The Great West Wing Rewatch: 4.7 "Election Night"
Joel: I t’s interesting that by this point in the story, there’s not really a question as to who is going to win the election. We know going into the episode that it is all but certain that Bartlet will have a second term. There is even some talk about not bothering to write a concession speech, he is that far ahead in the polls. It’s not that an election with that wide of a margin for victory isn’t possible, or even very likely, I know that it’s happened plenty of times in the past, but this is a TV show after all. This episode was written well after the 2000 election as well, so the idea of an entire presidential election coming down to a handful of votes in a single state, is a very real possibility. But instead, a TV show, where we would expect a dramatic, down to the wire election, instead portrays it as little more than a routine thing that just has to be gotten out of the way. Fortunately, we have the other election to bring drama to the episode. I’ll have more to say a...