1221 Ramon Gerardo Antonio Estevez alias Martin Sheen

After the euphoria of yesterday I assumed Saturday would be an anti climax. I did this, and I did that, without much conviction, clear focus or intensity of being. There were no low moments, anxieties, or sadness, and then late in the day, after I had slept for a few moments and considered going to bed, I discovered that Ramon Gerardo Antonio Estevez was being shown Inside the Actors Studio, and I only needed a few seconds to recall the spiritual uplift which this man brings to anyone who cares to listen. You may know him as Martin Sheen.

You, if you are of sufficient years, may have encountered him first in 1970's in that film about the nature of life set in war, Catch 22, as 1st Lt Dobbs, and then as Kit Carruthers in Badlands, but his most famous film role was in 1979 in Apocalypse Now. He has appeared in over thirty major films and about 200 films of all kinds including documentaries predominantly for TV. For many of the later 20th century TV series generation, he is known as the President of the United States, Americans would loved him to have been, because of his role the West Wing 1999-2006.

Why is it that I regard the man as much as the actor, as one of the greats? It is because of a glowing spirit, the consequence of a traditional Catholic upbringing, of having entered into the abyss, then having a near death experience and then finding himself again and becoming a non violent activist, being arrested over fifty times, and having an understanding of heaven and hell which appears similar to mine.

His mother was Irish whose family fled to the USA because of their IRA connections, and his father was Spanish. He was part of a large family with eight brothers and one sister: one year younger than me. Despite parental opposition he borrowed money from a priest to go to New York to be the actor he wanted from an early age. His career commenced in the 1960's as I was going to college, whereas he decided against until in 2006 he enrolled in an Irish University to read literature, philosophy and theology. He is still protesting.

Late afternoon/early evening was devoted to football and to everyone's surprise Israel beat Russia and as a consequence England only have to draw against Croatia at Wembley to qualify after all. I suspect the media will have mixed views about this, sensing that had Russia won and then won its last match, the English Manager would have lost his job. There is no justice, it will be said in Scotland, because the heroic effort of their team came to an end in the first seconds of the match when they conceded a silly goal, and then as the second half progressed they equalised and had opportunities to win, only to lose in the dying seconds. Not many watching Scots will have been on the side of Israel and I expect there would have been a great cheer when after Russia equalised it looked as if they had scored a winner, only for the ball to go out after hitting the goal post. Shortly afterwards a piece of team brilliance and world class finishing sealed the victory for Israel, who also nearly had a third.

However the Scottish nation may be heading for a more profound victory. On Thursday evening I heard Andrew Neil, Diane Abbot and Michael Portillo discuss what would have been considered unthinkable, even treasonable, a decade ago, that in fact a democratic majority in Scotland could seek full political and economic independence and the significant aspect of the programme discussion was that this would not be the end of the world for England, and the rest of the UK, if this happened. If it does then my concern is that the North East would not be allowed to become part of Scotland despite the strongest of Celtic links.

In the build up to the game I reflected on the news of the past two days as a barometer of the state of these Islands. Talk of independent Scotland poses problems for the British Monarchy, as the Queen approaches her sixtieth year of reign, and given her Scottish connections and that her preference was of her mother to spend the Summer in the most northern areas of the mainland. One focus was the fact that Prince Harry is losing his hair quicker than his father, now that is news to rock the foundations of the Empire.

The Daily Mail is a good barometer of the political temperature of middle England, and appears enjoying exploiting to the maximum any government disaster although I do not share in the brutality of its assaults. Coming so soon after the debacle of seriously considering calling a general election when the motive could only have been party political or wanting to move away from manifesto commitments made by his predecessor, and with those words of inclusivity and transparency still ringing in our ears, came the news that the Home Secretary had agreed with her press office to delay disclosure that a significant number of illegal immigrants had been employed in the provision of physical security personnel to government. It is understandable that a new Minister does not want to sack officials for gross incompetence but that she could not see or understand that anything other than honest admission would be counterproductive is astonishing. The newspaper has also published a mischievous piece on Tony Blair about the impact of leaving power after ten years as prime Minister, going for his like of the trappings of wealth, and his difficulties with Gordon Brown, and attempting to suggest marital disharmony when on close reading it appears to be difficulties between the personalities managing their respective offices arising from the temporary situation as the office accommodation is being created. One of the next tests for the government is going to be the proposal to grant authority for suspected terrorists to be held in custody for more than 21 days. This smacks of Gordon trying to impose his authority and alas, if does, he will fail without the support of the Conservatives, and to start his premiership in this way would be terminal for him and for the political party.

