A Good Day - TWW S6E17

Original airdate: March 2, 2005

Written by: Carol Flint (5) 

Directed by: Richard Schiff (2)

Synopsis

• Matt Santos comes up with a clever ploy to outsmart Speaker Haffley on a stem-cell research bill. President Bartlet faces off with an old rival in economics. Toby talks voting age restrictions with middle schoolers. And Kate has to fend off a possible military intervention into Canada.
  

"Sometimes the American people wonder what it is we do here in Congress. Sometimes I wonder myself. Today wasn't one of those days." 

This episode, boy, I don't know. There's some things to like about it - Matt Santos' trickery to hide Democratic legislators away in Russell's office and bait Haffley into scheduling a vote, for one thing. Kate's flabbergasted disbelief at the military's eagerness to escalate a few drunk hunters across the border into a full-flung diplomatic escapade, for another. But by and large, this episode doesn't hang together well. The writing isn't sharp, the payoffs (except for Haffley getting punked) don't land, and a couple of key characters don't even get names.

 

The storyline that really doesn't resonate with me is President Bartlet and his old economic rival Dr. Takehashi. First off, how were we never told over the past six years that Bartlet actually split his Nobel Prize with a grad school rival who holds diametrically opposite views? Seems like that might have come up one of the times the Nobel Laureate fact was mentioned. Anyway, whatever, the appearance of Dr. Takehashi at the White House ceremony honoring Nobel Prize winners puts a big damper on the President's mood, taking him from carefree dancing with Abbey in the Oval Office to glumly pouting about Takehashi's digs at Bartlet's economic theories.

CJ: "Well, he's certainly a ..."

President: "Smug son of a bitch. 'Rational expectation.'"

CJ: "What?"

President: "Territory he claims to have pioneered. Footnote, my ass."

CJ: "I don't think he was --"

President: "As if his work would still be read if he hadn't spent a lifetime assigning it to hapless undergrads."

CJ: "All due respect, sir, you sit in this office, you're pretty much not allowed to harbor professional jealousies."

After Takehashi takes a fall while dancing he and President Bartlet sit in the Oval Office sharing an icepack and a drink. Takehashi tries to warn Bartlet about the dangers of American debt being bought up by other countries, and how the increasing budget deficit is going to cause longterm problems for the United States. The President waves him off - he's already considered the foreign ownership of debt and doesn't see it as a major problem - but being called out on the deficit bugs him. So much so that he and Abbey have a discussion about it as they go to bed ... and which leads him to announce reducing the deficit will be the top priority of the final year of his administration.

Chris: "Mr. President, as you head into your final year in office, do you have any regrets?"

President: "One big regret - and here's your lede, people - is my failure to bring the budget deficit under control. I know an election cycle is warming up and no one wants to hear about budget deficits, but both sides are going to hear about them from me. That's my campaign promise."

It comes out of nowhere, and over the next 27 episodes it pretty much goes nowhere. But then again, we haven't heard anything about the peacekeeping forces in Equatorial Kundu since Red Haven's On Fire, or the American troops in Gaza and Israel since Third-Day Story, or the Bartlet Doctrine of intervening anywhere to protect human rights since Inauguration: Over There, so storylines about major initiatives that go nowhere are sometimes par for the course. 

Another storyline that doesn't do much for me is the Future Leaders for Democracy, a group of middle-school students advocating for eliminating the age restriction for voting. Their visit to the White House gets passed along to Toby, who passes it along to Annabeth - but when Cody, the vocal leader of the group, calls out Toby for giving them the brush-off, he ends up sitting down in the Roosevelt Room and having a real discussion about the issue. That shows a lot of patience and openness on Toby's part, particularly given the meeting keeps him from attending the Nobel Laureate gala and this group's concerns would best be suited for the next Big Block of Cheese Day. Which is why this all falls flat ... well, that and the fact that Toby proves to be amenable to perhaps taking a look at lowering the voting age, which doesn't really seem like an initiative Toby (or any member of any administration) would truly take seriously. Giving Cody the opportunity to ask a question of President Bartlet at the press conference was a neat little moment, though, however unlikely it might have been.

The Canada storyline is kind of a hoot, but mainly because of Kate. Her reactions as the situation continues to escalate cartoonishly are just golden, from the disbelief that the Vice President is getting involved:

Will (talking about Vice President Russell): "Hunts with the governor of Montana, in fact. They spoke today."

Kate: "And he'd like to see this resolved bloodlessly."

