The Great West Wing Rewatch: 7.10 "Running Mates"

Joel: This was the first episode of the show to air after the unexpected death of John Spencer, and the episode itself opens up with a segment where Martin Sheen deticates the upcoming set of episodes to the late actor. It’s fitting in some ways that this is the very next episode to air after Spencer’s death. In many ways, the character never quite recovered after the heart attack storyline. For years Leo has been the man in charge in every situation, and then we had that story. By the time Leo recovered and returned to the White House, it was like everyone had already moved on. Leo never really fell back into the swing of things. Then when he was added to the ticket, most of the Leo conversations revolved around whether or not he was up for the challenge, his addiction and health problems being frequently cited.
But in this episode, we finally get to be reminded that Leo is really good at what he does. It’s the first time we get to see him back in full form, and he performs marvelously. Not only does he do a fantastic job in the debate, but he also plays the political game well by lowering expectations to where they needed to be, when Josh and company decided against the idea. In the last episode there was a moment where a member of the Democratic party said that Leo was the best person to be running the campaign. And while we know at the end of the day, that Josh was the right person for the Santos campaign, it’s good to have one last reminder that Leo is still one of the greatest political minds of his time.

Chris: We're only one episode removed from the democratic party practically itching for Leo to take over the campaign because he's considered the best to have ever done it and this episode brings us all down to earth and remind us that Leo has never been the on-camera portion of a campaign. Had Leo talked to Josh about doing the leak beforehand, Josh never would've gone along with it as to always protect Leo's image but Leo, despite his on-screen shortcomings, is still the campaign chess master and knew exactly how Josh would react to the leak and how it would benefit the debate itself. It was a fitting episode to acknowledge John Spencer's death at the beginning because Running Mates was a prime example of Spencer's emotional range as he went from extreme uncertainty to immense confidence in less than an hour. Luckily for us, we still have Leo in one more episode to come.