What worries me is that at present we have more chance of being killed in a road accident, or by someone crazed from drink, drugs or lack of community mental health supervision and support, or if we are old or young, by a hospital based secondary infection, than by a terrorist. Hopefully this is because of the government led measures to prevent further atrocities but I would like to see greater effort to reduce drug taking and drunkenness on the streets, and on punishing those who fail to take all possible measures to reduce hospital based infections. If I drive a car and kill someone because I am not paying sufficient attention it may be judged to be manslaughter, and if I have not maintained the vehicle when its brakes needed fixing, of I was using my mobile phone, have excessive alcohol or have drugs in my system then the rule is that I will go to prison. If I am in charge of a hospital where not one but dozens of patients die because of secondary infection and it can be shown that I did not do all that was possible to change the position, then I should also go to prison, or at least have the matter tested in court. I do not understand why this is not happening.

1670 West Wing Blues

Sadly both the Brown and Obama administrations have in common being conned, is the kindest way of putting it, by the capitalist brotherhood in paying giant size bonuses to the banking scum whose greed and incompetence have brought millions into unemployment, families to lose their homes and financial distress to millions. In other times these people would have been stripped of their possessions and incarcerated, or worse. There is news this evening that the House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to introduce a 90% tax bonuses paid out by any company accepting more than $5 billions of bail out money. Well done. For once an administration is not prisoner of its party or parliamentary system. This was the situation in the fourth episode of West Wing : Five Votes Down.

President Bartlett played by the excellent actor Martin Sheen is determined to make progress in tackling the extent of gun crime in the USA. Every President knows hundreds of thousand die in their country because of the constitutional right to hold arms to protect ones family and self. I have every sympathy that in such a situation the law abiding should be hesitant about giving up their rights while the criminal class remains unaffected and the arms dealers are allowed by governments to sell their wares regardless of their immediate uses and in the future. Once any genie is out of its bottle it is impossible to recapture and the best that can be done is to monitor and constrain. For effective arms control in the USA to take place, arms manufacture and sales would have to be nationalized and a war declared on gun crime with the same determination as the war or terrorism. In episode 4 the President accepts that what is being done is palliative but even this comes under threat.

The episodes opens as the White House senior staff and media team attend a function at which the President is making the most of the merits of the new legislation and the team is then shown the arranged long planned but secret walk from the event to the security vehicles. The walk lasts four minutes and Charlie is on hand to see the President off in his car before returning home. The scene involved 500 extras. All the main characters have something to say.

The concern of the episode is that 5 democrats are not going to vote in favour of measure and the passage is therefore in doubt. One Senator explains that he is coming up for re-election and cannot afford to alienate anyone. Josh explains that if he votes against the measure he will not be the party candidate at the election. Another is open about his action. Apart from seeing the President when elected for a photo shoot with others he has had no contact. The deal is struck. He will have another photo, playing chess with the President. Getting others on line is more difficult and the Chief of Staff is forced to call on the Vice President for assistance in relation to one Senator and their contact reveals that both had a serious alcohol problem. The Vice President has his weekly card school which includes a judge and others in the government eye who cannot afford to be open about their private Alcoholics Anonymous group. The Chief of Staff joins in, under stress because his wife has walked out unable to cope with the reality of her husband holding such high office. He failed to remember their anniversary returning several hours after the banquet ended. He arranges for his staff to buy a expensive piece of jewellery and arranges of a meal at home with a violin player. However this does not prevent her leaving precipitated when a staffer rings with the message that the appointment with the Vice President is at 9pm. McGarry pleads that he would only be away for 45 mins. She pleads about saving their marriage, He pleads that it is opportunity to achieve something few others have and he admits that he wants and needs to this and that in reality it is more important than saving his marriage.

The saying of this episode must be that of Leo. There are two things you do not want people to see how you make them, laws and sausages.

