Two Weeks Out - TWW S7E14

Original airdate: March 19, 2006

Written by: Lawrence O'Donnell (15)

Directed by: Laura Innes (5)

Synopsis

• As the candidates' paths repeatedly cross over the frantic final weeks of the campaign, Matt's misplaced briefcase and Vinick's strategy battles with Jane Braun could change the course of the election. Josh turns to Toby for advice. Vinick's nonstop handshaking leads to a painful result.
  

"It can make you President." 

Since we first met Congressman Matt Santos in Liftoff, we've seen multiple instances of his savvy political instincts - oftentimes even more clever and effective than Josh's ideas - from his health care bill trickery in The Dover Test to his seemingly doomed, quixotic efforts resulting in the debate he wants in Freedonia to his hiding of Democrats inside the halls of Congress to fool Speaker Haffley in A Good Day, and many more. We haven't seen much in the way of similar political mastermind work from Senator Arnie Vinick; well, his using of the religious right for his own purposes in In God We Trust probably fits. Here, we get to see Vinick's instincts shine, as he fights against the efforts of both Jane Braun and Bruno, insisting on doing things his way in California, the state he knows best, and how he turns out to be right all along.

 

Of course, we also get Vinick going along with Bruno's somewhat shady motives in handling Matt's lost briefcase, in a move that makes us think a bit less of Vinick, but that just makes him all the more human, I guess. I mean, the argument that "the public will find this out eventually, better that it comes out before they vote for the guy" can hold some weight, and the fact that Vinick decides not to leak the info personally and instead urges Matt to come clean himself is at least a more noble way to get there, but still ...

 

This episode is pretty linear, without a lot of subplotting, so let's get right to it: we start with the nonstop campaign glad-handing and personal contact with voters on rope lines wearing on Vinick physically. Particularly, his hands.

 

 

He's reduced to sticking his right hand in an ice bucket after every public appearance, with that hand bearing the brunt of squeezing and shaking and greeting every voter he's able to - with, as Bob says, "only five thousand more handshakes to go."

 

Bad turns to worse when he comes onstage at a Chicago event, and the host - an NFL football player - ends up probably breaking a bone in his hand with his brawny handshake, as Vinick grimaces in pain.

 

The physical pain is also a symbol of the pain running through the Vinick camp. After the accident at the nuclear power plant in San Andreo - a power plant Vinick pulled strings to get online 24 years ago - voter sentiment has turned against the Republican and the national race is basically a dead heat; in fact, Santos is actually ahead slightly even in California, Vinick's home state. That poll movement brought a shakeup to the Vinick campaign, with his longtime trusted adviser Sheila resigning and party bigshot Jane Braun coming on to shore up the Republican base, as we saw in The Cold. 

After the Chicago event, there's a tense and rather pointed debate on the Vinick plane, with Braun strongly pushing Vinick to turn to "values" issues like gay marriage and campaign in the South in order to get more Republicans to turn out and support his candidacy. Jane is, well ... extremely in-your-face in this episode; I realize her job is to get Vinick elected, and she sees this path as the best way to do it, but let's be frank - her strategy ignores who Vinick actually is and instead tries to portray him as a "normal," "socially conservative," "right wing" Republican candidate, which he definitely is not. As we discover a bit later in the episode, Jane is pushing her plan for, well, selfish reasons too; she doesn't want Vinick (or Bruno) doing something that hurts the campaign's chances if she's going to end up taking the blame for it. Bruno isn't that thrilled with her ideas, but given his precarious standing with the party at the moment, he doesn't feel like he can push back. At least, not to her face (that much), but it's a different story in private:

Vinick: "We should have just put Jane out there in front of the cameras and let her energize the base and then ignore her."

Bruno: "We are ignoring her."

But this is where Vinick's political savvy comes into play. As he watches Matt on TV once again keeping the San Andreo accident (and Vinick's apparent culpability) in the forefront of the news, he decides he has to try to put the issue behind him. He'll do a press conference, in front of the power plant, proving his confidence in the cleanup and the safety of the site, and answering every question from the press until they drop - a last-ditch talk-until-they-give-up event that should finally bury the issue. Both Jane and Bruno strongly disagree. They see no political advantage in going to California and basically taking responsibility for the accident right there in front of TV cameras, and would rather have him go to Florida and other southern states to start drumming up voter support in Republican strongholds. But Vinick is adamant. He knows his state, he knows how to campaign there, and he's doing this no matter what his advisers say.

