I’ve had this same thought in the back of my head for awhile now:
It’s too bad that not many people were watching the last two seasons of the West Wing television series, when Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda ran for president. It was great television and a primer for this year’s presidential contest.
In case you missed it, there are several similarities between that show and the current campaign
(…)
The clearest similarity is between Barack Obama and Jimmy Smits’ character, Matt Santos, the principled three-term Mexican American congressman from Texas. Just like Santos, Obama is tall, young and brown with a smart attractive wife and a couple of small children. Nobody gave Santos much credit as a presidential candidate because of his short congressional career, but after some early stumbles the people fell in love with his vision and judgment.
Hillary Clinton’s role is a twist on the plot. Instead of the not-so-bright Vice President “Bingo Bob” Russell, it is as if smart and aggressive first lady Abby Bartlett is running for president. Clinton, like the fictional Vice President Russell, began the race as the presumptive Democratic nominee that not many people loved but had all of the early advantages. In the series, the vice president used his position to muster the party machinery in his favor, but over time had trouble keeping up with the charming newcomer.
Then there is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is perfectly filling the role Alan Alda played, Arnold Vinick, the older maverick Republican senator from the West (California in the show). Due to his willingness to buck Republican Party orthodoxy from time to time, Sen. McCain, like Alda’s Vinick has trouble with the right wingers who are accustomed to having much more influence with the GOP nominee.
The parallels are downright creepy at some level, right down to the possibility of a brokered Democratic National Convention.
Obviously TWW was a television show, not reality, but it’s funny how they managed to give us the 2008 election a few years early.
H/T: Brendan Loy
[...] I noted last month, there are more than a few similarities between this year’s Presidential election and the final season of The West Wing, particularly in the character of Matt Santos and the candidate Barack [...]