Series creator Aaron Sorkin originally considered Alan Alda, Jason Richards and Sidney Poitier for the role of President and Martin Sheen was only contracted for four episodes as the intention was to focus on the role of staff and their relationships. The producers were so impressed with Sheen that they decided to make the character a regular feature and Sheen agreed because of the social issues to be covered. It was a marriage which led to most Americans of the centre left and fans from overseas wishing that Martin would put up for the job so they could vote for him! Then came Barack Obama

The West Wing President is a man with political background in that he is a descendent of Josiah Bartlett, a signatory of the declaration of Independence. The President is haunted by his father who treated him badly, in part because he adopted the religion of his mother, a Catholic, hence his knowledge of Latin, and that the putting up for election and get popular approval is a substitute for the failure to get his father to like him. He grew up into an intellectual and was accepted for places at the best universities but chose Notre Dame because of the serious intention to become a priest. (These were not factors why I watched every episode and continue to enjoy doing so again and again, putting the TV series alongside Casablanca for films, as I did not have this information until now). The West Wing President graduated summa cum laude with a B.A in American studies and a minor in theology. He then took his masters and PHD in economics at the London School of Economics hence his global understanding and left of centre political leanings and a Keynesian, wining the Nobel prize based on his work about the application of macro economics in developing economies, an award he reluctantly shared with a Japanese economist with a conservative approach.

Like many men originally felt called to the priesthood the situation dramatically changed when the discovery of the attractions of the female, in this instance his future wife, a medical doctor and liberated female, Abigail and they have three daughters Zoe Patricia the youngest who in the next but one episodes is introduced, coming from the family home to join her father before going to college. Their second daughter Eleanor Emily is also a doctor and the eldest Elizabeth Anne(Westin) who is married with two children. He is protective as a father and as a President especially when his youngest daughter is the subject of an individual assassination attempt in the sixth episode.

Prior to running for the Presidency he had served as a governor of New Hampshire for two terms having won in 1996 with a 69% vote. He was also a three term member of the US House of Representatives, so a seasoned political campaigner having also successfully been a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

He was not a front runner for the Democratic nomination having been persuaded to run by his long time political associate and friend, Leo McGarry, former Campaign Manager and now Chief of Staff who at times acts as a stern by kindly father figure. He has beaten the front runner Senator John Hoynes of Texas where the party does not do well overall, hence the difficulty that arises when Bartlet explains his unwillingness to campaign there because it would require him to wear a large hat, translated by the media, as a funny hat. He invites the Senator to be the Vice Presidential Candidate which is accepted as a means of taking over in four years as he expects the President to slip up, and this explains the conflict and distance between them. A mistake which President Obama does not appear to have made, by picking someone older and unlikely to prove a rival in the future, whereas the able and ambitious Hilary Clinton will remain determined to become the first US female President.

A feature of the series is the way the characters attempt to maintain normal lives and in the fifth episode, The Crackpots and These Women, the younger members of the team are seen playing basketball with the President who they accuse of cheating when he introduces a new seven foot defensive player who he claims is a federal employee assistant to his Counsel on physical fitness. Toby Ziegler, Communication‘s director reminds that in the previous tennis tournament he was forced to play against someone who had an amazing resemblance to Steffi Graf, and this player also has an amazing resemblance to a successful national team player! He comments on the President‘s obsession with winning.

One feature of this episode is what Josh calls Leo’s Crackpot day. A day when senior staff are expected to give time to those who passionately press oddball causes. One of these wants to create a 1800 mile corridor to enable migrating and endangered species to travel across the states at a cost of millions which as is pointed out could be spent on new schools and other more important causes. A second presentation is for the government to devote more attention to unidentified flying objects.

A second feature of the episode is when Josh is given an instruction card on who to call and what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. CJ asks Josh to read an article about smallpox in the New York and this affects him deeply as he realises that with the end of the cold war it is unlikely that he will be subject to a nuclear attack, but more likely a test tube will be broken on the streets of some close populated city thus causes most of the nation to be wiped out from the disease. However even this possibility does not prevent him from deciding that he would rather stay with his family and staff than be one of the few protected to manage the after situation.

