Election Night - TWW S4E7

 

Original airdate: November 6, 2002

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (71)
Story by: David Gerken (1) and David Handelman (1)

Directed by: Lesli Linka Glatter (1)

Synopsis

• The election finally arrives, and while the outcome of the Presidential race is anticlimatic, strange things are happening in Orange County. President Bartlet copes with the return of his MS symptoms. After realizing she voted for the wrong candidate on her absentee ballot, Donna tries to find someone to trade votes with. Toby and Andy get a look at their twins. Charlie helps Anthony and his friend with a civics lesson. 

"There's a moment after you cast the die but before it hits the table. Breathe wrong and you'll change the way it lands."

---

"You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?"

It's been a long road to this night, election night. It began with a handshake between Toby and Leo to create the Committee to Re-elect the President in The Leadership Breakfast. It caused strife between Jed and Abbey in Bartlet's Third State Of The Union and The War At Home. It shook the administration to its core with the fallout from President Bartlet's coverup of his multiple sclerosis in 17 People, Bad Moon Rising, and The Fall's Gonna Kill You, through the momentous decision of whether Bartlet would even run again in Two Cathedrals. We saw the personal and political struggles of the campaign in Manchester, H.CON-172, The Two Bartlets, and Hartsfield's Landing. Then came the fear of a strong, populist opponent in Governor Ritchie, the tense meeting between the two candidates in Posse Comitatus, and the strategy fights in Debate Camp culminating in the onstage smackdown of Ritchie in Game On.

Now it all comes to an end, in a quite anticlimactic way - at least as far as the counting goes. The President rides the soaring success of his debate performance to a convincing reelection win, but... our old almost forgotten companion, multiple sclerosis, returns to remind us that Bartlet is not quite home free.

The day begins with Josh doing his early morning civic duty, voting at a neighborhood library on the northwest side near Washington Circle (so he must live in that area). A stream of other voters pester him with claims about voting for Bartlet multiple times on the ballot, or inaccurate ways of actually voting, or ... well, just lots of things that drive Josh crazy with the thought that if all Americans are really this dumb about voting, Bartlet's evidently easy victory might not come to be.

But it's all a prank, a group of actors hired by Toby to get Josh back for last week when Josh and the other staffers fooled Toby about the President not being ready for the debate. Josh's spirits are lifted again, at least until one of the actors says he'd be happy to go and vote for President Bartlet right now, although - "do you happen to know if I need to be, I don't know, pre-registered or something?"

But folks are pretty happy back in the White House, fully expecting an easy win when all the votes are counted and trying to evade Toby's superstitious "don't tempt fate" point of view. Sam and CJ seem a little surprised to discover Toby has written both a victory speech and a concession speech, but Toby and Josh know you don't want to get too confident and it's always best to be prepared for anything.

The President appears to be in good spirits himself as he votes in New Hampshire, but there is still some concern that he might actually lose his home state (as we first heard about in Debate Camp) ... and he's also worried about uncontrollable shaking in his hands. He keeps his right hand unnaturally tucked into his jacket pocket as he greets the press, then tells Charlie "just you and me today, okay?"

In the limo, Bartlet tries and fails to sign some papers as he's unable to control his right hand.

The specter of the President's MS that played such a huge role at the end of Season 2, but has barely been mentioned since, now looms over the next four years of his administration. He fights hard during the course of the day trying to hide his symptoms. Meanwhile, Debbie is back and taking control of things in the Oval Office, just as she was tasked to do by the President when he hired her, with the understanding that his health issues are going to need some special consideration. She's sent out an email telling senior staffers the new rules for the morning staff meeting, rules designed to make better use of the President's time so he can perhaps wrap up his day earlier and actually get a night's sleep.

Debbie: "According to the last 100 daily diaries, the President is typically 70 to 90 minutes over-scheduled by the end of the day. The median time a day ends, the over/under is 10:20 pm. As many days have ended after that time as have ended before it. The result being the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces hasn't had a night's sleep in four years. That's both bad and easy to fix."

Debbie also has reconfigured the Oval Office phone system so that the President can just select a line and reach her desk instantly, with the plan being he should never place outgoing calls himself but instead only through her.

President: "I can make my own phone calls."

Debbie: "Yes, but soon you might not necessarily remember that you did. When I place a call, there's a record and that's how you'll know and then you won't be worried about it."

President (considering): "That's good. That's a good idea."  

Bartlet's MS makes itself known again during his victory speech late that night, and Abbey realizes Jed is battling some problems when he goes off script at the end:

She has a real, touching, supportive response for her husband:

Jed: "How'd you know?"

Abbey: "You were off the prompter."

Jed: "Just for a minute at the end. I couldn't see it."

Abbey: "It's all right. There are going to be more days like this. It starts now. It's going to be harder this time."

Like a looming shadow over the celebration of the night, we can see how the President's health condition will continue to play a role as he works through a second term.

Meanwhile, across the country, there are odd things going on in Orange County. Horton Wilde, the Democratic candidate for the California 47th district who died before the election, remains on the ballot due to state law - and the campaign manager, Will Bailey, is fighting hard to keep the Democrat's issues at the forefront as voters go to the polls.

And it's working. An early call from Will lets Sam know that the campaign's exit polls are showing Wilde is actually winning in the contest against a longtime Republican congressman. This especially resonates with Sam because, as he tells Donna, he promised something to Wilde's widow:

Sam: "I did something last week. I went to see a guy named Will Bailey. He ran Horton Wilde's campaign in Orange County and and Wilde died a couple of weeks ago and his widow wanted to know what Democrat was going to stand in for her husband should he win and I said -"

Donna: "You're kidding."

