Well, I guess I got what I asked for. An in-depth look at Vinick’s campaign.
The man seems unstoppable, even considering Santos’s early polling numbers. Look how he went from dead even at the beginning of the episode to being 10 or 12 points ahead at the end of the show. At that was just on one issue.
Also, the Republican VP Sullivan really jumped into the campaign with both feet, didn’t he. Basically telling “The Reverends” to shut up and take a seat on the bus. I liked that.
I never really liked Bruno when he was in the Barlett re-election story-arc. And I’m not liking him this time either. I’m sure he’s competent and all, but the man’s not very warm. I wonder if that was a decision that Ron Silver made or someone else?
Stephen Root seems to be out of the picture as a Vinick staffer. Anybody hear anything about him or his projects lately?
So is Josh losing it? He seems to be able to generate short-term numbers but can’t sustain any momentum for more than a couple days at a time. I’m thinking he needs to work more on the big picture items, and delegate more (like was touched on when Lou was hired, but not addressed again.)
And it seems that the assassination attempt that Arnie was getting briefed on turns into a major story next episode (at least, that what it looks like in the previews.) And still no news of who leaked the shuttle, or at least who is taking the fall for it.
I’m still unclear on why Vinick hated that Christian Coalition-type guy so much. His request was reasonable, given the values and influence of his constituents.
Really, I lost some respect for Vinick in this one. He lies to Christian guy, he’s totally trying to race-bait Santos*, and he poses with the Minutemen one second, and then literally turns around and calls then irresponsible vigilantes the next.
*Although I was amused by the one Latino aide.
“Just because Santos is Latino doesn’t mean he wins on Latino issues, or Latinos should automatically vote for him.”
“Actually, yeah, it kinda does. I quit.”
I thought the episode was very boring. The writing and dialogue seemed meh to me.
I also thought Vinick came off as a political novice. Why would he expect the reverend to just keep his mouth shut about their agreement? And why would he go to the minutemen and start insulting them? That struck me as very amaturish behavior.
Clothahump “Message Of The Week”, my typos notwithstanding, was the title of the episode. While it may have been a thinly veiled insult, it was primarily a nod to how both campaigns try to control the media. In fact, Vinick’s team often used that phrase in the episode.
Vinick called the Minutemen vigilantes to cater to the law-and-order types. He was going on to Houston with his VP candidate to talk to the Houston Police. A candidate cannot support what they do without coming off as a loony. Which is why Santos agreed with Vinick when asked by the reporter if he too thought the Minutemen were vigilantes. And he was also there to show what is the result of not having enough border patrol funding/agents - vigilanteism.
As for why Vinick lied to Evil George - as I read it, Vinick, a career Senator, said that the Senate “advises and consents to” the select of Federal judges and Supreme Court Justices, not a bunch of holy-rollers. (“If they want to pick the judges, let them run for office!”) It offended him, Menocchio that they presumed to have that authority. And he lied to him to get him off his back (“I was cornered, and wanted him out of there”), and had the added (if forseen) bonus of making the Reverends look stupid with that Drudge Report leak.
And Lavender, I agree that the writing was weak. I’m not sure where it could have been better specifically, though. I guess it comes with trying to realistically (believably?) portray what is essential the boring nuts-and-bolts, behind-the-scenes process to create will eventually be only a couple of sentences that will live in the press for only a week.
What, the authority to make requests of presidential candidates? To state that their political support is conditional? The nerve!
That’s how a republic works, really. We can’t all be Senators or President, so, acting as the voting public on a whole or in smaller political groups, we exercise pressure over elected officials. I’d expect the same kind of requests and behavior from NARAL leaders over in Santos’ camp, really.
And if he won’t or can’t deliver what these groups want, an honorable candidate tells them that, and risks losing their support. He certainly doesn’t lie about it.
I’m a pretty big lefty, so it’s not hard to make me hate a right-wing Christian poltical powerbroker, but this guy didn’t do anything wrong. Hell, we can’t even be sure that it was him, rather than an oversealous underling, that leaked the promise.
I think we’ve discovered Arnie’s Achilles heel. Although there’s some truth to the “they’ve hijacked the party” sentiment, he seems to take it very personally. The previous episode that explored this (his ice cream chat w/JB) did a good job of exploring the contradictions of trying to exploit one’s faith in the political circle. But Vinnick seems uncomfortable about the whole topic and seems to carry some baggage re: those who operate in that world. I think we were meant to assume that Vinnick’s dislike & distrust of George was well-founded, but the more we hear Arnie talk about that voting bloc as some alien “other”, the more it’s clear that it’s not something he’s ever really had to come to terms with in his political sphere (not suprising, hailing from CA).
Interesting developments–I’m really looking forward to this campaign season (and, to be honest, find myself increasingly impatient with the waning Bartlett months).
Request, yes. What they were asking for is the power to approve or turn down - the very job that the Senate was given in the Constitution. I can see how that would piss off Arnie.
I agree, and I’m sure this is intentional. Imagine, a modern Republican president that won’t cater to the religious right. The West Wing has a tradition of taking the familiar and giving it a little twist. Such as a modern Democratic President with a decisive foreign policy.
I forgot to mention: NBC announced that the November 6th episode will be aired live. It will be a debate between Vinick and Santos. The show will have two performances, one for the East Coast timeslot, and one for the West Coast time slot. John Wells, the executive producer of TWW, was alsoinvolved with the live ER that was done a few years back. (CNN says he was “at the helm” of that episode, whatever that means.)
This episode showed Vinnick as a politician. The decision to denounce the minutemen was a calculated one; he knew that calling them vigilantes would win him support overall and doing it in the midst of a group of them would get him wider media attention.
It’s been shown that Vinnick has issues with Christian political organizations. I’m sure the organizations know it as well. So “those people” are treating Vinnick more harshly than they would most candidates. If he gives in, good enough. If he doesn’t, they will be glad to see him fall and use his defeat as a warning to others.
It probably meant he was the director of that episode. Wells has been nominated for Best Directing in a Drama for ER, and has won an Emmy for the Technical Direction of The Arsenio Hall Show, so you know he has experience doing live TV.
Vinnick really doesn’t like having his religion made an issue, and he especially doesn’t like having it used against him by judmental religious leaders who think he ought to go to church more often (last season) or appoint pro-life judges (this season). He’s a very strong wall of separation guy. Sure, George has a right to make demands, but I think Vinnick played him like a pinball machine.
It seemed to me that his interaction with George was actually a thoroughly planned and orchestrated manipulation of him. He knew very well that his promise would be leaked. One thing Vinnick is not is a political fool who fell off the turnip truck yesterday. Once the leak occured, it was one of those “Smith Denies Being Gay” headlines that the fundamentalists could grab hold of and go, “Yea! He’s on our side!”
Later, his quasi-denial with Chris Matthews served to inform the more moderate voters that the leak was not substantive. But since hope springs eternal, the fundamentalists rationalize, “Oh, no litmus test? […wink wink…] Riiiight. Riiiight.” They reason that it’s the kind of thing he has to say. But holding to hope, they reason that his true intentions were more likely expressed in private to their man.
Meanwhile, the moderates don’t know George from squat, other than what they read in the papers. They have no hopes pinned on him, so when Arnie shut him up, he now finds himself in the position of having to deny the whole conversation with Vinnick just to put the issue to rest. The moderates just go, “Sheesh. Yet another fundie nutball televangelist was lying.” Each side gets confirmation of its own preference.
It’s really a pretty common technique in politics — the engineered leak. If successful, it achieves the goal of sending two different messages to two different sides. And in the right hands, it often succeeds.