I attended the national civil defence centre for a course on my role in the event of a nuclear attack and I carried around me the local Wartime emergency plan as well as Civil emergency plan for my area and strongly believed as I still do in the need for effective preparations to deal with all possible kinds of emergencies however remote they appear. My criticism then was that simply because one held a particular post did not meant suitably for undertaking such a role or that anyone would be effective without training, practice and retraining as threats changed. Faced with a crisis some people reacted by freezing while others let loose their demons and behaved no different from those we had gone to war over in the first instance. The presentation of the pass triggers several of Josh’s demons and he visits his psychiatrist not seen since his official Presidential appointment, and in which he reveals how his older sister died in fire when baby sitting him and how he had run out. He decides he cannot run out on his family and work colleagues should the major crisis occur.


The core of this programme is the preparations for a Presidential Press conference. Josh sits in his office worrying about his position and that of his friends listening and inspired by the singing of Ave Maria when CJ calls to remind he is expected in the Presidential suite for a chilli supper party to celebrate the arrival of his youngest daughter. As Josh arrives, the President and Leo are praising their female colleagues, singling out his personal secretary who has served the nation for 14 years having previously lost two sons in the Vietnam war.

The memorable exchange was between the President and Toby who accused him of allowing the demons in his head to shout down the better angels in his brain. Later at the party he qualifies this saying that for the first time in a long while, the battle between the forces has become a fair fight. The President refers to the crackpot day visits earlier and that the UFO was a failed Russian satellite burning up in the earth’s atmosphere and that having succeeded in exploring into space, in search of the face God, there are other challenges for them, such as ensuring that every young person, like his daughter, who wants to go to college is able to do so and reap the benefits of such experience.

In the sixth episode of the first series, Mr Willis of Ohio. There are two main stories. In the first an intruder is discovered in the outer grounds of the White House, the first of eight security lines. I cannot remember if this happened before or after an intruder was found within Buckingham Palace. The President is shocked to find that the assassin was a deranged woman with a gun and where the target was his daughter. Later the President, noting that Charlie seems to just work and stay home suggests that Josh takes him out for a few drinks in a local bar before returning to watch an important vote. The President’s daughter hear about this and invites herself along with the school teacher daughter of the Chief of Staff who calls to ensure that her father is coping having moved out of his home to allow his wife to return. In addition Sam and CH join the party at a bar attended by young people who are attending university, the kind of place daughter Zoe will be experiencing when she goes to college. She is hassled by three drink too much young men when she goes to the bar alone, leaving her panic button behind, in order to see how a particular drink is made. Charlie is the first to sense she is in danger and immediate goes to protect her and ensure to ensure she returns to the table with the minimum of fuss and is subjected to racial as well as normal male abusive and threatening behaviour in such a situation. Josh and then Sam also go to aid with Josh sounding the panic button. Earlier at the party Zoë asks Sam if he has not brought his female friend and then others are shocked to learn she knows about the situation, having been told by the daughter of the Chief of Staff who Sam unintentionally slipped out without realising who she was. Sam enquires if their respective parents are aware of the position and they advise that they are collecting I.O.U favours. Back at the White House the President expresses concern at the action of his daughter in going to the bar without arranging appropriate security and explains his fear they she will be kidnapped and he asked to do something which he would find impossible to grant, although his priority would be her life and welfare, something which happens in the recent episode of 24 hours and which becomes a reality later in the programme series. The President is made aware of the action of Charlie and invites him to join in what appears to be a nightly poker game. The game is a devise to enable the President to show of his general knowledge although he uses this as a means of distracting opponents.

I am not sure about the inclusion of this activity or the extent to which the President is so familiar with his closest employees. It takes an exceptional individual to be able to combine friendship with being the boss. There the risk of putting employees in an impossible position. One interesting aspect is that the President appears to have been able to hand pick his immediate staff in way I am not sure exists in the UK where equal opportunity legislation can create problems when it comes to effective team building although the art is to ensure the job specifications are clear and precise

The main political issue of the episode is a debate over altering the national census and the costs and limitations of the traditional method where every household is visited by a trained enumerator and where money could be saved by taking samples for the information required. A meeting is held to persuade three congressmen to change their vote and this includes Mr Willis of Ohio who is attending as a temporary replacement for his wife who has died and while a successor can be elected. It is fascinating that a spouse can participate and vote in such a situation. His two colleagues cannot be persuaded from moving away from the agreed line. The Presidential negotiating team have before them copies of the draft budge in thousands of pages and which includes a significant number of individual expenditure items put in to effectively buy the votes of individual members of the Congress and Senate (pork barrel politics), The threat is to hold up the budget until the right position is adopted on the census legislation. The temporary representative from Ohio listens to the arguments and changes announces he will vote as required because of the force of the argument, Toby Ziegler tells everyone, I met an unusual man, He didn’t walk in with his mind made up. He genuinely wanted to do what he thought was best. He didn’t mind saying the words I don‘t know. What an indictment of the party political system on sides of the Atlantic that such a statement rang true.