Sam: "You have to understand. This wasn't something that cost me anything. They weren't going to announce unless Wilde won and that was never going to happen in Orange County. It's like the Secretary of Agriculture saying, 'Sure, I'm ready to assume the Presidency should the 18 who come before me die, why not?'"

Donna: "So, why not?"

Sam: "Because it's a two-point race right now."

Sam continues to tell Will - and, by extension, himself - that this bubble can't last, that Democrats and die-hards vote early, that the Republicans will turn out after work and Wilde's lead will fade. But there is rain predicted in Southern California, and rain can suppress voter turnout. Will goes out into the parking lot to beg for the rain to start.

Will: "Now!"

(A bolt of lightning, a crash of thunder, and rain immediately pours down)

Will: "Jesus!"

Elsie: "Wow! What else can you do?"

Will: "I didn't know I could do that!" 

And as the night draws to a close, as the President joyously greets his supporters celebrating a big win, Josh and Toby excitedly tell Sam they're going to stay up and keep watching several tight House races, including this crazy one in California where a dead guy is actually ahead (by 88 votes, from the graphic we're shown).

As a reminder, this storyline of Sam developing a taste for policymaking and electoral office (which we saw sparked in 20 Hours In America) leading to him leaving the White House was conceived by Aaron Sorkin as a way to write Rob Lowe off the show. Lowe wasn't happy with his pay, or the lack of Sam's character development, and the show producers agreed to give him a way out. So here we are.

Speaking of electoral oddities, Donna proudly asks Josh if he can get President Bartlet's autograph on a copy of her Wisconsin absentee ballot, a ballot where for the first time she was able to vote for the winner. She thinks. Josh points out, though, that she didn't vote for whom she thought she voted for:

Donna: "I drew a line through the Democratic ticket."

Josh: "Almost. That's almost what you did. What you did was draw a line through the Republican ticket. You didn't ticket split, you voted for every Republican in Wisconsin. I would check, you may have voted for McCarthy."

Donna is crestfallen, but she quickly comes up with an idea. She'll run to a nearby polling place and find a Ritchie voter who's willing to change their vote to Bartlet, as a way to swap votes and make everything even. It'll take 20 minutes, she tells Josh.

Donna's 20 minutes turn into six hours. It just so happens those Ritchie voters aren't too agreeable with the notion of not voting for their candidate just because a blonde wearing a Bartlet button asks them to trade as an "honor thing." Finally, though, a Navy officer takes note of her yelling at a recalcitrant Republican and offers her help thinking someone stole her purse. She explains her situation, and after some initial trepidation, he agrees to her vote-swap plan.

Donna: "I voted absentee in Wisconsin, and I voted for Ritchie and I meant to vote for the President. Now, I think you should go in there and vote the other way to make it a wash."

Reese: "Yeah, okay."

Donna: "Look ... (slowly realizing what he said) Really?"

Reese: "Yeah. Sounds about right."

As the meet-cute continues, we find out Lt. Commander Reese has actually been assigned to work in Nancy McNally's office at the White House, so I imagine these two will cross paths again.

Charlie has a problem with his Little Brother Anthony, who brings an uninvited classmate along with him to the White House. It seems Orlando is facing suspension from his high school football team due to being caught with an open can of Pabst in his car, and since Orlando is looking for a football scholarship to Ohio State, Anthony thinks Charlie might be able to pull some strings to let him keep playing. Now, exactly what strings the President's personal assistant can pull in order to give a high school student a pass for an alcohol violation are not quite explained.

The day turns into a civics lesson, as Charlie tells the two they're going to have to spend the entire day with him. Which leads to hilarity as Josh collides with Orlando as they walk down the hallway:

Josh: "You should play football."

Orlando: "Hey, man, I'm trying, you know? But I had an open Pabst, and that's the way that goes."

It does turn out that Orlando is a decent guy, he hasn't really been in trouble before, he wasn't drunk (he passed his breathalyzer, he just had an open beer can in his car), and he actually kind of gets into spending the day at the White House. When Charlie discovers Orlando's old enough to vote and thinks he might actually be registered, he decides the day's civic lesson can include actually going to the polls. Which is exciting for Orlando!

Orlando: "Hey, Anthony, I voted!"

Charlie: "All right."

Orlando: "I'm going again."

When Toby isn't chastising staffers for preparing to celebrate Bartlet's victory before the votes are in, he's preparing to head out with Andy for her sonogram of their twins. Before that happens, though, CJ lets Toby know a magazine has the story of Andy's pregnancy and that's it's going to go public.

Toby, ever the pragmatic communications expert, gives the news to Andy and tries to convince her to go public first, to take the story away from the press and own it herself. Trouble is, he chooses the moment when she's wearing a surgical gown and preparing for a medical procedure to do that, which simply makes her angry. And, as she explains, she hadn't made it public before because it was too early, that problems with pregnancies often happen in the first trimester.

But then they see the image of the twins and all that conflict goes away ...

Toby: "Andy, you - you can see their ... heads. My kids have heads."

The campaign is over, Bartlet's final campaign, leading to the last job he'll ever have. And now the groundwork is being laid for what is to come - Sam's new direction, Toby and Andy's future family, and most importantly, what kind of administration we can expect from a President trying to lead the nation while coping with a physically and mentally draining chronic disease.

Tales Of Interest!

- The West Wing trademark "camera spinning around the characters" gets a real workout here, in Lesli Linka Glatter's first shot at directing an episode. I was going to include some photo examples, but why bother, there's so many ... we get one in the cold open at Josh's voting place, we get one as Josh and Donna go over her absentee ballot, we get one or two more in the course of the episode. It's dizzying!

