Maybe I misunderstood the geography but I my sense of it was that she didn’t wander around the West Wing and overhear the conversation.
I understood it that she was left waiting in Leo’s office, which connects to the Oval Office. When the president had the doors closed he didn’t have the one to Leo’s office closed because he didn’t know anybody was there.
I would say that Leo should have a talk with his secretary. She is the one that kept letting Ainsley wander around unaccompanied (she did it at the press conference as well).
But Margaret is great! She sorts pencils, she memorizes things AND she can forge the president’s signature. How could you ask for a better secretary?
(Yes, I know Donna is way better)
The African president’s death was a cop-out. Necessary, but a cop-out nonetheless. Without it, what would have happened? He wouldn’t have budged until the drug companies relented and the drug companies wouldn’t have relented. This way, everyone’s happy, a few are dead, and nothing gets solved. It’s a mad mad mad mad world.
I know Leo’s secretary is supposed to be a bumbling comic relief (though I really find her just as annoying now as I did in Men in Black and The Negotiator) but it’s still quite unrealistic. Considering Leo’s the kind of guy who would consider firing people for misspeaking at a press conference or on a TV interview, I’m pretty sure the secretary would be long gone by now.
Also, President Bartlett’s speach that Ainsley listened in on might have realistically had the opposite effect. He said, I empathize with your loss, but I can’t risk sending men in to help you or your cause. That might have the opposite effect on some people as it did on Ainsley. As a conservative, wouldn’t she be upset that we aren’t using our armed forces to rescue trapped American soldiers? At the very least, I probably wouldn’t have been moved to tears over it.
The soldiers were never in danger, Barlett said that he was removing them, and if the rebels interfered with that, they knew that the US would go after them. The only explaination I can offer is that instead of Bartlett using our precious armed forces as “the world’s police force” as is often accused by conservatives, he held back. ::shrugg::
The new girl annoys me, too. Feh.
“The African president’s death was a cop-out. Necessary, but a cop-out nonetheless. Without it, what would have happened? He wouldn’t have budged until the drug companies relented and the drug companies wouldn’t have relented.”
Umm, it seemed to me that he had agreed to the White House-brokered deal* just before the bad news came in.
*IIRC, commit his gov’t to enforcing the drug patents in exchange for free drugs, some donated by the companies and the rest paid for with foreign aid money just below the threshold for Congressional approval.
Assuming, of course, the drug companies agree to it, which they don’t have to do.
You’re right though, I forgot about that part.