farmdoc's blog post number 204

I don't know why I started watching DVDs of the series The West Wing. I suspect I read about it in the New Yorker. Anyway Sweetheart Vivienne and I’ve watched episodes 1-15 of Series 1’s 22 episodes. As there are seven series (1999 to 2006), we’ve only just begun. So far we’re loving it – characters, content, dialogue, settings. All superb. The films (and books, and stories) I like best are those providing insight into subcultures or situations I know little or nothing about. The West Wing sure fits that bill. Its President Josiah Bartlet, played wonderfully by Martin Sheen, embodies the very best traits of a POTUS (President of the United States) – and thus, of course, he’s the antithesis of George W in every important way. My enthusiasm for The West Wing and its President Bartlet has sensitised my interest in Barack Obama. Not, I hastily add, in John McCain whom I knew wouldn’t win the election because I reckoned Americans would vote in the antithesis of W (i.e. someone like Bartlet), and not a facsimile of W albeit one a bit older and wiser. So Obama it’ll be – the 44th POTUS (excluding fictional ones), from 20 January 2009 for at least four years, barring the unexpected. I wish him success. The whole world must too, because our planet’s future depends on him. I’m quietly optimistic.