- The first Roosevelt Room meeting about the election is shown at 10 am eastern time, according to the onscreen graphic. Not only are we shown early vote totals - totals that would not be reported anywhere at that time in the morning - we also see mentions of "exit polls" on some of the TV screens. While I figure campaigns would indeed have exit poll information throughout the day, the media would not be reporting about them in states where voting is still going on. Even better: Will calls Sam at about that same time, not long after 10 am, to tell him "we're winning" because of what his exit polls are showing in Orange County. While a campaign reporting their own internal exit poll info to the White House probably does indeed happen, it's just after 7 am in California. The polls barely opened! There's no way Will could have had any usable information from exit polls at the time he called Sam.

- Some election tidbits: In Let Bartlet Be Bartlet we learned the President won election in 1998 with 48 percent of the popular vote (in what obviously was a three-way race). In The Lame Duck Congress we found out that meant he received 48 million votes. At the end of this episode, the election night totals show President Bartlet with nearly 54 million votes, and 55 percent of the total votes cast (at least between him and Governor Ritchie; of course votes for other candidates would reduce his total percentage below 55 percent).

- Donna's plan of having a DC voter change their vote from Ritchie to Bartlet in exchange for her Ritchie vote in Wisconsin isn't exactly the wash she thinks it is, thanks to our friend the Electoral College. Democratic presidential candidates have won DC's three electoral votes ever since the district got them in 1964, usually with 80% or more of the vote. Wisconsin, meanwhile, in 2000 gave its 11 electoral votes to the Democratic candidate by just .22% of the vote, and its 10 electoral votes in 2004 went to the Democrat by just .38%. Donna's Ritchie vote in Wisconsin was far more important electorally than anybody's vote in DC - even a Navy Lt. Commander.

- The perfect storm giving the deceased Horton Wilde an apparent victory in Orange County is plausible. Republican turnout would have been lessened by the twin factors of what appeared to be an unopposed race (giving them confidence Rep. Chuck Webb would win going away) and the knowledge that the Presidential race was easily going to Bartlet (giving Republicans less incentive to go to the polls); also the late-day rain would have kept some voters home.

The instance of a dead candidate winning election to the U.S. Congress had actually happened four times prior to this episode, with the most well-known coming in 2000 when Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane crash three weeks before election day, yet won the race for Senate. Another example actually happened the very year of this episode, 2002, when Hawaii Rep. Patsy Mink was reelected to the House despite dying of pneumonia in September.

Quotes    

Woman: "I left all but one box blank."

Josh: "Well, then you voted for none but one candidate."

Woman: "Nuts."

Josh: "Did you vote for the President? Was the President the one box?"

Woman: "Ah, who remembers?"

Josh: "It was a minute and a half ago!"

-----

CJ: "It is a party."

Sam: "Yeah, but we won. We don't have to pander."

Toby: "Please don't say that."

CJ: "On your birthday, don't we pander to you?"

Sam: "Not as much as I'd like."

-----

Sam: "You wrote a concession?"

Toby: "Of course I wrote a concession. You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?" 

-----

Charlie: "I'm not Officer Krupke. I have a job."

Anthony: "Hey, could you try to think back to the days before you were Secretary of State or something? There are good guys and there are bad guys, and when good guys stop letting you play with them, the bad guys have a recruiting field day."

Charlie: "When did you start talking like Mickey Spillane?"

Anthony: "I don't know. Who's Officer Cupcake?"

Charlie: "Okay, you're seeing a musical."

-----

Josh: "Toby, when you get there, it's a good idea to slip the nurse something. Tell her you're hoping for a smooth second trimester."

Andy: "You grease the nurse?"

Toby: "He's kidding. Give me one second, would you, I'll catch right up."

Andy: "Hey, sports fans, this is getting exciting." (She exits)

Toby (quietly): "Yes, so, what do you think, like fifty bucks?"

Josh: "I don't know. It's your first, it's twins ... I don't know. I think I'd give her a hundred." 

-----

Sam (on the phone with Will): "Josh says the exits have you down 20."

Will: "No, he means the tracking. The last one was a week ago and then the DNC left town."

Sam: "He said the exits."

(Josh leans in the doorway)

Josh: "Hey, when I said 'exits' before, I meant 'tracking.' And I'm pretty sure they did the last one about a week ago and then left town."

-----

Elsie: "What'd he say?"

Will: "Don't get your hopes up."

Elsie: "Are they?"

Will: "No. (to staffers) Everybody on the street! (to Elsie) But we're going to make history." 

 

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

• One of the actors pranking Josh at the voting site is played by Megan Cavanagh, a character actor who may be most remembered as Marla Gooch in A League Of Their Own.

• Christian Slater (Heathers, True Romance, Mr. Robot) appears as Lt. Commander Jack Reese. Since he tells Donna he's working for Nancy McNally at the White House - and because he's Christian Slater - we are going to see him again.

• Look, there's our favorite TV-series newscaster, Ivan Allen! He's appeared several times before (sometimes with a graphic indicating the newscaster's name is Roger Salier), most recently in Manchester Part I.

• The cold-open prank on Josh with the befuddled voters is Toby's payback for the prank played on him in the cold-open of Game On - even down to the ten dollars.

• We've seen Toby's superstitions about celebrating too soon and "tempting fate" before, particularly in Six Meetings Before Lunch when he chastises everyone celebrating Mendoza's confirmation to the Supreme Court before the Senate vote is complete.

• Of course the continuing story of the President's MS and how he deals with the symptoms began with He Shall, From Time To Time ...

• Elsie calls Will "big brother," which is the first clue we've had of the two possibly being related.