Will: "Actually he's more concerned we not back down, that we not appear weak in any way."

Kate: "We?"

Will: "The United States."

Kate: "There's no 'we' in this, it's fifteen drunks in camo vests."

Will: "The Vice President advocates a hard line."

Kate: "Permanent lockout in the NHL, a maple syrup embargo, turn off Niagara Falls?"

To her incredulity at the Canadian Ambassador trying to extract trade concessions in exchange for getting the American hunters back across the border:

Kate: "Ambassador, listen carefully. An hour ago, I reviewed the United States contingency plan to invade your country."

Will: "Uh, there's a contingency plan --?"

Kate: "1789, amended in 1815, the calligraphy is beautiful, and if one more deal is floated in this room I'm going to ask DOD to reactivate it."

To her simmering anger at the "amped-up cowboys" in the military (and the Fish and Wildlife Department!) excited at the possibility of invading Canada. Her solution - just get on a bullhorn and announce hunting season is over, and any more gunfire means the loss of hunting licenses - would never work (she doesn't have anything like the authority to do that), but it does for story purposes, and we end up with "peace in our time."

Ah, but the story of the stem-cell bill and the Democrats hiding out, that's a pretty fun plotline. Matt Santos and a bunch of other Democratic congressmen have flown back to Washington from the campaign trail to vote against a Republican bill that would cut funding for stem-cell research. As soon as they arrive on the floor, though, the Speaker of the House pulls the bill off the floor. He knows he'll lose with all the Democrats there, but he figures if many of them depart to try to stump for Super Tuesday primaries, he can sneak in a vote with enough Democrats absent to get the bill through. 

Josh and Matt (and several other congressmen) are desperate to get back out and campaign, but Matt has an idea. His subterfuge starts with a quick meeting with Cliff Calley in the Capitol:

Matt (looking around to see if others are watching): "Look unhappy. You see how I'm, uh, shaking my head telling you, um, 'no way'?"

Cliff: "I do. Are you in fact telling me the opposite?"

Matt hatches a plan with Josh and Cliff - a bunch of Democrat Representatives will stay in town, secretly, waiting for Speaker Haffley to call the vote, after which they will spring onto the House floor and vote the bill down. Cliff remembers an Arkansas Representative who never leaves town, and thinks he can use him as a decoy of sorts to help fool any Republicans in the Capitol. After a conversation with Donna, Cliff also thinks they might be able to use Vice President Russell's office as their secret hideout.

Which they do.

And after hiding out all night - and rethinking their strategy after Haffley fails to immediately bring up the bill - the plot works when the bill actually does eventually come to the floor. It's a cool moment to see the congresspeople march through the halls of the Capitol, and the fact the plan was developed and carried out by Matt Santos helps us realize his growing respect and leadership in the Democratic Party.

(And also the fact that several of these congressmen actually want to be out of Washington to help campaign for him, considering before the New Hampshire primary nobody had the faintest notion of endorsing him for President.)

The poor Arkansas Representative doesn't even get a name, and he looks so lonely and sad sleeping in his office, but he does give us a nice little scene talking over the morality of stem-cell research with Matt while they're all hiding out in Russell's office. It's a real back-and-forth on the moral issues, that gives respect and credence to both sides. That's a very nice moment in an episode that doesn't give us a lot in the way of subtlety or nuance.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the only reason the character is included in the plot, even though Cliff seems to think he needs him to carry out the deception of hiding the Democrats. What is his role there? We see him peeking around corners and tiptoeing down the halls - the other congresspeople could do that without him. Was he the messenger telling the Democrats about Matt's plan? Maybe, but that could easily be done by phone without the Republicans finding out. I just can't quite put my finger on why Cliff thought he needed a guy who wouldn't look out of place in the Capitol to help shepherd the other congresspeople into hiding, when they could have easily found their way to Russell's office by themselves (even the scene where they're having a conversation in the hallway to mislead the Republican walking past, with the Representative saying, sorry, I've got to catch a flight ... that could have been done with a phone to his ear with the same result).

So ... we avoid war with Canada, we see President Bartlet energized with a priority for his last year in office (sort of, we'll see), we get the middle-school vote locked up for the Democratic Party, and Matt Santos really establishes his credentials as a savvy, out-of-the-box political thinker who really could be a leader for the party and the country. I guess that's enough for one episode, don't you think?

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Richard Schiff's second foray into directing, after Season 5's Talking Points.