1668

Monday March 16th 2009 shall henceforth be known as the West Wing day although the USA TV series was not foremost in my mind when I rose from bed after a restless and at times uncomfortable night. I put out the rubbish and the environmental box of cans, bottles and newspapers/papers and then attended to e mails, played some computer games and got myself ready to go out. The mission was to investigate if Wilkinson’s had more of the black inexpensive display folders, they had one and half boxes of other colours and I needed to think about this further before proceeding. I collected the Metro free newspaper during the journey, noting this edition celebrated ten years of the service, and then that the number of High St store closures has increase by two since previously noting the changes.

At the Ship and Royal I had to made do without milk for the coffee as the delivery had not arrived, so compensated with sugar. As usual it was a large and hot cup and the roll was filled with succulent thick slices of bacon to which I added some brown sauce. It was delicious. Unusually there were a few male single drinkers and a couple doing likewise. Even a family birthday party which arrived later took to the drink. Where have all the coffee drinkers gone, I had to ask myself? I do not understanding this early morning drinking although it was after 11 so I suppose midday was approaching.

At the supermarket I bought five bananas, some prawns, a small jar of mint sauce, and two small containers, one of ginger spice and the other of Thai stir fry spice. I decided against some courgettes where there was a good offer available but in a pack of three and large sufficient for several weeks. Instead I decided to make use of a whole onion and a large red pepper with the chicken and the noodles for the stir fry. I decided caution regarding the quantity of ginger and mixed Thai Spice and will increase the quantity somewhere between 50 and 100% tomorrow. For a late lunch around 2pm I had the prawns with cucumber, lettuce and a tomato. I will buy a cucumber and tomatoes tomorrow and remember to get some sink unblocker and the water is flowing away slowly again although I have a strainer fitted which prevents from most solids from escaping.

The main work activity was to up date development work and undertake the framework of a new seven to eight set volume. Feeling tired later afternoon I decided against photography, artman glitter card creation or uploading Blogs from My Space to Google.

Three hours of the day was used on sort out nearly four hundred photos which have been scanned onto the computer in order to make a photo disk. Many of the photos were forty years old and many of the early ones were colour slides. Some of the photos has faded from exposure to sunlight and but the programme was able to reproduce the original colours as close to magic as anyone can get. I needed to first group under 15 categories and then attempt to place them in some date chronology.

During the afternoon I listened to Chris Barber records and had intended continuing up until the next episode of 24 at 9pm. However as there were lots of cut outs and I wanted to concentrate on research and some writing so I selected one of four Great British Dance Band disks from a collection of 100 tracks. Disk three features the Jack Payne Orchestra( BBC Director of Music 1932), Carroll Gibbons (Radio Luxembourg and American born) and Harry Roy(Cafe de Paris). Among the numbers were: Lets face the music and Dance; Let’s call the whole thing off; Why Stars come out at Night, The Little Things that mean so Much, Chattanooga Choo Choo and There must be a way. Other bands in this series are Lew Stone, Geraldo, Ambrose, Jack Hylton, Joe Loss, Ray Noble and Nat Gonella. While the bands came to the fore in the 1930’s they also kept spirits up during and after the war.

I also decided to go straight into the opening series of the West Wing without any prior reminding of the characters, actors or individual programme content and read up afterwards. The Pilot, called only Pilot, was screened in the USA in September 1999, that is before 9/11 and showed a democratic leaning left administration at odds with the right. I do not think I saw the first series when screened in the UK but caught up as soon as I could after being hooked immediately I saw an episode. With a political interests since late adolescence the star political series in the UK had been Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister which communicated the reality of life as a senior politician and the role and relationship with the permanent civil services but in the form of a situation comedy.