• Sam's comment about the Secretary of Agriculture being ready to assume the Presidency is a direct callback to He Shall, From Time To Time ... when President Bartlet chose Agriculture Secretary Roger Tribby as the "designated survivor" for the State of the Union speech. One person in the line of succession to the Presidency is held back from attending a mass gathering, like the State of the Union, just in case of a disaster or terrorist attack that might otherwise wipe out the entire line of constitutional Presidential survivors. Also, while Sam says the Agriculture Secretary is eighteenth in line - "sure, I'm ready to assume the Presidency should the 18 that come before me die, why not?" - that cabinet position is actually ninth (just after the Secretary of the Interior and ahead of the Commerce Secretary).

• Debbie setting up a direct line from President Bartlet's phone to her desk recalls Mrs. Landingham chiding Jed for not knowing how the phone intercom works in Shibboleth. 

• The concern over the President losing his home state of New Hampshire was first broached in Debate Camp, when Joey Lucas took the state off the board as a lost cause. I guess Bartlet's debate performance changed things ... it was a nice little moment when CJ and Leo took him aside, stone-faced and serious, with CJ pouring him a drink before they burst into smiles to tell him he had won New Hampshire.

• We got a clue in The War At Home (airing in February 2001, a year and a half before this episode) that the President's condition was likely to worsen should he go on with a second term. 

Jed: "I've had one episode in two years."

Abbey: "Yes, but relapsing-remitting MS can turn into secondary-progressive MS, oftentimes ten years after the initial diagnosis which is exactly where we'll be in two years! Do you know what that's going to look like when it happens?"

Jed: "I know what it's going to ..."

Abbey: "Fatigue - an inability to get through the day -"

Jed: "Look ..."

Abbey: "Memory lapses - loss of cognitive function - failure to reason - failure to think clearly."

With Jed's diagnosis coming in about 1993 (Toby tells Donna it was "eight years ago" in 2001's 18th And Potomac), Abbey's prediction could be just months away.

DC location shots    

• None. You know how I can tell? The 1910 Height of Buildings Act restricts buildings in Washington, DC, to a maximum height of 130 feet, or something like 13 stories. Basically, nothing can be taller than the Capitol dome. In the background of the shot where Donna is trying to find a voter to swap votes with you can see the 62-story-tall AON Center - which is not only far above that height restriction, but is also located in Los Angeles. 

• The building used as the voting place was the PacMutual building, at 523 West 6th Street in Los Angeles.

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

• The West End Neighborhood Library really is at 24th and L in Washington, DC - technically 2301 L Street, but between 23rd and 24th. The opening scene wasn't filmed there, I'm guessing, but Sorkin did get the location right.

• When Sam is taking Will's first phone call, he hums the tune (Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey. 

• CJ tells Toby Roll Call has the information about Andy's pregnancy.

• Sam calls Will "Sancho," meaning Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's trusty squire in the novel Don Quixote.

• When Josh is giving Donna a hard time about her absentee ballot he says she probably voted for McCarthy, meaning Joe McCarthy, the reviled Republican Senator from Wisconsin who baselessly alleged widespread Communist infiltration of the government in the 1950sm, instigating the witch hunts and blacklists of the period.

• The framed item on the wall behind Charlie's desk sure looks like it includes pictures of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore ... whose administration did not exist in The West Wing universe.

• Charlie's conversation with Orlando and Anthony includes references to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Officer Krupke from West Side Story, the hardboiled crime novelist Mickey Spillane, social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and the Friars Club.

• Debbie mentions a fear of reading stemming from works by Balzac as a reason why Josh may not have read her three-line email.

• We get a reference to the TV show Meet The Press and "Russert," meaning the show's host at the time, Tim Russert.

• Donna says it's not the "bomb sequence on the USS Essex" as she's asking Reese who he's voting for.

• Anthony tells Charlie they fed the stolen goat mascot Cheetos; we can also see a bag of Fritos visible in the bullpen as CJ heads off to tell the President about New Hampshire.

• The President's speech refers to Bosnia, Chechnya, and Rwanda as countries who yearn for the democracy represented in American elections. All three countries dealt with military conflicts or factional crises in the mid-1990s, during the Clinton administration.

• The song playing at the victory rally is Richie Havens' version of The Times They Are a-Changin', recorded in 1994.

• One of the members of the "acting troupe, with a U" is carrying a Starbucks cup.

• Josh also has a Starbucks cup when he comes into the Roosevelt Room after voting.

• One of Will's staffers is carrying a coffee cup and a Dunkin Donuts Munchkins box as she comes into the Mattress World building.

End credits freeze frame: The President and Abbey waving to the crowd after his victory speech.

Previous episode: Game On

Next episode: Process Stories

Game On - TWW S4E6

 

Original airdate: October 30, 2002

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (70) & Paul Redford (10)

Directed by: Alex Graves (10)

Synopsis

• Debate night arrives, and President Bartlet overcomes a last-second tie emergency to land a punishing blow on the Ritchie campaign. Leo and Jordon meet with the Qumari UN ambassador to try to stop the Qumari ship carrying arms for Ba'hi terrorists. Sam tries to end the "embarrassing" congressional campaign for a deceased candidate, but the fellow running the campaign ends up changing Sam's mind.

"There's no such thing as too smart."

This episode is all about neckties.

Okay, not really. Neckties do play a prominent role (we'll get to those details later), but the real meat of this episode is the election campaign, and the conclusion of the clash between Toby's "make it about smart, and not" and the others' concerns about Ritchie's plain-spoken appeal to the common man. As you can probably figure out by the quote I pulled out above, it is indeed the more complex approach of the Nobel Prize-winning economist and intelligence and just knowing stuff that takes more than ten words to explain that takes the day.

The battle between the two approaches goes all the way back to The Two Bartlets, when the President took the bait of Ritchie's comments on affirmative action to make a rather noncommittal statement on the subject, which first raised Toby's ire about "Uncle Fluffy." Aaron Sorkin has used this fictional campaign to express his views on the real-life 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore - the easygoing Texan who talks in small words and keeps things simple for the "little guy" against the policy wonk who tries to explain his approaches to problems while recognizing all the possible complications. Simple vs complicated, "aw shucks" vs arrogance - Sorkin puts Ritchie in the Bush role and Bartlet, of course, in the position of the smart Nobel Prize-winning guy whom many see as "out of touch" to the common man.