- It's another campaign/administration combo episode, sort of, although Matt's involvement here is solely due to his role as a House member and not as a Presidential candidate. It gets Josh back around, though, including back at his desk in his old office (which is now Cliff's).

- Timewise, we're coming up on the Super Tuesday primaries. The real-life calendar previous to 2005 generally saw Super Tuesday happening in early March (the entire primary calendar moved radically earlier for a while in the late 2000s). 

 

- Josh mentions the trip in to the Capitol from Dulles Airport. Typically members of Congress would fly into Reagan National Airport, much closer to the center of DC (and to be honest, the use of the airport by government officials is likely what's keeping that airport open, given the flight restrictions and limitations of where that airport is located). But I suppose it's possible this particular flight went into Dulles instead of National.

- I've mentioned this before, but the prize for economics commonly referred to as a "Nobel" isn't actually one of the five prizes established by Alfred Nobel in his will. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was founded by Sweden's central bank in 1969, and while administered by the Nobel Foundation and presented at the Nobel Prize award ceremony, isn't technically a Nobel.

- I'm a little confused over exactly where Russell's office is located. As Vice President, he'd have an office near the Senate chambers (for his role as presiding over the Senate); but just because he has lifetime floor privileges on the House wouldn't mean he gets a huge office on that side of the building, right? And most congressional offices are in buildings located around the Capitol, not in the building itself.

- Why'd They Come Up With A Good Day?

As CJ is encouraging Cliff to get to the Capitol and whip Democratic votes against the stem-cell bill, she says, "The President doesn't need any more bad news in the next 18 hours. He needs a good day." We also see President Bartlet having a very good day health-wise and mood-wise ("the good days you don't take for granted"), at least until he discovers Dr. Takehashi is in the building. And, naturally, the events of the day turn out pretty "good" - Santos' ploy to trick Haffley and defeat the bill works, the President copes with his resentment of Takehashi and finds a topic to focus on for the end of his term, the middle-schoolers get to ask a question directly of the President of the United States, and we get through the entire day without invading Canada.

Quotes    

CJ: "They were bumped off the President's schedule yesterday, bumped from mine this morning, they're on yours for six o'clock."

Toby: "Why?"

CJ: "It's their last day in town."

Toby: "No, I meant why me?"

CJ: "Cause you're so good with kids."

-----

President: "Ours was not a shared prize for shared work. The prize was split. That year the Swedes chose to recognize two separate, some would say fundamentally divergent, even contradictory efforts in the same field."

CJ: "He is a bit conservative."

President: "Ha! He makes Milton Friedman look middle-of-the-road."

----- 

Fish and Wildlife Deputy: "Off-duty officers responded to the scene, and they infiltrated the 20-yard swamp demarking the border."

Major Anderson: "Have shots been fired?"

Deputy: "Yes. But ... there were geese in the air at the time."

-----

Kate (incredulous at the helicopter landing near the Canadian standoff): "I don't want deniability, I want absolute assurance that this was not part of a military action on our part."

Major Anderson: "I can't vouch for Black Ops."

Kate: "Okay. Enough. This is stopping now, the problem is not a few rowdy outlaws from a bygone era blowing off testosterone, the problem is us! We're still the wild bunch, I mean the higher it goes the hotter the risk. I just threatened the Canadian ambassador!"

 

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

• The veteran Japanese actor Mako (nominated for an Academy Award for The Sand Pebbles, Conan The Destroyer, Pearl Harbor, many TV appearances) is seen as President Bartlet's Nobel rival Dr. Yosh Takehashi.

• Speaker Haffley (Steven Culp) is back! We haven't seen him since Third-Day Story at the beginning of the season (and technically almost two years ago, as the events of that episode were in 2004 and the show is now in early 2006, given the time skip we saw around Liftoff; he even mentions "year seven" of the administration, although we are just in Season 6).

• Major Anderson, the gung-ho military adviser in the Situation Room with the Operation Northern Lights plan, is played by Jack Conley (Fast & Furious, The Purge: Anarchy, The Morning Show, Angel).

• The unnamed Fish and Wildlife deputy (who is also gung-ho about showing Canada what's what) is played by William O'Leary (Bull Durham, Hot Shots!, Home Improvement).

• I think Margaret eating at her desk is supposed to be a subtle reminder of her being pregnant, a fact we only discovered almost by accident in Drought Conditions.

