The forgotten champion of witty banter and liberal ideology, The West Wing is as brilliant as it is addictive. Its seven seasons chronicle the inner workings of Democratic president Jed Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen) White House staff — scandals, shootings, international crises and intimate relationships between the staffers make for a show that is equal parts intensity and excellence.
The West Wing’s attention to the inner workings of Washington politics is unmatched; actual congressmen had the show’s writers work prospective legislative ideas into the script in order to test public opinion. Far from being a blast from the past, the show — especially the seventh and final season — is eerily similar to the 2008 presidential election. Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), Bartlet’s successor as Democratic nominee for president, was inspired by the writers after then-unknown legislator Barack Obama in 2004. In the general election, Santos faces Sen. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), a straight-talking moderate Republican modeled after three real men, one of whom was John McCain. In the months before Election Day, a national crisis sinks Vinick’s campaign. Economic crash, anyone? It gets weirder: both Santos and Obama are Bob Dylan fans. The Phillies play in the World Series during both elections. The Santos campaign slogan is “Yes, America Can.” There are references in campaign episodes to the Stevie Wonder song “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” the song that preceded Obama’s speeches during his post-primary rallies. Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), a character directly inspired by Democrat bulldog and President-elect Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel serves as Santos’s (you guessed it) Chief of Staff. The list goes on — the show’s prediction of recent American politics is borderline Nostradamic. So if you find yourself yearning for the drama, humor and breathtaking rhetoric that have defined the latest episode in real-life American politics, forget C-SPAN: it’s all available on DVD.