Toby has pushed the President to lean into his advantages, to use his knowledge and experience and intellect as a plus, to "make it about smart, and not" as he said in Hartsfield's Landing. Others in the campaign, though, feel that Ritchie's approach is bringing him more votes, making him more popular because he boils issues down into simple slogans, and they want the President to try to pivot to that as well. It's been an internal struggle in the campaign we've seen since the middle of Season 3.

Now the debate is here, the one single debate agreed upon before the election, and the West Wing is on edge. Josh has been tasked with coming up with "ten words" - short, quippy, easily disgestible statements the President can use to sound folksy and down-home, like Ritchie. Meanwhile, Leo tells Toby the President has gotten too much "in his head," that he's botching his responses, and that the staffers need to just let him ride through it without calling him out on it during their morning practice questions. Toby tries - but when Bartlet stammers through about six different approaches to an answer on a death penalty question, he can't hold back any more and snaps back about how that question should be answered.

And then everyone else in the Oval Office bursts into laughter. Toby has been the victim of a prank - the President is not off his game, in fact he's so confident and ready that he came up with the idea of betting the others that Toby couldn't stay quiet if he messed up his answer. Toby's face when he realizes:

And as they depart the Oval Office, Toby has two words for Josh: "He's ready."

Let's talk about some of the ties now. Superstitious Jed has a favorite debate tie - at the last debate of the first campaign, he accidentally set his tie on fire while sneaking a cigarette. He borrowed Josh's tie, won the debate, and then the election, so that's the tie he needs for this debate. Problem is, as Charlie says, the dry cleaners have ruined it using a solvent "we probably shouldn't use any more."

A team of advisors are working to select the perfect tie for television presentation:

And Charlie has taken the tie of the Deputy Secretary of Labor because he thinks it might fool the President into thinking it's his old tie. But Bartlet brushes that off, at least outwardly, telling Charlie it's only a tie and all will be well. You can tell he doesn't really mean it, though.

Abbey to the rescue. With seconds to go before Jed takes the debate stage, as Abbey gives him her final pep talk, she whips out a pair of scissors

and snips his tie right off.

Which causes Bartlet to react in horror as Abbey chuckles in devilish delight.

The entire staff races down the corridor, and once again it's Josh who has to offer his tie to the President as a replacement.

It's a close thing, but Bartlet gets the tie on just before taking the stage, finishing with a quick slap on Abbey's butt.

And then he proceeds to kick Ritchie's butt, responding to the Governor's first statement about keeping the federal government out of the states' business with this epic response:

President: "Well, first of all, let's clear up a couple of things. 'Unfunded mandate' is two words, not one big word. There are times when we're fifty states and there are times when we're one country, and have national needs. And the way I know this is that Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights. You think states should do the governing wall-to-wall. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But your state of Florida got $12.6 billion in federal money last year - from Nebraskans, and Virginians, and New Yorkers, and Alaskans, with their Eskimo poetry. 12.6 out of a state budget of $50 billion, and I'm supposed to be using this time for a question, so here it is: 

"Can we have it back, please?"

And as the debate continues, the evisceration does, too. Ritchie answers a question about whether this is the time for more tax cuts with, "You bet it is. We need to cut taxes for one reason - the American people know how to spend their money better than the federal government does."

The President pauses. That's the patented Ritchie ten-word answer, simple, uncomplicated, appealing to the lowest common denominator. But that's not the kind of leader President Bartlet is:

President: "That's the ten-word answer my staff's been looking for for two weeks. There it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns. They're the tip of the sword. Here's my question: What are the next ten words of your answer? Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next ten words. How are we going to do it? Give me ten after that, I'll drop out of the race right now."

The staff is exhilarated. CJ gathers them in the spin room and tells them they shouldn't provide spin to the reporters gathered there, they should just leave and let the President's performance speak for itself. As the debate wraps up and Ritchie and Bartlet shake hands, the Governor recognizes what this all means:

Ritchie: "It's over."

So even though the election is yet to come, this debate has given us the inevitable outcome. 

A quick mention of Albie Duncan, who we saw in Gone Quiet as the Assistant Secretary of State, a grumpy old State Department veteran who was dismissive of Bartlet's foreign policy and military experience. Here he's brought in as a Republican to spin for the President at the debate (as a response to a North Carolina Democrat doing the same for Ritchie). Duncan has a couple of very sweet moments with CJ ("I like you. You're the one I like"), especially when CJ steps in in front of reporters and assures Duncan it's okay to have complicated, complex answers rather than simple, surface ones ("You're the one I like, too").

(We'll just skip over the fact that Duncan currently serves in Bartlet's own State Department, even if he is a Republican, and it really shouldn't be surprising as to why he'd be on hand to support the President at the debate ... I think Sorkin forgot exactly what position he had Duncan holding in Season 3.)

In other tie-related stories, Sam makes a quick side trip to Los Angeles before the debate in San Diego. As we've learned in the past couple of episodes, Sam has taken an interest in the congressional campaign of Horton Wilde, a Democrat running in heavily Republican Orange County, developing the notion that the party needs to find better candidates and make better races even in lost causes. And this cause is more lost than usual, as Wilde died of a heart attack about a week ago.

But the campaign goes on, as California election law says Wilde's name will stay on the ballot. Sam meets with the campaign manager, Will Bailey, in an effort to shut the campaign down as it's an embarrassment for the party. Bailey continues to charge forward:

Will: "Nothing I can do about California election laws. The man's name stays on the ballot." 