On the other side of the coin, we also see the return of Toby, providing some secretive behind-the-scenes advice to Josh on the course of the Santos campaign. 

Toby … er, I mean, “Bob”

This is quite the turn for Toby, who scoffed at Matt's chances from the very start, with Toby’s effort to promote a primary challenger helping lead to a physical fight with Josh in Drought Conditions. But, I suppose, now that Matt is the Democratic nominee and only chance to keep the White House out of Republican hands, even Toby is willing to put his efforts behind him.

As the polling numbers continue to move following San Andreo, Toby urges Josh to change his plans on having Matt stump in the Northeast and Florida and instead head to California, where his surprising edge on Vinick is well worth the trip to try to cash in on. We soon discover, though, that Vinick's unexpected simultaneous move to go to San Andreo and wait out the press questions is going to suck a lot of the media coverage away from Matt's swing through the state.

And not only that - as the campaigns criss-cross over the same territory, hitting events in the same cities in the same swing states, the tension grows in this nail-bitingly close contest. Both candidates speak at the same convention in Chicago, and both campaigns cross paths in a hallway in a Philadelphia hotel:

And, in that same hotel, Matt's briefcase gets left behind in the same holding room that Vinick's campaign later uses. And of course, it's Bruno - the hard-nosed, win-at-almost-any-cost political wizard - who finds it. And looks inside. And sees something he thinks could change the outcome of the election.

There's a checkbook in the briefcase that shows monthly payments to someone named Anita Morales, a young unmarried mother who had been hired for a city job by Matt when he was the mayor of Houston, whose daughter was born right around the same time he hired her. Naturally, with any young, good-looking political figure, there have been rumors of indiscretions and romantic entanglements of various kinds - and Bruno takes this as evidence of Matt paying off the mother of his secret, illegitimate child.

Bruno brings the briefcase to Vinick. Of course, Vinick is stunned, with his first instinct being to immediately give it back. He wants no part of any strategy that might look underhanded, or "dirty" in any way. But Bruno being Bruno, he has just the way to put it to sway Vinick, at least for the time being:

Bruno: "Just think about what other secrets this guy might have. This may be the tip of the iceberg about what we don't know about him."

The argument that the voters deserve to know about what the candidates are hiding - before they make their choice in the election, instead of afterwards, when that now-President may find himself distracted or ineffective in the face of major crises like the upcoming intervention in Kazakhstan - is enough to make Vinick reconsider. Hold on to the briefcase, he tells Bruno. Let me think on this overnight.

The next day, it's the "till they drop" press conference, which takes the Santos campaign by surprise as they see themselves losing the attention of TV coverage of their events. Josh and Matt fight to try to keep themselves front and center in the media, but everybody is in San Andreo covering Senator Vinick, standing there in front of that nuclear plant, taking uncomfortable questions from every reporter. Jane and Bruno are also aghast, watching it play out and thinking it’s a losing strategy ... for almost three hours.

Finally, there are no more questions. The reporters have talked themselves out. Vinick closes down his conference, and even Toby and Bruno are stunned by his savvy instincts.

Toby: "Damn, this guy is good."

Bruno: "Son of a bitch."

The bleeding has been stopped, the nuclear power accident is no longer a weight around Vinick's neck, and the campaign and the party finds themselves reinvigorated. Then, as the campaigns once again cross paths in Los Angeles, Vinick asks for a private meeting with Matt.

Vinick: "I want to give him back his briefcase."

Bruno: "I figured."

Vinick: "'When in doubt, do the right thing -'"

Vinick and Bruno (together): "'The rest of the time, get away with whatever you can.'"

Vinick: "Who said that? It must have been one of those Louisiana governors."

Bruno: "Yeah, probably from his jail cell."

Then Bruno goes on with his argument for using the checkbook:

Bruno: "You know, Santos never got the vetting a front-runner gets. He was never supposed to get the nomination. The press gave him a free ride in the primaries. Until now, he's been running way behind you, so the press still hasn't done their digging on him. But they will now. So, it really doesn't matter what you do with that briefcase. It's going to come out. If it comes out when Santos is in the White House ... I don't know what happens. All hell is going to break loose."