Sometimes comedy can bring an audience closer to the reality and the truths that the serious drama and the two series had plenty of political and social bite.

The acting in the West Wing is brilliant and most of leading characters won awards over the seven seasons. There are two levels of authenticity in West Wing. You are always aware of a lot of staff working hard and a lot of things happening all the time, the government role, the political roles, the presidential role and the keepers of the White House historical building, (it is more Buckingham Palace than 10 Downing Street), and the round the clock media attention to every detail. The individual stories always have credibility. In contrast I have lost patience with 24 where a stupid and inadequate President puts her emotions before the interests of her office and country(Someone like George Bush would never do that would they?). The level of incompetence of the security and intelligence stretches incredulity. I have decided not to watch the rest of the series.

The West Wing Pilot show commences during the first year of office and lacked dramatic punch, but has several amusing to funny moments. It opens as the key White House officers receive a bleeper message that POTUS has had an accident. When someone comments that it a funny name, she is told, it stands for President of the United States, who I work for!

The President has ridden a bicycle into a tree at his weekend home and this has caused great merriment among the press and House staff. His has sustained a minor injury but his pride has been hurt. The president’s health will become a major issue in later seasons.

The explanation about POTUS is given by Sam Seaborn, deputy Communications director, and played by Rob Lowe, to woman picked up at a high class and exclusive bar when chatting to a pressman, only to find in the morning that she is a professional high class call girl on £3000 dollars a night having an away day.

Although he knows he should immediately severe all links and report was has happened to his boss and to the Press Secretary decides to consult with same age and ranking deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyneham, who gives him the same advice as their superiors when they find out, that he should have nothing further to do with the woman and hope the media do not find out and which is unlikely.

This is an important aspect of national government reality on both sides of the Atlantic. Most of the time those outside of office that is Parliamentarians and members of the Houses of Congress and the journalists they court and who court them for information before anyone else gossips about who is in and whose out, their future advancement or lack of it, rather than political theory or major policies. I make this comment based mainly on being a watcher of political commentators on TV but I have been in one the bars in the Houses of Parliament where Members and Shadow Minister’s and would be Shadow Ministers meet and listened to the talk as well known individuals came and went. The problem in the instance of Sam, is that he likes the woman but wants to be her platonic friend and wants to ignore the great spectrum of voters who would do likewise if given the opportunity, but would be committing professional and personal social ostracization(?) if they did so.

The main subject of the Pilot is Josh Lyneham, a thirties something deputy Chief of Staff. This individual is responsible the smooth running of the White House and for such other duties as required by the Chief of Staff, the most senior adviser to the President and in many respects more powerful than the Vice President. President Obama has two deputies and other Presidents have had more than one individual in post. In West Wing the part is played by Bradley Whitfield throughout the seven season series and for which he won a best supporting actor Emmy in 2001.

As we all the main characters and their actors I will do a background at some point during the experiencing of the series. The Character of Josh is an intelligent and sensitive operator who enjoys winning, achieving his tasks, and finds failure more difficult than most.

In this episode Josh in deep trouble for a reactive comment on camera in an interview involving a hard line Christian fundamentalist. There is in house and media speculation that the President will be forced to sack him and Josh half expects this because he was warned in advance not to respond to bigotry on camera. When the President arrives in on a meeting between the head of Communications Toby Ziegler played by Richard Schiff, and Josh with a group of leading Christian fundamentalists he throws them out because a religious extremist group has sent one of his daughters a malicious and offensive item through the post in a situation where he has previously called upon this leadership to reign in the activities of the group. He says he will listen to what they have to say only when they prove their effectiveness. He also warns Josh that he had used up his nine lives in one go. Toby who briefed

Josh about not rising to the bait, loses it at the meeting when he perceives the leader of the group has made an anti Jewish remark. (The Director of Communication and deputy are the leading speech writers with teams of staff preparing all the speeches to be made by the President. Their main function is to direct the president’s media campaign and in this respect they have to know everything there is to know what is happening before it happens). A major figure in the series is the press front person. C J Cregg, the Press Secretary, a role which is just below that of Presidential Cabinet Member although they are often included in White House top meetings with the President and the actress playing her Allison Janney outshone all the other female characters, including Stockyard Channing, as the wife of the President and won several awards as well as playing an even greater part in the final season.

