastes the civil-rights-upholding record of the "Warren Court" (the Supreme Court when Earl Warren served as chief justice) when he's on the warpath to take away constitutional protections for white supremacist groups.

Real-life media groups and people mentioned include the CNN/USA Today poll, the New York Times, Barbara Walters, and radio talk-show hosts Howard Stern and Don Imus.