When the West Wing wasn't looking, they described Bush's mandate to a tee.
The liberal White House on The West Wing represents
Hollywood's dream of a presidency they'd like to see. Little did
they know they'd end up endorsing the idea that a right of center
President earned a mandate by achieving the same vote margin as
their fictional President.
> 4) By the standard applied on NBC's The West Wing, President
George W. Bush won in a "landslide." In a 2002 episode following
the re-election of "President Josiah Bartlet," one of his top
aides, "Communications Director Toby Ziegler" stated that he won
by "three-and-a-half million" votes and later proclaimed that "we
won in a landslide." Bush won by about 3.3 million votes, pretty
close to "three-and-a-half million."
Last Wednesday I caught a West Wing re-run on Bravo with the
comments from the "Ziegler" character and then I tracked down the
original NBC airing, on November 20, 2002, of the episode titled
"Swiss Diplomacy," so I could get the MRC's tape of it and take
down the quotes exactly.
In the West Wing time line, "President Bartlet," played by
Martin Sheen, won re-election in 2002.
During the November 20, 2002 episode, Toby Ziegler, played by
Richard Schiff, tells a Congresswoman who lost a close re-election
that "Bartlet" won by "three and a half million" votes. "Ziegler"
wanted to nominate her for Director of the National Park Service,
but "Chief-of-Staff Leo McGarry" shoots down the idea, pointing
out that the Republican-controlled Senate will not approve her.
That prompts "Ziegler" to urge a fight for nominees opposed by the
Republican Senate: "Start getting used to the fact that we won in
a landslide. We can show some fight on this."
For the bio, on the West Wing site, of Schiff:
nbc.com
For the bio of the Ziegler character:
nbc.com
Both have a picture of Schiff/Ziegler.
According to the Washington Post's Web site, Bush got
60,693,281 votes and Kerry received 57,355,978 votes -- a Bush win
by 3,337,303 votes. See:
washingtonpost.com
The liberal White House on The West Wing represents
Hollywood's dream of a presidency they'd like to see. Little did
they know they'd end up endorsing the idea that a right of center
President earned a mandate by achieving the same vote margin as
their fictional President.
-- Brent Baker
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