Sam: "Yes, but you can't keep campaigning without a candidate." 

Will: "It's a campaign of ideas." 

Sam: "The candidate died." 

Will: "But not the ideas. The metaphor alone knocks me down." 

He's not about to give up, even arguing with a staffer about the notion of wearing a bow tie for a press conference.

After finding a different tie and dealing with the reporters, Sam meets Will on the beach. He still wants the campaign to stop, but he sees something in this plucky, energetic young guy:

Sam: "What are you doing?" 

Will: "Sam, I swear to God I'm trying to win an election. I think you of all people would be able to recognize it when you saw it."

Will says Wilde's widow wants to find another Democrat to run in Wilde's place should the campaign pull out an extremely unlikely win, but she can't find anyone willing to be that sacrificial lamb.

This is where Sam ends up offering his own tie to Will, because the one he grabbed to replace his bow tie "doesn't go."

After the debate, when Sam returns to LA to turn in his rental car, he meets Will and his staff again in a bar. Talk in political circles has been buzzing about a speech given by the governor of California, and Sam knows (after watching his performance with the press) that Will is the author. As they talk about the future of the Wilde campaign and what politics is even all about, Sam makes a surprising admission:

Sam: "Listen, if you can't find a Democrat, tell Mrs. Wilde ... tell Kay that I'll do it."

Will: "Are you kidding?"

Sam: "Tell her I'm a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton and editor of the Duke Law Review. Tell her I've worked for congressmen and the DCCC. I have seven years at Gage Whitney, and for the last four I've served as Deputy Communications Director and Senior Counsel. Tell her I grew up two streets from here."

(As I mentioned at the beginning of Season 4, Sorkin has been setting up Rob Lowe's exit from the show ever since 20 Hours In America, by showing Sam's increased interest in actually being "in the room" and getting politics done instead of just being a speechwriter. Lowe, as I said, had been disappointed in his lack of a salary increase and reduced story lines, even as the rest of the cast got considerable pay bumps, and told the studio he wanted to leave the show. So now we see the way out for Sam ... and in a symbolic passing of the torch, Sam leaves his tie with Will when it's offered back.)

Those are the two big storylines here. What else? Well, Leo continues to take a stand against Qumar and their support of Ba'hi terrorists in the Middle East. I mentioned in recent episode recaps that I was somewhat surprised by Leo's anger and determination to strike back against Qumar, that it didn't seem to fit the same character who held the President back when he wanted to blow Syria off the face of the earth in A Proportional Response - but I totally forgot the personal connection here. Just as the President was angered by the loss of Dr. Morris Tolliver when Syria shot down his plane, Leo had just received an award from his friend Ben Yosef, the Israeli Foreign Minister ... who ended up killed when Ba'hi terrorists shot his plane down over Lebanon in The Red Mass.

That, of course, is the real reason Leo is so hellbent on not letting Qumar get away with the Mastico supplying weapons to terrorist camps. He and Jordon (brought in to give the administration legal cover in the situation) sit down with Qumar's United Nations ambassador and give him an ultimatum - turn the ship around or else. The ambassador continues to blame Israel for the loss of Sharif as well as its bombing of Ba'hi camps in Qumar. Jordon urges Leo to make a deal - give Qumar something so they'll turn the ship around, instead of threatening them. But the ambassador goes a step too far:

Nissir: "Mr. McGarry, I think we are both men, and we both know there is a charade being enacted here. I understand Western politics, and I understand President Bartlet is unable to admit Israel's complicity in the death of the Sultan's brother during a close election. So perhaps we could --"

(Leo starts to laugh)

Nissir: "Did I say something funny?"

Leo: "You think the President's afraid that if he admitted complicity in Sharif's death, he would lose votes in this country? To sweep all fifty states, the President would only need to do two things - blow the Sultan's brains out in Times Square, then walk across the street to Nathan's and buy a hot dog. Mr. Ambassador, you are going to turn the Mastico around. You are going to cease and desist any disinformation campaign that links the death of Sharif to Israel. And sometime next year, the Sultan is going to propose a Middle East peace plan - the Qumar plan - and win the Nobel Peace Prize. Make your phone call. I'll be waiting."

So that seems to wrap up most of the Qumar situation that was kicked off in The Black Vera Wang. Leo doesn't care if Qumar finds out the Bartlet administration killed Sharif - he wants them to stop supporting terrorism against America and he won't let up until they do.

We've also got a quick mention of Toby and Andy and their situation - they're having twins, but Andy is refusing to remarry Toby, despite his entreaties:

Toby: "Let's make it interesting. Let's add incentive. The President wins the debate tomorrow night and you marry me again." 

Andy: "How about the President wins the debate tomorrow night, he gets elected President again?" 

Toby: "See, that's the difference between you and me. You're small time. And that's why the twins are gonna need their father around full-time. Cause your thing would be a terrible trait. A terrible family trait to pass on to little ... Beatrice and Bluto." 

Andy: "I'm going to name them Beatrice and Bluto now. I don't care if they're boys or girls."

That's really all we get on that storyline in this episode. In the DVD commentary Sorkin mentions the original script ran about six minutes long, and one of the things that got cut was another Toby/Andy scene that involved flowers of some kind.

In general, when I think on top-notch West Wing episodes, this isn't one that immediately comes to mind - but every time I see it, I remember how good this one is. It really is an excellent overall offering of the series, well-written and well-played, with real moments of heart and feeling. So yeah, this one should go on the list. I need to stop forgetting about this one!

Tales Of Interest!

