Farewell West Wing
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I've been a West Wing fan since the first show and apparently I'm the only one still watching it but I've generally been impressed with the research that's done on it.
Sunday's night's episode featured Election Day between Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick and as the exit polling was coming in, they were taking apart what it meant. The resarch was solid and they weren't making it up. Minnesota's numbers were coming in and you heard a cnnversation in the Democratic boiler room that said, "don't worry about Dakota County. As long as we're solid in the 4th and 5th, it doesn't matter.
Dakota County is mostly the 2nd...Republican turf. The 4th and 5th are Minneapolis and St. Paul and relatively blue environs.
In another scene, the concern was about Massachusetts. The early numbers weren't good for the Democrats and it was noted that the Berkshires made up most of the numbers that were available. My father-in-law, a Massachusetts Republican of the traditional order, ran for Congress after Rep. Silvio Conte died. (You true political wonks will remember him as the guy who put on a big mask during a speech on the House floor to wail against pork spending. He was the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.)
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My father-in-law was talked into running by the state GOP Party, but they walked away from him as soon as the far right-winger from Springfield got into the race(I see Mitt Romney just appointed the guy a judge so it looks like, given his career politician status,he'll be able to retire never having actually worked a day in his life). So they had a primary.
My father-in-law won the Berkshires (from which he hails) and a few of the blue collar cities like Gardner and Fitchburg, but in a GOP primary you can't win the 1st in Massachusetts without Springfield, so he lost. And the guy who won got his brains beat out against then state Rep. John Olver.
Don, my father-in-law, was disappointed when he lost, of course, but I often think Washington would have been the worst place for him. He's a good, decent,intelligent man who really is interested in doing good things for people. He'd have been a fish-out-of-water in Washington. He may be the most decent person I've met in my life; he's the only poliician I can say that about.
Anyway, I know a lot of people soured on West Wing, but the writers' research was always spot on.
Unlike other TV shows. JAG comes to mind. I recall one episode when the lead character lands a plane, only there's a fuel truck on the runway. What to do? So the pilot -- the pilot, mind you -- turns the steering wheel to the right and the planes veers out of the way.
Interesting scene, except that the "steering wheel" doesn't actually steer the airplane...the rudder pedals do. But I guess they couldn't get a shot of the guy moving his feet.
It was a stupid show that was very popular. West Wing has, with exceptions, been an intelligent show that isn't.
Says a lot.
