5/7/2023 0 Comments Eximo liberas![]() She was right yesterday when she told me not to get on that damn bicycle while I was upset but I did it anyway, and I guess I was just about as angry as I’ve ever been in my life. Abby told me not to drive while I was upset and she was right. I get in the station wagon, put it in reverse, and pull out of the garage full speed. Twenty-eight years ago I came home from a very bad day at the state house, I tell Abby I’m going out for a drive. “You know, my wife Abbey, she never wants me to do anything while I’m upset. I don’t love that this takedown ends with a reprimand about sitting while the POTUS is standing, but it’s worth noting Bartlet’s inclusion of the word “tightass,” because, as we will come to see, asses are a big thing for him. I like to imagine two editors cutting this scene together and having the following conversation.Įditor 1: Wow, Bartlet is not here for that woman using the Bible to justify her homophobia!Įditor 2: Yeah, he sure has a lot of examples of rules in the Bible that we don’t follow because that’s not the way people live anymore.Įditor 1: Which examples are we supposed to leave in the episode?Įditor 2: All of them. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tightass Club, in this building when the President stands, nobody sits.” She’s a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. “I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I have you here. ![]() So take a short break from the endless speech-ifying of the 2020 candidates, won’t you, and let’s appreciate the speech-ifying of President Bartlet, with his 25 best speeches, moments, and one-liners:Ģ5. If his speeches are neoliberal drivel then, dammit, they are well written neoliberal drivel. But if we set aside these moments, and the fact that it’s somehow always raining during the most dramatic episodes, even the coolest and most jaded viewer can admit that the West Wing rhetoric was, occasionally, just a bit inspiring, especially when delivered by the (fictional) president. And every time they all lined up to say the same thing one after another. And yeah, sometimes it was (looking at you, “ Crackpots and These Women”). The Bartlet staff’s righteous (and self-righteous) elocution might seem - to the cynical - sentimental, treacly, smarmy, or just eye-roll-inducingly dumb. A highbrow, serialized drama with the central conceit of “good man tries to do good” instead of “bad man tries to figure out why he is sad” is relatively rare, which may be why the show’s chief strength is also its most oft-cited complaint: the speeches! The end of its run coincided with Deadwood, for chrissakes. The other big “political” show of the time was the violent 24. It aired concurrently with The Sopranos, whose anti-hero Tony begat Breaking Bad’s Walter White and Ray Donovan’s Ray Donovan. Take a minute to absorb to the idea.Ĭompared to other “prestige” television of the era, The West Wing stands out for its fundamental optimism. Both of those takes are probably correct but what if - and I know this is radical - we looked at The West Wing not as a referendum on the American political system but as a … television program. Conservatives dismiss the show as a pro-government fantasia where taxation is the panacea for society’s every ill, while liberals routinely point out how it’s rooted in a white, hetero POV that’s actually, ultimately, pretty centrist. Allison Janney’s CJ Cregg remains as brilliant as ever, but Josh’s neg-heavy courtship of his assistant Donna now seems not only immature but probably unethical. NBC’s The West Wing aired its final episode thirteen years ago this week, on May 14, 2006.
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