- Much like the previous episode (directed by Paris Barclay), we get a lot of handheld shaky camera work during this one. It's not a directorial tactic we've seen from Alex Graves before. In the DVD commentary Graves talks about the choice, saying Aaron Sorkin told him from the beginning this episode would be the real election episode, making the outcome clear even though the actual election is yet to come. Graves decided to go with the hand-held method to heighten tension and give the episode a different feel from the typical West Wing (although, coming right after Barclay's hand-held offering, it just made it two in a row).

- I will give credit, though, for some imaginative camera shots during the debate scenes. I thought this one (with the debate moderator seen through the camera eyepiece) was particularly good:

- And we also get the West Wing trademark technique of the camera spinning around characters, here as the staff decides to abandon the spin room and let the President's performance speak for itself (and yes, I get the meta-ness of a spinning camera in the spin room):

- Timeline: Leo tells Jordon that the Mastico was stopped "about a week ago" - that action occurred during the previous episode, Debate Camp. The debate also takes place on a Wednesday night, which is the night of the week The West Wing aired at the time, so we might say that debate actually occurred on October 30, 2002 ... less than a week before the election.

- In a world before smartphones and GPS, we get to see Sam fighting to fold a paper map in the wind as he gets out of his rental car outside the Mattress World in Newport Beach.

- Sorkin goes a little nuts with the characters saying "Game on" ...

* Leo says it to the President when he tells him he can't be too smart

* Sam says it as the group is leaving the President's staging room before the debate

* Abbey says, "Game on, boyfriend! Let's go!" just before she slices Jed's tie

* Josh exults "Game on!" after the President slams Ritchie with the "Can we have it back, please?" line

- The practice question from Toby that the President uses to rile him up - "If your youngest daughter, Zoey, was raped and murdered, would you not want to see the man responsible put to death?" - is an almost exact copy of a question asked to Michael Dukakis about his wife during a 1988 Presidential debate ("Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?"). President Bartlet's bloodless, overly logical answer also mirrored Dukakis' response ("No, I don't, Bernard, and I think you know I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life.").

Quotes    

Toby: "He's ready."

-----

Sam: "I'm Sam Seaborn. I'm here to see William Bailey. He's expecting me." 

Elsie: "Okay." 

Sam: "Hey ... William Bailey. Bill Bailey. I just got that." 

Elsie: "You should definitely mention that cause he's probably never heard that reference before." 

Sam: "Okay." 

Elsie: "It's Will." 

Sam (imitating Jimmy Stewart): "Merry Christmas, you old Building and Loan." 

Elsie: "That's George Bailey." 

----- 

CJ: "Look at me. He's not a little bit crazy?" 

Toby: "Albie Duncan?" 

CJ: "Yeah." 

Toby: "No ... no ... no ... a little bit." 

-----

Will: "Sixty percent is six of ten in a focus group. You change one mind, it's a dead heat. We change two, it's a landslide. This campaign's a mechanism of persuasion. We're not asking for a show of hands."

-----

(Will lists problems with current Representative Chuck Webb, his fistfights on the floor of Congress, his support for expansive gun rights, his protests frightening pregnant women)

Reporter: "What's your point?" 

Will: "There are worse things in the world than no longer being alive."

-----

Donna: "You know what? I think maybe you and the President are obsessing on the tie. I'm going to throw this notion out on the stoop and see if the cat licks it up. I think the President's performance in the debate had actually very little to do with the tie." 

Charlie: "Okay. You heard me say it was his game tie, right?"

----- 

Toby: "What do you think?" 

CJ: "I think it depends who shows up. If it's Uncle Fluffy, we've got problems. If it's the President, in his last campaign, his last debate, for the last job he'll ever have ... if the President shows up, I think it's going to be a sight to see, I mean a sight to see. What do you think?" 

Toby: "I think you're going to enjoy yourself tonight."

-----

(The President asks for a moment alone with Abbey before the debate begins. Everyone leaves except Toby, munching a carrot)

 

 Toby: "I just assumed you wanted to include me."

-----

Toby (watching the President eviscerate Ritchie in the debate): "I'm not sure I can watch any more. No, wait. I can. I can."

-----

President: "I'm the President of the United States, not the President of the people who agree with me."

-----

Will: "I thought he was going to have to fall all over himself trying to be genial." 

Sam: "So did we. But then we were convinced by polling that said he was going to be seen as arrogant no matter what performance he gave in the debates. And then, that morning at 3:10 my phone rings, and it's Toby Ziegler. He says, 'Don't you get it? It's a gift that they're irreversibly convinced that he's arrogant cause now he can be.'"

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

• The first appearance of Will Bailey, played by Joshua Malina (Scandal, The Big Bang Theory, Sports Night). Malina, a longtime collaborator with Sorkin (A Few Good Men on Broadway as well as the film, and Sorkin's earlier project Sports Night) is going to join the regular cast as Rob Lowe departs. 

• Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years) appears as Bailey's campaign staffer Elsie Snuffin (really, Sorkin, that's the name you're going with?), in what appears to possibly be a long-term role connected with Will Bailey. It doesn't work out that way, though.

 

• The return of Albie Duncan (Hal Holbrook), first seen in Gone Quiet; we also get the mention of Schweppe's Bitter Lemon, which Duncan said was his chosen beverage in that episode. In Gone Quiet, we learned Duncan was the Assistant Secretary of State, and had worked in the State Department since Truman (a Democrat); in this episode, we're told Duncan served in the State Department under Eisenhower (who came after Truman) and is a lifelong Republican, and the press might be surprised to see him speaking in support of a Democratic president after the debate. Well, if he's actually part of the Bartlet administration, why would that be a surprise?

 

• The Qumari ambassador to the United Nations, Ali Nissir, is played by familiar character actor Tony Amendola (The Mask Of Zorro, Stargate SG-1). 

