Irrelevant But Awesome

Joel:  I know that the show as a whole is about being the people who run the country, not about trying to be the people that run the country. Because of that, it was a good idea to start the show a year into Bartlet’s first term, skip all of the campaigning, all of the first day bumbles and go straight to Bartlet being the president. But this episode (and several of the upcoming ones) really make me wish we had gotten to see more of Bartlet’s first campaign. I know we got a few glimpses here and there through flashbacks, but for the most part, the campaign Bartlet we see is the one who’s running for a second term, with the weight of the White House and the entire Democratic party behind him. This makes me want to seek the early Bartlet campaign, the one with the falling apart headquarters. The one that was worried about running out of money. Where the whole thing was held together with sheer determination and morale boosting speeches. We get a good sampling of that with the f...

Joel:  That scene in the bathroom, that was a rough one. You know, this whole series, Bartlet has been pretty upbeat about the MS diagnosis. I’m sure that there were moments of frustration and disappointment, but those happened off screen. As far as we’ve seen Bartlet has done everything possible to make sure it didn’t impact his day to day life or his job as the president. Abby has had to be the one to constantly talk him down, and to remind him of his potential limitations. This makes the scene in the floor of the bathroom so much more jarring. Even in this episode Bartlet has seemed to have a fairly good attitude about the whole thing, even to the point of cracking jokes with the secret service member who has had to carry him everywhere. But here, in the bathroom, he lets that presidential aloofness fall away, and we can see the frustration, the anger, and the sadness that Bartlet is going through. He knows he has the ability to be a good leader, a good President. He’s bee...

Joel:  The Hoynes storyline in this episode is upsetting. Not for the character himself, but because it shows a reality of Washington. The Presidential election cycle just ended. It’s going to be four years before another election is held. We are literally as far away from a Presidential election as we can get, and yet for Hoynes (and I’m sure several other people in Washington) it’s time to start campaigning all over again. Sure it’s not the “Vote for me,” on the road type of campaigning we see during the actual year of an election, but make no mistake, it’s still campaigning. I remember being a kid and thinking that four years was forever (mind you, I was six at the time so it was two thirds of my lifetime) and surely we needed to hold elections at least every year. But now, it seems like half of the first four years is focused on getting the second four years. And even then, some of the second four years is focused on the making sure the next guy is from the same party. A...