History Headscratchers / TheWestWing

* One thing that bothered me for a long time was the odd absence of several key figures in a presidential administration. Shouldn't the Secretary of State have been a major character? Look at pictures of real life presidents, you'll notice they tend to appear a LOT. Seems like an odd omission, especially since the show often deals with foreign policy.

** Bartlet probably ''hasn't'' forgotten the meeting, but that doesn't mean he's an expert on African geography or political relations. Meeting the leader of a country -- even under such traumatic circumstances -- doesn't necessarily mean being able to pinpoint that country on a map; there's lots of countries in the world, there's lots of countries in Africa, Bartlet's no doubt met a lot of world leaders and he can't reasonably be expected to geographically place ''all'' of them. Especially when, in circumstances such as a crippling civil war-slash-ethnic cleansing, national borders tend to get a bit hazy; for all he knows, Equatorial Kundu has moved 100km up the map since he last heard about it. Furthermore IIRC, the plot of that particular episode involves Bartlet being deliberately stymied and denied information by certain parties involved in the situation in order to prevent him or his administration from acting on what's happening in Kundu (for whatever reason -- it's been a while since I've seen it). I think Bartlet might also just be expressing his frustration about not being informed anything of substance by his aides and having to find out what he does know himself -- "I had to look at a map!", in this case, is shorthand for "I basically had to find out everything I currently know about this situation all by myself because everyone else has told me precisely dick-all about it."

* One thing that bothered me for a long time was the odd absence of several key figures in a presidential administration. Shouldn't the Secretary of State have been a major character? Look at pictures of real life presidents, you'll notice they tend to appear a LOT. Seems like an odd omission

* The first season [[HighClassCallGirl Laurie]] plot always bugged me because prostitution ''is'' [[http://weblinks.westlaw.com/toc/default.aspx?Abbr=dc-st-web&Action=ExpandTree&AP=N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65&ItemKey=N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65&RP=%2Ftoc%2Fdefault%2Ewl&Service=TOC&RS=WEBL11.10&VR=2.0&SPa=dcc-1000&pbc=DA010192&fragment#N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65 in fact illegal in Washington, D.C.]] They continually treat Laurie like a huge victim in the entire affair when she's the one knowingly and repeatedly breaking the law with the non-judgemental acknowledgement of everyone around her. Now, it may be reasonable to assume that the staff and even the local law enforcement choose not to enforce that law against the women of the trade...but when the President finally gets wind of it: he goes out of his way to apologize (again) for the dreadful inconvenience the press has caused her, which is of course entirely Sam's fault; he pledges to throw the weight of the Attorney General's office behind get ting her admitted to the bar after passing her exam, to avoid any complications caused by this unfortunate past, of which she is the victim; and he offers her his personal congratulations while brimming with pride at the obstacles this young woman has overcome. I'm not saying she should've been vilified, or that it wasn't reasonable for Sam to see her as a person rather than a hooker, but...really?

* The first season [[HighClassCallGirl Laurie]] plot always bugged me because prostitution ''is'' [[http://weblinks.westlaw.com/toc/default.aspx?Abbr=dc-st-web&Action=ExpandTree&AP=N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65&ItemKey=N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65&RP=%2Ftoc%2Fdefault%2Ewl&Service=TOC&RS=WEBL11.10&VR=2.0&SPa=dcc-1000&pbc=DA010192&fragment#N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65 in fact illegal in Washington, D.C.]] They continually treat Laurie like a huge victim in the entire affair when she's the one knowingly and repeatedly breaking the law with the non-judgemental acknowledgement of everyone around her. Now, it may be reasonable to assume that the staff and even the local law enforcement choose not to enforce that law against the women of the trade...but when the President finally gets wind of it: he goes out of his way to apologize (again) for the dreadful inconvenience the press has caused her, which is of course entirely Sam's fault; he pledges to throw the weight of the Attorney General's office behind get ting her admitted to the bar after passing her exam, to avoid any complications caused by this unfortunate past, of which she is the victim; and he offers her his personal congratulations while brimming with pride at the obstacles this young woman has overcome. Now, I'm not saying she should've been vilified, or that it wasn't reasonable for Sam to see her as a person rather than a hooker, but...really?