What the pilot establishes is the intensity in which everyone operates and the mutual appreciation of the environment and nature of their working activity. They are self aware of making potential history and that everything they do can effect the lives of millions of human beings as well as having a Political Party significance. At one point someone arrives on a conversation with two people who are not part of the same function and immediately twigs, “What’s going on? To which they reply, ‘nothing’’ to which the split second retort is, You are lying!’ ‘yes’ ‘want me to get out!’ ‘yep.’ Nothing more needs to be said then or later as those involved understand and have been in the same place already many time.

The other feature of the first episode and which characterised the series is the repartee and throw away asides and observations.

“I don’t want this gesture to be taken as an indication that I like you” ;

“ I’ve got a job...” “for the moment” the other mumbles.

“I have enough friends.” “ not these days you don’t” This latter exchange is between Josh and a character I have long since forgotten. This is Mandy Hampton, (played by Moira Kelly), an independent media Consultant with a staff one whose main and only client is a Senator with ambitions to run for the Presidency in four years. He is leading the opposition within the party, something which President Obama will already have been made aware of as he attempts to establish his authority and get things done rather than become a head of State figure head who is also a good talker and can win elections. There is a back story between John Lyneham and Mandy and the purpose of the lunch date is to elicit information from the feisty character who gives more than she gets at every and any opportunity.

The best line of all three opening episodes is that reported to have been said by the President that economists were put on the planet to make astrologists look good. If only President Bush, Prime Minister‘s Blair and Brown had listened we might have all been in the economic mess we are all in. I mean the academic economists and political theorists who preaches deregulation, deregulation and more deregulation

The second episodes is Post Hoc, Ergo, Propter Hoc, which means that because one event occurs before another it does not mean that it has caused the second event or that there is any significant relationship between the two. It is a statement made by the President, A President who knows Latin!

This episode continues part of the introduction to series and to get to know the main characters and their interaction. The only flow over is that Sam has continued his platonic relationship with the call girl and is torn off several strips by C J but it is not until the next episode that an experienced house journalist of seven years alerts CJ that if he knows so do others.

What appears to be the main event of the episode is the role and conflicts between the President and Vice President. It has become a traditional feature of Presidential campaigns that the President picks a Vice President in order to bring on side, political wings and interests within the political party and nation where he (or she in time hopefully) has less appeal or experience. However once in the Oval office power and attention centres on the President and his team and not on the Vice President, someone who in effect is a heart beat away from becoming President. They have usually been major figures in the party, often a Presidential candidate and retain such ambitions. They do not want to be the President in waiting without power to attending to whatever the President does not want to do or has not time to do.

In this episode the Vice President has made a public remark which is disloyal to the President and CJ is sent to pass on the concern and prevent a rift widening. She is treated with contempt by the Vice President who suggests she should have spoken to his press secretary rather than approach him direct. She covers for this slight when reporting back, but Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) realises she is covering up for what happened and summons the Vice President to see him and advise that when a member of the President’s team comes to see him they represent the President, He is told to be loyal or find out just how difficult and boring the job of Vice President can be.

I have known of two situations in real life where action was taken in a similar type of situation to bore an individual out of a job. In one instance a deputy commenced to show disloyalty, especially when the top person brought in a third level person with whom they had a better rapport. The deputy was not unknown to invite junior members of staff into the office for a chat as they were bored and had nothing to do.. In the other a chief officer and in fact the head of a local authority management refused to accept the detailed control imposed by the political leadership and the individual argued when sticking to their guns that unless rules were broken or some misdemeanour committed, there was nothing which could be done Technically this was accurate and the individual could not be dismissed but with great glee I was told that the solution was to transfer all the functions to others leaving the individual with no staff, powers or actual work to occupy their time and eventually another post was obtained for which a good reference was given!

The other story in this episode is the success Josh has in brokering a deal with the rebel Senator who stops his campaign for the sake of party unity. This outrages his combatant media consultant, and Josh Lyneham‘s former girl friend and who in disgust sacks her one and only client. There is a brilliant exchange between and her one staff member over the implications of the temper tantrum in which she reminds that she had a degree, a masters and a PH.D and should be called Doctor in order to bolster her self esteem as everything she has worked for comes crashing down. Josh is understandably horrified when he learns that the President has given his consent to the consultancy being hired by the White House.

