I didn\u2019t see it coming.\u00a0\u00a0It was Sunday afternoon, and after writing an essay, getting through a workout, and eating a Sunday-late breakfast with Jenn, I settled to watch \u201cthe rest\u201d of the Sunday news shows. (OK, Sunday morning is where I surrender to complete political nerd-dom.\u00a0\u00a0I wrote my essay to the background of MSNBC\u2019s \u201cWeekend\u201d; did my workout to ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week with George Stephanopoulos\u201d and the local NBC channel\u2019s \u201cThe Spectrum\u201d; ate breakfast to NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d; then back to MSNBC for \u201cInside with Jen Psaki\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0I used to try to leaven that with a little bit of \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d, but when Chris Wallace left, so did I<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all of that talk, and thought, and workout, and food; you\u2019d think that would be enough news and commentary.\u00a0\u00a0And it was; I moved to the family room with all the dogs.\u00a0\u00a0They crashed on the couch with Jenn; I hit my recliner.\u00a0\u00a0So I was dozing through the end of Jen Psaki, kind of half listening to her as I faded in and out.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And then, I got blindsided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jen Psaki\u2019s last guests were Mary McCormack and Martin Sheen. If you don\u2019t know their combined names, you may not get the rest of this essay (but please, carry on<\/em>). Both played characters in the long-running political show The West Wing (1999-2006).<\/em> McCormack played Kate Harper, Deputy National Security Advisor for the last three years of the series about the White House. Martin Sheen starred for seven years as President Josiah Bartlet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The West Wing <\/em>was about the Bartlet administration, from beginning to end. Bartlet was a \u201cmoderate\u201d Democrat, and the Aaron Sorkin produced show quickly sucked in viewers with political interests from all parties. It had (has) a special place in American politics: an uplifting show at a time just after the real President was impeached for having a sexual relationship with a twenty-one year old intern. As an American and a Democrat, The<\/em> West Wing <\/em>helped me emotionally get through the election crisis of 2000 that resulted in the George W Bush Administration, and 9-11. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, it was right after 9-11 that I realized how important The West Wing <\/em>was. How does a television show about the Presidency, talk about the ultimate national crisis? Instead of trying to reconstruct a White House under attack, or somehow dramatize the event; they chose to educate America on who attacked us and why. \u201cIsaac and Ishmael\u201d wasn\u2019t in sequence with the series; it was a stand-alone episode written by Sorkin. It was the show, but more importantly it tried to teach a lesson, the same lesson President Bush taught when he spoke at the Islamic Center and quoted the Koran soon after the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Psaki opened the segment of her show with a cut from the final season of\u00a0The West Wing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>President Bartlet, finishing his second term, is backstage at the Democratic Convention, waiting to endorse the new Democratic candidate for President, Congressman Matt Santos.\u00a0\u00a0Standing beside him is his former Chief of Staff and best friend, Leo McGarry, who accepted the role as Santos\u2019s running mate.\u00a0\u00a0Bartlet is introduced to resounding applause and cheers, as the convention recognizes his accomplishments in office.\u00a0\u00a0There are chants of \u201cFour More Years!!!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, it relates directly to Joe Biden appearing at tonight\u2019s Democratic Convention to endorse Kamala Harris.\u00a0 Democrats will shower Biden with \u201clove\u201d, for what he achieved, and also what he sacrificed for the Party, and the Country.\u00a0\u00a0I hadn\u2019t really thought of that direct tie to\u00a0The West Wing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>And then, when the clip ended and Psaki, Sheen, and McCormack were sitting at the table, all three were shedding tears.\u00a0\u00a0Psaki because life was imitating art.\u00a0\u00a0Her President, Joe Biden (she was his Press Secretary), is in the \u201cfinal season\u201d of his \u201cBartlet\u201d role.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Sheen and Mary McCormack were crying for a different reason. This was the last scene in the show the Sheen and his friend John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, were together. Spencer died of a massive heart attack soon after (another example of life imitating art, the McGarry character suffered a near-fatal heart in season six). The last few episodes of the show were written around his absence, and, in the show, he died of a second heart failure on election day. Sheen doesn\u2019t often watch his own work \u2013 this, now eighteen years later, was the first time he saw the scene with them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The West Wing\u00a0<\/em>gave \u201cus Democrats\u201d hope in the interminable stretch from the end of Clinton until the beginning of Barack Obama.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t long from the end of the series to the beginning of \u201cYes We Can\u201d with the first African-American President.\u00a0\u00a0But it wasn\u2019t just \u201cus Democrats\u201d watching the show.\u00a0\u00a0In the third season, Bartlet is running for re-election.\u00a0\u00a0After struggling to find a \u201crhythm\u201d for the campaign, McGarry sums up the way to “right the ship\u201d:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLet Bartlet be Bartlet\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Last week, Corey Lewandowski, an early Trump campaign manager from 2016, returned to help the floundering Trump organization.\u00a0\u00a0Lewandowski\u2019s is known for his campaign \u201cfix\u201d; \u201cLet Trump be Trump\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nCounterpoint to Reality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Art Imitates Life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Life Imitates Art<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A West Wing Moment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n