So, it’s after midnight and no WW thread? Do I have to do everything myself? Okay, it’s late, I won’t say much. Just that I loved the part where CJ read Josh the riot act and he said something like, “um, but, I outrank you” and she continued on with “I will shove it so far up…” Some of the truest dialogue I’ve heard on the show.
And Ainsley, oh-my-lawd, what a hottie tonight. Not that I’m watching for that.
When Josh was having problems with the “dictator in the mumu smoking a parliment” on that website, I was rolling. All of his interaction online had me gasping for breath, I was laughing so hard. My husband looked at me and said “So did this hit a little to close to home?”
For me, the funniest thing was I actually agreed with with the “Dictator”. Keep on topic, don’t use caps, etc.
And the 1 1/2 page debate over whether or not he was making racist commets about Gypsies…God. I’m still chuckling.
Ok, enough of that. Overall, I liked the episode. It wasn’t the greatest West Wing ever, but it certainly wasn’t bad. A solid B+ 
As I was watching this episode, there was only one thought in my head :
Which one of us jokers write for the West Wing ?
I swear, it started as an IMHO or MPSIMS thread, then degenerated into a Pit thread (with comments about Nazi-mods by Josh :eek: ) !
Also I liked CJ’s juggling act regarding the President’s comment, only to find out that it was not an accident, but a planned attack !
Bartlet is the coolest man in the universe. That’s all that I need to know about last night’s episode. My very favorite was when the reporter asked CJ if college transcripts were an accurate representation of someone’s intelligence, and she ran through a ‘quick’ list of Bartlet’s degrees (God I love being a fellow alumnus of the president!).
But I didn’t really like how they did the poet laureate bits. I thought it would have been a great opportunity for Bartlet to give a little schpiel about art, truth, the American way, perspective, and integrity. But Toby handcuffed her, and she went along with it. I don’t like it.
pepperlandgirl - it was Egyptians, not gypsies. 
I agree with pepperlandgirl and detop the online stuff was the funniest. I kept thinkin’, they hang out here, those WW writers are SDMB lurkers. The person havin a meltdown in the pit is Josh.
Aside from that, I thought it was a better episode than the previews made me believe.
You gotta figure that Donna is a regular here somewhere in the SDMB: that’s how she was so saavy on what was going to happen to Josh if a newbie jumped in with the sharks. Unfortunately I missed a lot of the dialogue during this part since both my kids decided it was a good time to climb on Daddy. One of the few episodes I didn’t watch on tape, with kid factor being the principle reason for tape-and-watch-later strategy. I’ll have to catch the details in a re-run.
One question…CJ asked why the Prez waited until Philly to “slip up.”
What’s the significance of Philly? Bigger market, far enough along in the interviews (it was #10) that it could look like a mistake?
Gov. Richie of Florida…slam on the Bush brothers? Hmmm…
Pennsylvania is an important swing state - Philly is a big market.
Wouldn’t do to waste the slip up in, Dallas, for example, where a Dem wouldn’t have a chance
For those who don’t know, Josh’s experiences with the website are a thinly disguised retelling of Sorkin’s own experiences on the Television Without Pity West Wing forum.
I was beside myself with glee over the whole thing, as Wing Chun, the owner of TWoP, is a megalomaniac who uttlerly deserves everything Sorkin said about her. I recently gave up on the TWoP forums in disgust - this was like an early birthday present!
I started watching late, and only caught that Josh was being yelled by CJ for posting something on the Internet. Can someone recap?
I thought the major point there was that at the end of the Philly interview they were still “hot” (live), so what he said would get recorded. That it was Philly was just serendipitous. The only other segment that they actually showed was in Cincy, which is a Republican bastion, FWIW. You know the story was going national, anyway.
Well, I think the reason he waited until Philly is because it was the only station that kept him on the air after they said “now we’ll get a report on the weather” and he started thanking her for the interview. The station kept him on after the interview officially “ended,” he saw that, and used it to make the attack…due to the circumstances, he could right it off as an accident because they really shouldn’t have been on the air.
Someone else can probably do better, but a brief recap: Josh walks into Donna’s office where she and several co-worker’s are sniggering about something. He finds that there is a website devoted to him. After chasing off the other staff, he starts to read the site. He is flattered at first but then takes exception to something said about him and decides to rebutt (against Donna’s advice).
This backfires since he doesn’t know what the heck he’s doing ('netiquette, that something may not be taken as intended, that what sounds cool when spoken may sound dorky when read, etc). Soon he is drawn in and wanting to spar with them; he tells Donna that most of them are probably good people just that they are lead by a megomaniacal despot, etc. So of course it gets worse (imagine a newbie in the Pit trying to explain that everyone else misunderstood his/her meaning).
In the end CJ finds out that Josh has been doing this and reads him the riot act.
I got the impression the Philly thing was a very calculated move on the President’s part. So I assumed there was something about Philly specifically to have brought it on. That it happened to be the first station to keep him hot after the interview doesn’t seem to fit. There has to more to it.
SO says to me during that bit: do you think there’s really a lemonlyman.com? To which I replied that there were probably thousands of people who were about to find out! [and did any of you check, by the way?]
That was really the funniest part of the episode.
And Shibb, you’re not the only one oggling Ainsley. Someone in my household was quite smitten with her “flirty” ways (draping hair on one shoulder, looking upwards while tilting head downwards, etc.).
Personally, I don’t think so. I’m under the impression that the President set it up that way, and Philly happened to be the last interview. POTUS may have had it set up to be last, and most likely had the reporter tipped to keep him hot, but I really don’t think the fact that it was Philly had anything to do with it.
In any event, by his reaction to CJ’s question at the end, I think it can be safely assumed that it was NOT an accident - the fact that it was Philly is simply incidental. Obviously, that information wasn’t contained just to Philly-NYC-DC, but nationally. If it had come out of Tacoma, WA it would have had the same results.
Sadly, the WB registered the site back in February, apparently to keep anyone from setting up a fansite there after this episode. Hmph. Spoiling all our fun.
…Come to think of it, I’m not sure about lemon-lyman.com with a hyphen…
Just checked. lemon-lyman.com is “under construction”. But it is a registered name.
Ok, then why did CJ point out the deliberate use of the gun calibers when she was talking to the Pres at the end? I thought she was making a connection to Philly there, which totally lost me. Either way, why point out the gun theme?
Yes, I checked (and judging by the connection speed - I was not alone) and no, as of last night at 9:something PST, there wasn’t.
BTW, though - I loved him blasting TWoP. I have many thoughts on that site - most of them do not belong in this forum.
CJ was amazing last night. All through the press briefings, later with Josh and Charlie and the President. Go CJ.
Was Philly the last of the spots he did? (I don’t remember from the beginning of the episode) if so, that would explain it - easier to write off the remark as folding down at the end of the morning. If it wasn’t, I think the plant into Philly was deliberate for some reason (PA’s a swing state, I think? Do we know anything about the senators or congressmen or govenor of the WW world’s PA?)
BTW, what was the opposition thinking? I tended to agree with the staff that every response they made to the situation looked worse and worse and worse - and I tend to think better of the opposition than to do that (could they have a master plan somewhere?) Also, brilliant policy wonk v. republican governor of a southern state who is perceived to be not necessarily all that bright. Sound familiar?