Vinick is unshaken. He's giving the briefcase back. He and Matt meet in a hotel storage room.

Matt is upset that it took an entire day for Vinick to return the briefcase, and he knows Bruno has rummaged through it. Vinick says he's not going to use that information against him, but he sticks with the argument Bruno made - whatever scandal is revealed in that checkbook, it's going to come out, and it would be better if Matt comes clean now instead of waiting until he's President, having to deal with a personal scandal on top of the serious business of guiding the nation.

But Bruno and Vinick have it all wrong. Anita Morales' daughter isn't Matt's; it's his brother who is the deadbeat dad, the guy who got Morales pregnant and then didn't provide any support or live up to the responsibility. Matt gave her a job and a monthly stipend because he thought it was the right thing to do as a family member. Vinick is skeptical about his explanation:

And Matt shows stone-faced fury (frankly, unusual for him in the political arena) realizing he's not believed:

He leaves with a biting retort.

Matt: "You don't believe me."

Vinick: "Doesn't matter what I believe. You know the truth."

(Matt starts to leave, then turns back to Vinick)

Matt: "This is a family thing. This has nothing to do with what kind of President I would be."

And the episode closes almost as it began, with Vinick rubbing his painful right hand, musing over the course of the election as it barrels to a close.

 

It's interesting to me, to see Vinick shine with the political instinct to just talk his way out of the San Andreo problem, and then act more like a standard politician in trying to use a potential personal misstep against Matt politically. I think that final shot shows he regrets it, a little - but in any event, the slippage in the polls over blaming Vinick for the nuclear accident has stopped, and we've got about ten days left before the voters make their choice clear in what's obviously an incredibly tight race.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- We have not only the episode title to guide us, but an onscreen graphic right up front says "14 Days Until Election." So the day the candidates are in Chicago (and Vinick gets his hand squeezed by that Chicago Bears player) is Tuesday, October 24, 2006.

- A probably intentional little thing we're given to notice is how the candidates come onstage at the Chicago Small Business convention. Vinick (the Republican) comes on from stage right, while Santos (the Democrat) enters from stage left. Get it?

- I have my doubts that there'd actually be that much continued coverage of a Vinick press conference at San Andreo for almost three hours. Okay, maybe C-SPAN would stay for the entire thing, and that could explain Toby and Josh and Bruno and Jane still having it on TV to watch, but the local California stations and the cable news channels wouldn't keep broadcasting that live for multiple hours.

- Why'd They Come Up With Two Weeks Out?

It's two weeks before Election Day, duh.

Quotes    

Doctor: "We really need a set of X-rays."

Bruno and Vinick (together): "No."

Vinick: "No way."

Bruno: "No no no. Doctor, we've got a busload of reporters following us. We stop for an X-ray, the headline's gonna be 'Handshake Breaks Vinick's Hand.'"

Doctor: "I can't say for sure without an X-ray, but ... I think you got a metacarpal fracture and you're gonna need a cast."

Vinick: "No cast."

Doctor: "Senator, you have to --"

Vinick: "I can't look like an old man falling apart on the campaign trail."

Bruno: "And he's got a crowd waiting for him in Pittsburgh right now."

Doctor: "Well, I -- I guess I could realign the bone and ... give him a cast that he can take off in public."

Bruno: "Welcome to politics, doctor."

Vinick: "Anyone asks what you were doing in the car with me, we were discussing health care policies."

Doctor (pause): "Well, actually, I do have some suggestions about Medicare."

-----

Braun: "Bruno's 50-state strategy was ridiculous even before the accident."

Bruno: "Republicans have won 49 states twice in the last 30 years."

Braun: "Yeah, I've heard you say that a thousand times on TV. So you think nothing's changed in the last 20 years in the Republican Party?"

Bruno: "Yeah. People like you have taken over."

-----

Louise (on the phone with Josh, about the briefcase): "So there's nothing bad in there?"

Josh: "Like?"

Louise: "I don't know, heroin? Porn?"

Josh: "No, that's all mine."