• CJ's reference to the President's less assured, more easygoing side as "Uncle Fluffy" is a callback to The Two Bartlets, when Toby argued "He was Uncle Fluffy. It's Dr. Jekyll and Uncle Fluffy all over again" after the President gave a lukewarm answer on affirmative action at a campaign stop in Iowa.

• On Air Force One there's a quick shot of a TV screen showing Ritchie campaigning in North Carolina, with references to Ritchie's AMA speech shunning a needle exchange program - we saw that storyline playing out in The Red Mass. 

• Minnesota Senator Howard Stackhouse (George Coe) is seen in the background of the debate prep room getting a photograph taken with Abbey. He first appeared in The Stackhouse Filibuster and played a major part in the events of The Red Mass. 

• There's also a quick glimpse of Vice President Hoynes (Tim Matheson) hanging out in the debate prep room. In the DVD commentary Graves and Sorkin mention how much it helped the reality of the scene to have these two actors show up merely to be background extras.

 

• We haven't seen Debbie Fiderer since College Kids. Her absence is acknowledged when CJ asks, "When is Debbie actually starting?" and Leo answers by saying she's getting a "crash course in everything" at the Maxwell School. 

• We know Leo's marriage fell apart in Five Votes Down and his divorce papers were served in The Portland Trip ... but, much like the divorced Toby, he still wears his wedding band.

• In the mad dash down the hallway, we see Toby and then CJ trip through a doorway. Our introduction to CJ in Pilot was seeing her falling off a treadmill as she looked at her pager; later we saw her fall into her pool when Toby was meeting with her to have her join the campaign in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II.

• There's mention of the Bartlet daughters attending the debate, with Abbey specifically saying Ellie put on makeup for the event. We know there are three Bartlet daughters, but so far we have only met Zoey and Ellie and not the oldest (Elizabeth). We do see two younger women join Abbey to greet the President onstage after the event, but they are clearly not the daughters we've met - they must be granddaughters.

• Speaking of Ellie, in her first appearance in early 2001 (Ellie), she was described as being 24 years old. Now, in October 2002, Abbey says she's 27. That math does not add up.  

• Jordon also mentions Leo's daughter Mallory, who we last saw in 20 Hours In America Part Two.

• The debate moderator, Alexander Thompson, is played by John Aniston, recognizable for his long-running role in the daytime drama Days Of Our Lives. He's also the father of Jennifer Aniston of Friends fame. 

• Sam gives us more background on himself; he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton, was editor of the Duke Law Review (there's actually no such thing, it's called the Duke Law Journal), and worked at Gage Whitney for seven years. We saw him leave that firm in what would have been early 1998 in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen. 

• Story threads from previous episodes include the tension between Toby and the President over how smart to appear in the campaign (since The Two Bartlets); Sam's itch to get involved more on the political elected-office side (since 20 Hours In America); the issue of Qumar sponsoring terrorism and the Bartlet-ordered assassination of Sharif (since the end of The Black Vera Wang); and the relationship between Toby and Andy, with her pregnancy and Toby's repeated pleas for her to marry him again (the fact they were previously married was revealed in Mandatory Minimums, while the pregnancy storyline began in Debate Camp).

DC location shots 

• None.

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

• Leo says Debbie is getting a crash course at the Maxwell School, probably meaning the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs which is located in Syracuse, New York. Sorkin has mentioned the school before - it's where Stephanie Gault teaches international relations in Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail and the school's program in Diplomacy and International Relations was also mentioned as a place Jordon Kendall attended in College Kids.

• In the discussion about ties and which one will look best on television, the advisers say "they're broadcasting in HD digital now and with the pixels." The first HD broadcasts in the United States were in 1998, and were extremely limited for the next few years. Cable and satellite programmers didn't start carrying HD content until 2003 (a year after this episode aired), and the full transition to digital TV broadcasts did not happen until 2009.

• The Eisenhower administration gets a mention, as Toby says Albie Duncan was part of that State Department (in Gone Quiet it was said he'd worked in the State Department since Truman).

• Will makes a joke about Wendell Willkie being their candidate - Willkie ran against Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election.

• When Will rants about Chuck Webb and his support of the NRA and various weapons, he clearly mentions AK-57s. There's no such thing - the AK-47 is, of course, a famous military rifle developed by Soviet weapons maker Mikhail Kalishnikov. 

• Sam says Will should offer Winston Churchill as his candidate should the Wilde campaign win the election.

• The USS Austin was indeed, as Leo says, an LPD (landing platform, dock) vessel in the US Navy. In 2002 the Austin actually was in the Mediterranean supporting operations in Kosovo and in Africa. It was not, however, a San Antonio-class vessel - that class was originated in 2000 (the Austin entered service in 1965). The ship was decommissioned in 2006 and sold for scrap in 2009.

• Jordon mentions the Boland Amendment, an 1980s-era law limiting the ability of the US government to assist groups trying to overthrow foreign governments. This would have a direct application to Bartlet's ordering of the assassination of Qumari Defense Minister Sharif in Posse Comitatus.

• Jordon also brings up Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

• We clearly see both MSNBC and CSPAN logos in coverage of the debate. NBC has used their own cable news network in The West Wing before (first in What Kind Of Day Has It Been) which makes plenty of sense in a synergistic way, but the cable news operations we see in the background aren't always MSNBC, so it's notable when it is. 

• The President says Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II.

• CJ uses the example of fighters Muhammad Ali and George Foreman when she comes up with her "no-spin" strategy ("It's the punch Ali never gave Foreman when he was going down").

• We hear The Grass Roots' song Midnight Confessions as Sam meets Will at the bar.

• Heineken is Sam's beer at that bar (it looks like Will might be drinking a Corona).

End credits freeze frame: An odd choice, as no one is facing the camera - a shot of the President and Governor Ritchie during the debate.

Previous episode: Debate Camp

Next episode: Election Night