The West Wing Revisited: Mr. Willis of Ohio

Tue, Oct 7, 2014

Welcome back to “The West Wing Revisited”, where I try to track down what the plots of The West Wing would look like to the general public.

First up for this episode, a “mentally unbalanced” woman hops the fence of The White House. Unlike in our present reality, where the Director of the Secret Service just resigned over a similar incident, no one loses their job.

Next up, we have a census bill. A key question for this bill is whether sampling is a legitimate technique for answering the constitutional questions around the distribution of representatives. The White House favors sampling, but House Republicans are opposed. The Bill ultimately passes with sampling not explicitly prohibited, a legislative victory for the Democratic president.

Finally, several senior White House staffers, as well as the President and Chief of Staff’s daughters get into something of a scuffle in a George Town bar with a group of racist, homophobic, and generally assholish 20 somethings. It’s not obvious to me how much of the incident would be covered by the press.