• Campaign-wise, Cliff congratulates Josh on Santos' performance in the Arizona and New Mexico primaries, and also expresses appreciation for bringing back other congressmen who are now campaigning for him. So there is some momentum, considering absolutely nobody was backing Santos as recently as Freedonia.
  

• This is the first we've heard of President Bartlet having to split his Economics Nobel Prize. You'd think with all the times his Nobel had come up since we first discovered he was a Nobel Laureate in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" that might have been mentioned.
  

• President Bartlet shows us his jacket flip. Martin Sheen's left arm was injured at birth and he was unable to lift that arm above his shoulder, so he used this method to put on coats and jackets.

• Donna and Cliff have a little moment; you remember they dated in Ways And Means (and most definitely slept together, considering the story about Donna's journal in War Crimes) until Cliff's role with the committee investigating President Bartlet's MS coverup ended all that. The little exchange with Cliff saying, "Sometimes things are going so smoothly you don't see it coming until they fall apart" and Donna responding, "True" is a little callback to that. And then they make a tentative plan to catch up over dinner later.
  

• Speaking of romance, in Drought Conditions we saw Kate and Will casting glances at each other at the DNC gala. Now, as Will is trying to get information about the Canada incursion from Kate, she says, "Please tell me this is a ruse concocted to steal moments of my promising company."
  

• After Matt wakes up Donna in Russell's office (by sitting on her), he recognizes her as "Russell's chicken fighter." Donna was caught on camera chewing out one of the guys in chicken suits Josh sent to the Russell and Hoynes events in New Hampshire in Freedonia. 
  

• Matt's clever thinking to outwit Haffley does bring to mind the same kind of three-steps-ahead political mind he demonstrated with the health-care plan in The Dover Test, a mind that caused Josh to say, "You're too good at this, you can't just walk away."
  

• Jed's bedtime conversation with Abbey about the deficit brings us some reminders of earlier events in the series.

Abbey: "What keeps you awake is the deficit."

Jed: "First term we made so much progress we were talking balanced budget."

Abbey: "Economy slowed."

Jed: "Costs spiraled. Security at home, terrorism. Peacekeeping abroad, Republican tax cuts, I couldn't control it and I'm an economist, for God's sakes."

As a reminder, there was talk of how to invest a budget surplus in Mr. Willis Of Ohio (Donna wanted her money back to buy a VCR); while there's never any specific mention of an event like 9/11 we have plenty of references to terrorism concerns (the storyline at the end of Season 3 leading to the assassination of Shareef, as one example); and peacekeeping forces in Equatorial Kundu (Red Haven's On Fire) and in the Middle East (The Birnam Wood/Third-Day Story).

• There's one of our longtime White House reporters, Chris.

 

DC location shots    

• None. I'm pretty sure all the Capitol interior hallway scenes were filmed at Los Angeles City Hall - that's been a stand-in for the Capitol ever since Swiss Diplomacy, at least.

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

• Will mentions that Vice President Russell has lifetime House floor privileges as a former Representative: that's true, along with access to the Capitol gym, parking in House parking lots, and access to the Capitol dining rooms.
  

• As the President is crooning to Abbey in the Oval Office when CJ comes in, the Cole Porter tune Begin The Beguine is playing.
  

• The economist Milton Friedman gets scoffed at for his conservative views by President Bartlet as he and CJ are talking about Takehashi.
  

• Annabeth tells the Future Leaders for Democracy group the story of the Resolute desk, made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880. Her story about the Presidential seal isn't totally complete; Franklin Roosevelt did request the adding of the seal (along with a door, to hide his leg braces) but it wasn't finished until after his death in 1945.
  

• President Bartlet tells a joke told by President Harry Truman, and later quotes Thomas Jefferson to Abbey while he's complaining about Takehashi. Abbey brings up President Eisenhower and his inability to control the military-industrial complex in the late-night conversation between her and Jed.
  

• A congressional staffer uses the phrase "Elvis has left the building" after Speaker Haffley departs, as Santos begins his scheme to sneak Democratic legislators into the building.
  

• I was unable to find any references to a 1789 plan to invade Canada, although the United States and Canada did have conflicts during the War of 1812, which ended in 1815. However, there was a War Plan Red approved in 1930 which set out American military plans in the event of a war with Great Britain, which did include an invasion of Canada.
  

• We see Matt on television talking to reporters on C-SPAN at the end of the episode.

End credits freeze frame: Matt and the unnamed Arkansas congressmen having their late-night conversation over stem-cell research.

Previous episode: Drought Conditions

Next episode: La Palabra