* The first season [[HighClassCallGirl Laurie]] plot always bugged me because prostitution ''is'' [[http://weblinks.westlaw.com/toc/default.aspx?Abbr=dc-st-web&Action=ExpandTree&AP=N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65&ItemKey=N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65&RP=%2Ftoc%2Fdefault%2Ewl&Service=TOC&RS=WEBL11.10&VR=2.0&SPa=dcc-1000&pbc=DA010192&fragment#N63B30510FD7111DB9E7AB1840ED39E65 in fact illegal in Washington, D.C.]] They continually treat Laurie like a huge victim in the entire affair when she's the one knowingly and repeatedly breaking the law with the non-judgemental acknowledgement of everyone around her. Now, it may be reasonable to assume that the staff and even the local law enforcement choose not to enforce that law against the women of the trade...but when the President finally gets wind of it: he goes out of his way to apologize (again) for the dreadful inconvenience the press has caused her, which is of course entirely Sam's fault; he pledges to throw the weight of the Attorney General's office behind get ting her admitted to the bar after passing her exam, to avoid any complications caused by this unfortunate past, of which she is the victim; and he offers her his personal congratulations while brimming with pride at the obstacles this young woman has overcome. Now, I'm not saying she should've been vilified or anything, but...really?

* Yes, it was funny, but how in the world could Lionel Tribbey get anywhere ''near'' the Oval Office while brandishing a cricket bat?!

** Well, what Celia actually said to Sam wasn't "What you said offended me," it was more "What you're saying is offensive," period. And it isn't like Celia didn't apply her own worldview to Ainsley. "I'm surprised you're willing to allow your sexuality diminish your power," she said. She took how she felt on the subject and decided Ainsley was behaving in a certain, wrong way. It's pretty clear from the context, and from the way Sam and Ainsley interact with each other in general, that Sam ''was'' complimenting her. If it had been some random guy, sure, it'd have been something to look at, but we know Sam and Ainsley knows Sam. Celia doesn't know Sam. She reacted in a natural way, because it does sound bad if you're an outsider, but when Ainsley said it didn't bother her Celia protested that it ''should have''. That's what got Ainsley riled up. And Celia keeps going, saying that Sam wouldn't have been able to interact with a woman in any other way than to be sexual, which is just applying her mental view of men onto Sam. I think "honest to God sexual harassment" would mean, you know, harassment, instead of merely playing around, which is clearly how Ainsley views it (because she says as much).

** How do you think Shaquille O'Neal got his name? Is it the "Percival" part that mystifies you?

** Most black Americans have surnames that are white/European in origin -- English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese. Unless you've never heard of colonization or the slave trade, I don't know why this would confuse you.

** Adoption.

** You write a script before you cast the actor.

* How the heck did a black man end up with the name Percival Fitzwallace?

* They failed Political Science forever. The last non-incumbent Democrat to succeed to the office of President of the United States was James Buchanan. In that same period of time, four non-incumbent Republicans became POTUS, Hayes, Garfield, Taft (formerly Secretary of War), and Hoover (formerly Secretary of Commerce).
As far as incumbents, two Democrats (Truman and LBJ) were Vice President / President before they succeeded to the office of President through national election, while 2 Republicans (Coolidge, and H. Bush) did the same feat. Health problems prevented Arthur from running for a second term, TR at first decided not to run for a second term, but then changed his mind, tried, and lost, and Ford failed to secure a second term.

