The West Wing Character Who Grew The Most

[CM-BlueButterfly]

Which character do you think had the most significant growth over the course of the series?

[BAForever]

Donna is the too obvious choice. So maybe Charlie. Hope to see lots of opinions/comments on this.

[buttersister]

I could make a few cases, but I’ll go with Abby. A lot of folks got older, but her circumstances gave her a deeper wisdom, I thought. She was a large and in-charge person who understood that had been mostly an illusion.

[Morrigan2575]

I think it was Donna

[Sarah 103]

They are the obvious choices but I think it has to be Donna or Charlie. 

[Skooma]

Donna.

[General Days]

I think it's possible that Jed Bartlet grew the most.

If we take the story chronologically (so beginning with whatever episode it was, where we see the early days of the campaign), at first, Jed couldn't even be bothered to learn the names of these talented people who took enormous cuts in pay, and utterly disrupted their lives, to join his campaign (which he supposedly only launched, in order to push Hoynes on the issues).

He kept his MS from his staff and the country (and upon securing the nomination, Jed burdened Hoynes with the knowledge of it). 

It then took him forever to disclose the MS to the staff and to the nation. His growth started to show when he agreed to a congressional censure, in order to spare Leo's reputation.

I know Zoey's kidnapping isn't a favorite plot, but I thought it was the Barlet-growth payoff that his fictional America, and the very real TV audience deserved.

This man, who was arrogant enough to decide that his (non-lethal, but often) debilitating illness was no one's business but his own — the same man who took far too long to choke out an apology for his deception, grew into a man who knew he had to invoke the 25th Amendment, even though he had no Democratic VP in place at the time, so that he didn't literally risk the nation and the world to get back his kid. 

And of course, he grew in other aspects, along the way, from his relationship with Abby, to coming to terms with his father's abuse, to showing Hoynes grace (prior to Hoynes' resignation), Jed Bartlet grew so much.

I think he's not an obvious choice, because along with Leo, he was one of the more mature characters. He was knowledgeable, avuncular, idealistic, and talented in his own right, so it was easy to ignore his flaws — many of which were endearing (probably caring more if he won in New Hampshire, than if he won the nation, which is my personal favorite Bartlet vanity), but he grew a lot. I think he grew into the POTUS the nation deserved.

A dozen years ago, Michelle Obama famously said that the presidency doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are. And I think the fictional presidency did a good job of revealing who Jed Bartlet was at his core — even to Jed Bartlet. He became the man Leo always thought he was/would be.