The Great West Wing Rewatch: 4.2 "20 Hours in America" Pt.2

Joel: Really, the 20 Hours in America episodes serve as a big reminder and perhaps a warning about how the Washington DC culture can affect even the best of people. This election is eating up everyone’s time. And like I said in the previous review, that isn’t going to automatically be a terrible thing. Things like debates and campaigning is an important part of our system, and it can make for some fantastic television. And the election storyline which took up a large part of last season is going to continue to be a main storyline for the first several episodes of this one. But all  that constant focus on a single vote that takes place on a single day can skew your view on things. At the start of this episode the President makes a man reschedule his picture because he is afraid of a jinx. Yes it’s a scene that’s played for laughs, but it still shows that right now, at this point in his presidency, Bartlet is more concerned with how good of a president he appears to be instead of how good of a president he is. Then the reality check comes in as a bomb going on at a university swim meet. And as consequences for his decision about Qumar starting to happen. And a kid like Anthony suddenly being without a mentor to look up to. While everyone in The White House is running for reelection, the real world is still happening out there, and a balancing act needs to be done. It’s a reminder that just because you’re running for a second term, you still haven’t completed the first four years that you were elected to yet.

Chris: At the end of the episode, Bruno calls Sam a freak because he was able to come up such a moving speech for the president while in the car on the way to the event where the speech was given but I’m gonna go ahead and call Aaron Sorkin for being able to come up with the speech at all. It’s yet another moving moment in a time of turmoil, panic and confusion and the president does what the president is suppose to do, bring the country into a sense of calm and reassure them that what the hectic situation, the government is working and doing something to fix it. Also, the show really knows how to pick great secretaries for the President as we finally get a resolution on Debbie getting hired and why exactly she’s been acting so weird about this entire hiring process anyway. I do understand Donna at the end of the episode because there was plenty of times when Toby and Josh’s obnoxiousness gets out of hand as they argue over semantics on exactly how they want the president to answer every question he’s ever asked.

A good president wants to be kept updated on the latest actions of a dollar bill.