** The earliest president depicted in the series was D. Wire Newman, a one term liberal democrat who was prone to criticizing other presidents, specifically Walken. In the real world you have Jimmy Carter, a one term liberal democrat who was prone to criticizing other presidents, nobody specifically but all in general. He was defeated by a two term Republican. They didn’t come out and say that Republican Lassiter, but with the exception of Walken, he is the only Republican President mentioned. In series timeline Owen Lassiter is a Republican from California who towards the end of his life was infirm and tended to make rambling phone calls to the sitting President, in real life Ronald Reagan was a Republican from California who suffered from Alzheimer’s in his final years. In series time line we have Josiah Bartlett a middle path Democrat who served two terms, in real life we have Bill Clinton a middle path Democrat who served two terms. Yes that last is thin, but backed up by admissions from Aaron Sorkin, John Wells, and Martin Sheen that Bartlett was based on a revisionist version of Bill Clinton. Yes, John Spencer did pass away with his death written into the series with Leo McGary passing away under similar circumstances. How much this effected the Santos vs Vinick election is both debatable and subjective. But more importantly it was also irrelevant, because that was in the planning stage. In the planning stages of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tom Selleck was suppose to play Indiana Jones, but that didn’t happen either. In the end, Democratic President Bartlett was succeeded by Democratic Texas Congressman Matt Santos, who according to Producer Eli Attie was based on Barrack Obama; or like I stated in my previous posting, a Democrat succeeded by a non-incumbent Democrat, which had not happened since Buchanan. Yes, it was suppose to be an alternate timeline, but not a vacuum as well.

** I think it was like this, pretty similar to the above:
*** D. Wire Newman was roughly analogous to Jimmy Carter; both are 1-term Democrats.
*** Owen Lassiter was roughly analogous to Ronald Reagan; both are 2-term Republicans.
*** Jed Bartlet was roughly analogous to Bill Clinton, both 2-term Democrats (obviously).
*** There's a missing 2 years (between the Lassiter/Reagan and Bartlet/Clinton parallels), since the timeline of ''TheWestWing'' had elections in 2002 and 2006, and Bartlet's first election would have been in 1998 (real-world presidential elections are in '96, 2000, '04, and '08). So there's basically no analogue to the first president Bush, at least not one mentioned in the show.

*** There's a missing 2 years (between the Lassiter/Reagan and Bartlet/Clinton parallels) , since the timeline of ''TheWestWing'' had elections in 2002 and 2006 (and Bartlet's first election would have been in 1998). So there's basically no analogue to the first president Bush, at least not one mentioned in the show.

To have a non-incumbent Democrat (Santos)succeed another Democrat (Bartlet) not only bucks a 150 year trend, but shows how much hubris that liberal progressive Hollywood has. Dream on Hollyweed, dream on.

**** Gore won the popular vote in 2000. Without Nader we could of very much had a non-incumbent democrat succeed another. So the fictional result is not that far from reality.

* The first time we hear about the Republic of Equatorial Kundu, its president is at the White House, and Toby and Josh try to help him negotiate with drug companies to get free or discounted HIV medication for Kundunese citizens. Later, he talks to Bartlet in the Oval Office, and Bartlet tells him that a ''coup d'etat'' has occurred in his country. Bartlet tries to convince the Kundunese president to stay in America where he's safe, but he insists on going home-- and is summarily executed in the airport's parking lot upon arrival, as Bartlet warned him he would be. Later in the series, Kundu undergoes a Rwanda-like genocidal civil war, and Bartlet says, "What's this about Kundu? I was told about uprisings in the Republic of Equatorial Kundu, and I had to go look at a ''map!"'' He's implying that he's never heard of Kundu before, but how the '''hell''' could he have forgotten that meeting?!

