It's that overdeveloped left wing again...

I admit that I gave up the West Wing there for awhile, but I'm back on it with a vengeance now. And just in time for it to end, which figures. Much as the American right-wing likes to talk of liberal media bias and include the West Wing on the list, I have to say it's always felt more real to me that reality. Politicians seem to work so hard to make things look seamless and intended on the outside. It was nice to see that on the inside it isn't always so pretty. I loved how CJ and Josh and Toby regularly just fell apart emotionally at dealing with the chasm between what they felt is right and what was in the best interest of the country. That's reality. Not the regular crap about "choosing" to leave politics to "spend more time with the family." Or, "of course we knew that we would be in Iraq for a long time." I mean, I think the "end" of combat in Iraq was declared a long time ago. Wishful thinking is fiction, you know. And how can that be more real than finding a way to help the "Qumari" women?

I hear that the writers intended to make Vinick the winner until Leo's real life John Spencer passed away a few months ago. Can't leave Santos with a double whammy. And while that's true, I don't for a minute believe that they actually would have had Vinick win. Much as they tried, and at times succeeded, in making Republicans as interesting as their Democrat counterparts with Alan Alda, it wouldn't have worked. I don't think I'm going out on a limb here in saying that most of the West Wing's viewership was at least centrist, if not outrightly left leaning. Not only would a Republican win wipe out most of the cast, but it probably would have certainly started the gravedigging for the show which, in my guess, would have only lasted another season at best.

While admitting to that liberal bias that I think the show had, and that I agree with said bias, I have to say it was really nice seeing young, smart, civic-minded people debating the issues, probably in a more meaningful way than one could see anywhere else.