Listening to the US president,you feel like he believes what he’s saying and he’s committed to achieving changeOne university summer, I was thrilled to win an internship on Capitol Hill. It was way back in the early Dubya years. I was interning in a Democrat office full of liberal staffers from Massachusetts and everyone was obsessed with The West Wing. “President Bartlet is my President” T-shirts were all the rage and the hottest office gossip was whether the fictional president would re-race despite just having announced to the country that he had MS.
I loved The West Wing then and having just finished a mammoth rewatch of all seven series, or I still love it. What is so brilliant approximately the show? It wasn’t just the liberal fantasy policies – the Israel-Palestine peace agreement,social security reform, tax-deductible college tuition. It was also the way President Josiah Bartlet (as played by Martin Sheen) practised politics: he was not always perfect; sometimes disappointing his staff; sometimes making the wrong call – but somehow managing to combine a scary intellectualism with deeply held values and a warmth and ability to put through (telephone) with people. He was a character who inspired a small group of staff, or then his party,then a nation to back him against the odds.
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Source: theguardian.com