The earliest president depicted in the series was D. Wire Newman, a one term liberal democrat who was prone to criticizing other presidents, specifically Walken. In the real world you have Jimmy Carter, a one term liberal democrat who was prone to criticizing other presidents, nobody specifically but all in general. He was defeated by a two term Republican. They didn’t come out and say that Republican Lassiter, but with the exception of Walken, he is the only Republican President mentioned. In series timeline Owen Lassiter is a Republican from California who towards the end of his life was infirm and tended to make rambling phone calls to the sitting President, in real life Ronald Reagan was a Republican from California who suffered from Alzheimer’s in his final years. In series time line we have Josiah Bartlett a middle path Democrat who served two terms, in real life we have Bill Clinton a middle path Democrat who served two terms. Yes that last is thin, but backed up by admissions from Aaron Sorkin, John Wells, and Martin Sheen that Bartlett was based on a revisionist version of Bill Clinton. Yes, John Spencer did pass away with his death written into the series with Leo McGary passing away under similar circumstances. How much this effected the Santos vs Vinick election is both debatable and subjective. But more importantly it was also irrelevant, because that was in the planning stage. In the planning stages of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tom Selleck was suppose to play Indiana Jones, but that didn’t happen either. In the end, Democratic President Bartlett was succeeded by Democratic Texas Congressman Matt Santos, who according to Producer Eli Attie was based on Barrack Obama; or like I stated in my previous posting, a Democrat succeeded by a non-incumbent Democrat, which had not happened since Buchanan. Yes, it was suppose to be an alternate timeline, but not a vacuum as well.
*** And there hasn't been two consecutive two term presidents since 1824, but we just had two terms of Clinton and two terms of Bush. Just because a trend exists doesn't mean it can't be broken.

** You DidNotDoTheResearch. About the show, not about the politics. 1. The West Wing operates on a pretty clear alternate timeline, since there are at least 4 presidents that don't exist in our world going back a couple decades. I'm pretty sure Lassiter was a Democrat, too, which makes the succession like Democrat Republican Democrat Democrat -- the political trends are very different. 2. Santos was originally going to ''lose'' the election. Then John Spencer died and the producers/writers decided it'd be way too depressing for show fans if Leo died ''and'' Santos lost the election; it would have been a complete DownerEnding. 3. The only reason in-show that Santos won, as cited time and time again, is because of the San Andreo accident and the fact that Vinick supported the building of the plant way the hell back in the 70's. Many, many characters on both sides say that without that one-in-a-million freak accident, Vinick would've won the election pretty well. So, it's less hubris and more the laws of making your audience not want to kill themselves.

* They failed Political Science forever
The last non-incumbent Democrat to succeed to the office of President of the United States was James Buchanan. In that same period of time, four non-incumbent Republicans became POTUS, Hayes, Garfield, Taft (formerly Secretary of War), and Hoover (formerly Secretary of Commerce).

* This actually fits in with the above: The sexual harassment subplot in "Night Five." A temp worker named Celia witnesses some unreciprocated mock-flirting from Sam to Ainsley and tells him he's being sexist; Sam plays the role of "hurt, hapless Y-chromosome who can't imagine what he did wrong"; Ainsley appears at the end to explain that she finds it empowering to use her sexuality in her work relationships (which is fine, until it starts making your coworkers uncomfortable), that men teasing her about it is "an inadvertant show of respect that I'm on the team" (...yeah, okay), that the whole thing is a "nonsense issue" and not to be confused with "honest-to-God sexual harassment" (which would consist of what, exactly? Ass-grabbing or it didn't happen?), and that Celia was wrong to object (she should have psychically known that Ainsley felt this way and let her own feelings about listening to innuendo-laden conversations in her workplace go unexpressed, apparently). And throughout, there are unaddressed moments that seem like they were purposely put in to [[BrokenAesop break the aesop]]: Sam claims that Ainsley "started it" when all she did was walk through the door wearing a little black dress (in fact, not only did she not start the flirting, she didn't even participate in it); Sam defends himself by saying, "I was complimenting her!" (the oldest response in the book, for Christ's sake -- it's like trying to assure the audience that your character isn't a racist by having him say, "I have black friends!"); Charlie contributes comic relief in the form of DoubleStandard cliches such as saying that he's fine with Sam's behavior in theory but if it had been his little sister he'd beat him up ([[SarcasmMode helpful]]); and [[WallBanger most irritatingly of all]], in the course of telling Celia off, Ainsley says, "If somebody says something that offends you, tell them, but all women don't have to think alike," to which Celia ''totally correctly'' replies, "I didn't say they did, and when somebody said something that offended me, I did say so" -- and Ainsley just plows right on ahead with her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as if that wasn't [[StrawmanHasAPoint the most reasonable thing anybody had said in the whole damn episode]]. God almighty.