The West Wing Revisited: A Proportional Response

Fri, Oct 3, 2014

The last episode ended with the Syrian Army downing a US military air craft carrying more than 50 people. This episode takes place three days later.

It’s not clear what’s been said publicly thus far, but based on the President’s crappy demeanor, not much.

Most of this episode is behind the scenes on how the President is handling the situation, but there are a few public story lines.

First, the President hires a new body man, this might make the news, every once in a while the press in real life wrote a story about Reggie Love (President Obama’s body man).

Second, a Democratic congressman implies that if the President visited his district, he would be killed. Toby intimates to the press that the Secret Service is looking into this as a threat, and the press seems to pick it up. Though this gets about two minutes of total screen time, this plot point strikes me as totally absurd, I can’t imagine any US congressperson saying this, it’s too ridiculous!

Finally, the President publicly announces the US response to Syria’s attack: several high value military targets in Syria are air-striked, with minimal civilian casualties. This probably plays well in the media.

EDIT: It’s been pointed out to me that the second plot point is actually based on a real event. I’m not sure what to make of this.