The third storyline is to lead to what made the West Wing more than clever and funny. Because of the accident a doctor visits the President for physical checks. The President is the kind of man whom likes to know the backgrounds of everyone who works for or attend him. The doctor is a serving member of the army Captain Morris Tolliver who wife has just given birth to their first child, a son. He shows the photograph to everyone he comes across including the President. The President wants the man to become his White House physician, because he likes him and he agrees mentioning that he has a teaching commitment which takes him for a week to the middle east. The episode ends as the President informs that the plane has been shot down by Syria. The President’s anger is heightened because he knows the former doctor and identifies with the impact on the man’s wife and recent mother.

He declares I am going to blow them off the face of earth with the fury God’s own thunder.

“A proportional response”, is the reality of what a President has and can do. He wants to send a message across the world that any American should be free to walk the planet without fear because of the military power and potential for retaliation. He reminds that this was once he position of the Roman Citizen. He is shocked when he learns that the various options are likely to have only temporary effect because the Syrians will have worked out the likely response and cleared the sites of people. The buildings can be replaced. The president in his anger and distress becomes bad tempered with everyone including his off screen wife.

Meanwhile Josh has the responsibility of interviewing a candidate for the position of personal assistant to the President. Someone who accompanies the politician or candidate virtually everywhere, often arranging lodging, transportation and meals, providing companionship, snacks, a cellphone, and any other necessary assistance. In effect an individual who probably sees more of the president than anyone else and is in effect a live in job. Reggie Love is aid to President Obama aged 27 a former American basketball football player. He is well known for playing basket ball with the President to be every day during the primaries, He is a political science graduate. Dule Hill, plays Charlie Young in the series, a young intelligent and ambitious black man who applied for a part time messenger job at the White House as a means of keeping his home going for his younger sister. He has some of best grades at high school and a candidate for a good university degree and career. Unfortunately his father had long gone and his mother has died, in this instance killed as a serving police officer, but the parallel with the background of President Obama will be evident.

Originally Charlie was to have appeared in the pilot as a one year appointment, a nineteen year old having a gap year before college, but was written out as drafts progressed. However when the pilot appeared with all Caucasian cast there was understandable horror within the black community and its leaders and the character was introduced in the third episode as a consequence and given great prominence than originally intended. Although 24/25 when cast in the role, Dule had a younger looked which fitted well the role. The character had applied for the role and been interviewed by a House personnel officer who had been told to be on the look out for a suitable candidate for the aide to the President. He is therefore bemused to be interview by a senior member of the White House and asked searching questions about his background and political interests,. he is taken in to met the President at the worst possible moment as the president is in a flap because he cannot find his glasses and is in the run up to taking action over the shooting of the civilian plane(Lockerbie bombing?) Charlie then shock everyone by intervening to point out that the President said he could not remember seeing his glasses since he put them don the previous evening reading a report. The staff go off to the room where this happened to find and return the glasses. The President instead of expressing gratitude says he has no time to meet new people in a rude away. Later he apologies and demonstrates that he has learnt the background, approves the appointment and will take action to tackle the kind of gun crime which lead to the death of the mother.

The nub of the episode is the dawning reality that the recommended military response is the best and only practical political response to be made. It will not escalate the position but serve as a warning that should there be a second incident then much worse would follow. Moreover the reality si that the President is committing the lives of US service men and women by the action taken. This is as troubling as the anger over the loss of civilian lives. The episode is also significant because it reveals the importance of the relationship between the President and his Chief of Staff. In a previous episode CJ asks the Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry what the President will do about the gaff of his deputy. Leo comments that he has known the President for forty years and never knows how he will react or what issues he will take up or drop. When the Chief of staff comments that the President is planning a $5000 fine for a $50 dollar crime, The President still threatens to bring down his wrath upon the Syrian population. Leo comments that if he does so then he will spend the rest of his days bringing down the man he substantially helped to get into the office

Among the quotes are “lets do it right : not much chance of that.” What’s the good of power if you are not going to haul your enemies in for questioning? : What we really need to do is to arrest people for being mean to the President! “ We are behaving the way a superpower ought to behave: Well our behaviour has produced some crappy results.”