West Wing Thoughts

The first new West Wing I've seen in quite some time and it opens with Santos pulling even with Vinnick in the polls just before the presidential election (Vinnick lost many independent voters because of the nuclear accident in California) but more importantly - the show opened with Josh and Donna throwing off their long time pretense that there wasn't something between them - giving each other a long passionate kiss. The three things I thought when this happened were:

1. With the show winding down - Josh and Donna potentially consummating their long-time platonic relationship makes not just a good story line but also a pretty good spin off potential. I could tune into a Josh and Donna Show (that would be better than 95% of the shows currently in prime time).

2. The kiss took place first thing in the morning with Josh just waking up. All I could think of was the awful morning breath he must have had.

3. Seeing Leo (John Spenser) come into the room was a real bring down. I miss Leo.

With Vinnick's campaign stumbling it looks like the blame is going to be put on Ron Silver's Bruno. That's too bad. It gives the Democratic Party leanings of the show an easy out. The Vinnick campaign has to sacrifice his heart (Patricia Richardson - the mom from Home Improvement) and its brain (Bruno) and steer hard right but this causes the campaign to crash on the rocks come election day. If only they had listened to the centrist lifelong Democrat Bruno and kept the heart of the campaign - they would have won the race. You can almost see it coming - I hate when they get so predictable like when Toby was the leak.

The War in Kazhakstan seems strange. One of the options nobody mentioned (probably because it would never occur to the lefty writers) would to be call the bluff and if China and Russia want a war - let them have at it. I find it amusing that the strategic value of Kazhakstan is oil and the US under Bartlett is going to war over oil (didn't they ever hear of "No blood for oil"?).

I'll be sad when the show runs its course but it is time.

Predictions:

1. Josh and Donna get serious.

2. CJ and Danny get serious.

3. Toby and Sam come back for a psuedo reunion show.

4. Santos has to face a story about a long ago affair right before the election but wins anyway because the voters want a leader and they don't care who he was getting a blow job from.