Sarah's Marathon Diary: On Presidential Debates, Both Real And, In Season 4 Of The West Wing, Imaginary

[Primetimer]

Marathon diarist Sarah Hope finds striking similarities between Barlet vs. Ritchie face-off, and Clinton vs. Trump. Spoiler alert: the fantasy is way better than reality.

View the full article

[LAFR]

It occurred to me this morning that the part of the debate last night where Secretary Clinton listed all the things that Trump did not support by not paying taxes (if that's what he's hiding in the return) could be the start of a Jed Bartlett / Sorkin-esq speech on why we need taxes - schools, vets, infrastructure, etc.

[mizminnie]

I loved that debate ep ..I loved the opening of the first lady cutting off his tie to "get him in the mood" for the debate and his cheeky slapping her behind while going on stage. It was awesome ...and I will never NOT Fistpump that most AWESOME part of dialogue of the whole Season ... no matter how many times I watch it!

"Well, first of all, let's clear up a couple of things. "Unfunded mandate" is two words, not one big word. There are times when we're fifty states and there are times when we're one country, and have national needs. And the way I know this is that Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights. You think states should do the governing wall-to-wall. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But your state of Florida got $12.6 billion in federal money last year - from Nebraskans, and Virginians, and New Yorkers, and Alaskans, with their Eskimo poetry. 12.6 out of a state budget of $50 billion. I'm supposed to be using this time for a question, so here it is: Can we have it back, please?"

BAM ...HOW can you not wish for a guy like thzat to be your President?

[txhorns79]

Quote

Game on, boyfriend.

This is still possibly one of the weirdest, most nonsensical lines uttered by a character on this show.

Edited September 27, 2016 by txhorns79

[AndySmith]

Interesting that this edition of the re-watch syncs with the the current debate. The Clintons like to paint themselves as being like the Bartletts, when they're probably closer to being the Underwoods.

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, mizminnie said:

...and I will never NOT Fistpump that most AWESOME part of dialogue of the whole Season ... no matter how many times I watch it!

It's not going to be Uncle Fluffy.

[Linderhill]

"BAM ...HOW can you not wish for a guy like thzat to be your President?"

I can when its that blowhard Martin Sheen saying it. I guess its an Unpopular Opinion but I was more and more disenfranchised with the show and stopped watching right after Sam//Rob Lowe left the show. Too much preachiness and self-righteousness. Of course I hated the episode that everyone seems to love, "Two Cathedrals."

[The Solid Muldoon]

  On 9/27/2016 at 10:34 AM, mizminnie said:

...and I will never NOT Fistpump that most AWESOME part of dialogue of the whole Season ... no matter how many times I watch it!

It's not going to be Uncle Fluffy.

CJ's reaction was priceless. "Oh. My. Gawd."

[Runningwild]

Growing tired of the anti-Trump, anti-Republican comments and bias in every review. Am I the only non-Liberal on this board?

[Kohola3]

Hope so.

[jacksgirl]

Pretty sure that many of us who.loved West Wing are more liberal than conservative.

[BW Manilowe]

In the gray, subtitle-ish area for this part of the marathon diary, it says "Barlet" in 1 place where it should say "Bartlet".

[twinkietwin94]

On 9/28/2016 at 8:59 PM, Runningwild said:

Growing tired of the anti-Trump, anti-Republican comments and bias in every review. Am I the only non-Liberal on this board?

I haven't even read the reviews, just following the threads. I'm pretty middle of the road, when people have asked in the past I've always said if there were a fence between the sides I'm on the left leaning on it, some of my views are more conservative. That being said I'll still disappear into this show as much as I can over the next few weeks as I'm so over the election already and especially over the comments on all the political posts, might be why I've been skipping these reviews.