West Wing Writer Suggests Flipping Script in Biden Drama

Aaron Sorkin appears to recognize that The West Wing's President Bartlet wasn't real. But Martin Sheen's character dealt with a serious illness in the show's second season while considering whether to seek reelection, and the writer wonders how that storyline might have gone differently, and whether there are any lessons in that. As Sorkin wrote it, Bartlet was up against an average candidate and decided to run despite his health. "And I'm going to win," Bartlet said in a guarantee that sounds familiar now. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Sorkin imagines another scenario: "What if Bartlet's opponent had been a dangerous imbecile with an observable psychiatric disorder who related to his supporters on a fourth-grade level and treated the law as something for suckers and poor people? And was a hero to white supremacists?"

Assuming the fictional incumbent was trailing in the polls, Sorkin writes, "We'd have had Bartlet drop out of the race and endorse whoever had the best chance of beating the guy." In real life, Sorkin points out, no Democratic alternative to President Biden is doing significantly better in polls. So Sorkin recommends Democrats put Republican Mitt Romney atop their ticket, despite the fact that he disagrees with them on scores of issues. The screenwriter imagines an emotional moment of unifying self-sacrifice in which the Democratic Party heeds Barack Obama's soaring appeal at its convention next month. Not only would it presumably be great TV, but Sorkin says it could keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office. His essay can be read here. (More opinion stories.)