The Great West Wing Rewatch: 5.7 "Separation of Powers"

Joel: There is a lot of back and forth throughout the show as to whether or not Bartlet is a strong President. We know that he is supposed to be a good president. It’s pretty much the whole point of the show that this administration has an ideal view of government and their role in America. What the show seems to go back and forth on is if Bartlet is a good president, or at the very least and effective one. So much of the first season is about how often they fail or their ideas and plans are blocked from being effective. But the show flips on us every now and then to show that when Bartlet decides it’s time to really go after something, nothing in the world will be able to stand in his way. I feel like we keep having to talk about how Bartet isn’t that effective, that he has no political capital left, so we can keep getting those moments where he can draw a line in the sand with a long, angry monologue about the state of this or that in America. For example toward the end of this episode, we get a moment where the Chief Justice tells the President that he’s not strong enough of a president to get anybody effective on the bench. It’s supposed to be a moment that inspires Bartlet to dig his heels in and not compromise later in the episode, but it strikes me that we keep having to kick Bartlet back down to get these points. It’s getting a little repetitive and it feels like we’re trying to recreate the “Let Bartlet be Bartlet” moment with less and less success each time.

Chris: This is another one of those episodes where the president needs to be shaken back into having a backbone and shaken back to reality. The beginning of this episode and in the episodes leading up to it, And all of that would've been fine if this wasn't immediately following an episode where C.J. had just shaken the president back to reality over the disaster relief. Those two episode undermine Bartlet's resolve a little, not to the point of permanent damage but enough to be a little annoyed at the timing of the two episodes. Perhaps this is to show the need for Josh to be back into being more involved because his aggressive demeanor in the way he does his job tends to be the driving force behind the president's agenda. Sure, a few episodes ago that aggressive demeanor was so severe that it made a politician switch to Republican but do you really think had he gone on the disaster relief trip with the president, it would've taken him as long to convince the president to leave? Or if Josh was in the room for the budget talks instead of his replacement Angela and Donna, would he had been as steadfast as the president was at the end thus leaving more time to come to an agreement before the president got involved. So there you go, these last two episodes didn't lead the audience to fully question Bartlet's ability but it did show how badly Josh needs to be the guy in the room.

A good president would rather shut the government down than work a deal with the smug opposition leader.