The President played by Martin Sheen
© NBC Photo: David Rose
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Written by: Aaron Sorkin
- Directed by: Alex Graves
- Takes Place: August 14-November 7, 2000 or was it in May to election day?
- Broadcast: October 18, 2000
- Bartlet's Quotations: Biblical Injunctions
- Query: When did the shooting take place: May or August?
- Query: Are Physicists About to Produce a Theory of Everything?
- Query: How Can a Man Belong to an All White Fraternity at a College which Doesn't Have Fraternities?
- Query: Could Sam's friend have used peremptory (or what the show called "preemptive") challenges to have excluded Blacks from juries?
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It's been a week since the shooting. (C.J. says, "A week ago the job approval's at 51. We get shot at and it's at 81. Yeah, I think the numbers are soft.")
- Bartlet wants to campaign against an old rival in New Hampshire who is running for the local school board. But Leo is keeping him on a tight leash:
- "Sir. Let's play a game of 'Who Do You Think I'm Going to Agree With'? Fourteen doctors say you should wait another week before assuming a campaign schedule. Who do you think I'm going to agree with?"
"Get away from me."
"Yes, Sir."
- Sam asks a guy he went to law school with to run for a Congressional seat.
- Toby's upset that C.J. doesn't back him up:
- "You get my support the same way, I get yours," she tells him, "when I agree with what you're saying or when I don't care about what you're saying. This time I disagree."
"You don't think we should use this time to get aggressive about guns and hate groups."
"I think we were victims of a violent crime and it's unseemly to use this time at all."
- Donna protects Josh from Toby, or anyone else visiting him on politics or business, while he recovers at home. He, however, keeps in close touch on the phone.
- The President is making campaign calls from the residence in an attempt to obey the campaign rules. When Zoey asks Leo why he makes campaign calls from the residence instead of the office when both are really government property, Leo tells her:
- "Because your father is a demented, demented man."
- Meanwhile, Sam is told by Josh and Leo that his friend has become a liability and they won't be supporting him with money or anything else.
- "I told him we would stand behind him. I told him he would have our full support. I was the one who asked him to run. I was asked to ask him."
"I know," Leo admits. . . . "We can't afford all the things we want. . . ."
- The President is stewing over the fact that his old rival is ahead in the polls. C.J. tells him that he has to ease up over this:
- "In a democracy often times other people win."
- Three months after the shooting, Toby tells the President that he isn't fully recovered from the psychological effects and he needs some time off. The President seems sympathetic:
- "That's no problem. Not a problem at all. Fifteen minutes. . . . It's time to get up off the mat."
"I'm not sure I can come out of the other side of this," Toby tells him.
- Later at a reception for Talk Radio Hosts, the President comes down on the idea of taking some Biblical Injunctions seriously while realizing that others are a little out of date after 2500 years.
For anyone interested in guest stars of this episode (as well as more information),
let us recommend the West Wing Episode Guide.
Background from Bravo: What you need to know from past episodes.
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#203 (25) "The Midterms"
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