-----

Braun: "A Republican can win the Presidency without winning California."

Vinick: "And a Democrat can't. This isn't some sentimental, home-state thing. This is about winning. I don't have a 50-state strategy any more. I have a one-state strategy - the one state that has everything; big cities, small towns, mountains, deserts, farms, factories, fishermen, surfers, all races, all religions, gay, straight ... everything this country has. There's more real America in California than anywhere else. If I can win California, I can win the country."

Braun: "That's a nice speech, just don't say it into any microphones cause everybody in the 49 other states thinks that California is a giant psycho ward."

-----

Vinick: "Please don't try to turn mud-slinging into a 'respect the voters' spiel."

Bruno: "Don't tell anyone, but I do respect the voters. That's why I win. I find out what they care about. I don't try to tell them what they care about."

Vinick: "That's not exactly my idea of leadership."

Bruno: "It's my idea of democracy. The voters get to set the terms of the elections, not us. They get to decide what's important, not us."

 

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

• Look, there's Danny Pudi (Abed from Community, which - thanks to his connection with the Community-producing Russo brothers who went on to direct a couple of Marvel Avengers movies - led Pudi to a small role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier; he's also in the upcoming TV series Going Dutch)! As a matter of fact, this appearance in The West Wing is Pudi's very first entry on his IMDB page. He also appeared in an episode of ER (continuing the ER/West Wing pipeline) and had a short run on Gilmore Girls that year.
  

• Matt Welsh, the fictional Chicago Bears player introducing both Vinick and Santos at the Chicago event, is played by Matt Willig (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Young Rock). Willig actually did play in the NFL for 14 seasons, including for two Super Bowl teams.

• The fact that Toby is now secretly in touch with Josh as a campaign adviser for Santos is interesting, given that Toby's outright hostile dismissal of Matt as a serious candidate was a big part of the wedge driven between he and Josh (not to mention the fight they had in Toby's office in Drought Conditions). Of course, seeing as how Matt is now the nominee and the only candidate the Democrats have got, I guess I could see Toby coming on board and doing his part to help the campaign.

• Toby tells Josh he's running on three hours sleep a night and not thinking straight; the commentary on Josh pushing himself too hard during the campaign and not accepting help goes all the way back to at least The Ticket, and will continue until after the election.
  

• Matt's brother has been a thorn in the side of the campaign before. We saw Jorge in Running Mates, where he was pushing Matt to arrange a meeting with some of Jorge's business associates.
  

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• A player for the NFL's Chicago Bears introduces the candidates at the small business owners' event in Chicago (and crushes Vinick's hand in the process).
  

• We see onscreen representations of news organizations MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and USA Today.

  

 

 

 

• Bruno says Republican presidential candidates have won 49 states twice in the past 30 years. This is accurate (kind of) in reality: Richard Nixon won 49 states (only losing Massachusetts) in 1972, while Ronald Reagan won 49 states (except for Walter Mondale's home state of Minnesota) in 1984. Bruno's "30 years" is an approximation, as Nixon's win would have been 34 years prior to the events shown in this episode.
  

• Jane pushes Vinick to go to his hometown, Santa Paula, to remind voters of his roots in a farming community. Santa Paula is a small city (about 29,000 residents at the time) in Ventura County, about an hour northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The town calls itself "The Citrus Capital Of The World."
  

• Some fictional broadcast stations portrayed in this episode include KTML TV in Fresno, WPML, and KZPZ. WKZM is a radio station in Sarasota, Florida, run by the Moody Bible Institute. KPPO are call letters actually used for a non-commercial radio station in Pago Pago, American Samoa - but I doubt that either station would be covering an event in San Andreo, California.

• Jane Braun makes a statement about "drinking the Vinick Kool-Aid," which is not only a remark about the very real beverage Kool-Aid, but also a reference to the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana. "Drinking the Kool-Aid" became shorthand for buying into a doomed or dangerous idea after that tragedy, where nearly a thousand followers of Jim Jones drank a poisoned beverage in a mass murder-suicide.
  

End credits freeze frame: Vinick and his staff encountering Santos and his staff in the hotel hallway in Philadelphia.

Previous episode: The Cold

Next episode: Welcome To Wherever You Are