West Winging it through the final weeks of the campaign

[dreamshark]

For the past year or two I've been doggedly working my way through all 7 seasons of West Wing on Netflix. Just as the 2008 presidential campaign screeches to a climax I've arrived at the midpoint of Season 6, where the Santos/Vinnick presidential race kicks off. This is quite a stroke of serendipity, as there is quite a bit of overlap between reality and fiction.

Watching the fictional Santos give his acceptance speech about the Politics of Hope was almost spooky. I've been told that the parallels between Santos and Obama are far from accidental; apparently the writers have admitted that the Santos character was inspired by Obama. Considering that the episodes I'm watching now were written in 2004, that was pretty darned prescient.

But Santos isn't Obama - he's an individual in his own right. Watching the early episodes of the Santos campaign I was finding it hard to believe that any brand-new candidate would be so headstrong as to simply disregard the advice of his seasoned campaign advisers. Then I read this.

Oooookayyyy. Apparently Santos is an even MORE prescient conglomeration of Obama and Palin.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"...I was finding it hard to believe that any brand-new candidate would be so headstrong as to simply disregard the advice of his seasoned campaign advisers."

Palin's case is different; her advisors have a different agenda than she does. Presumably, her advisors want the ticket to win. She has probably realized that winning isn't possible, and is trying to position herself for the future.

B

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Going against your top advisors is lousy politics but great tv. Still, some candidates have better "instincts" than others. One of the things about picking advisors: It's a reflection on the choices you will make as president.

It's one thing to discuss with your top people. It's another for Palin to go rogue. B's right about her, but it's even worse: McCain made a lousy choice and Palin is making even worse choices.

And yeah, sometimes fiction has to make more sense than reality.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

There are a startling number of prescient comparisons. I don't know if Sorkin was thinking about Obama, but I doubt it. It's clear, though, that Vinnick was meant to be the John McCain of 2000 who we thought we knew, absent the POW story. A moderate sensible straight-talking non-social conservative.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"I don't know if Sorkin was thinking about Obama, but I doubt it."

It wasn't Sorkin (who had left the series by the time Santos showed up) but somebody was. I googled "West Wing Obama" and found this:

http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/02/27/the-west-wing-obama-and-plagiarism/

[emerdavid.livejournal.com]

Wait 'til you get into season 7 and the campaign REALLY takes off!

I just re-watched the last half of season 7, the parts where it's just two weeks, then 9 days, then 4 days, then the night before the election. Man, I'm glad I'm not running a national political race -- it's brutal.

The parallels between the West Wing presidential race and the real one are indeed spooky. The Democratic candidate, from a non-white ethnic background, comes from near-obscurity to win a tightly-contested primary race against a presumptive favorite. He chooses and older and vastly more experienced running mate. The Republican nominee has the age and experience, and picks a VP candidate who's pretty far right, to engage the evangelical and rural segment of the party base.

Keep watching.