Talk:John Hoynes

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I think one of the more interesting things about the West Wing is the relationship between characters and real-life politicians. An entire article could be written on the comparison between Bartlet and real-life presidents, particularly President Clinton. But it might be best to start off small, with someone like Hoynes, but I wanted to know how others thought about this, and what real-life comparisons we wanted to make.

The closest comparison for Hoynes that I can think of is Lyndon Johnson. As powerful democrats from Texas, both were chosen by liberal intellectuals from New England as vice president. Neither got along well with the presidents they served for. Both were tough, experienced, and skilled politicans. While Hoynes never takes over for Bartlet, there are instances where he nearly does, and until his scandal, he is the presumptive successor.

--Cms479 17:45, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd agree about the Hoynes-Johnson comparison. However, he also bares some resemblance to Bill Clinton, in that he is a southern, moderate DLC Democrat who has had multiple sex scandals. Then again, you can more directly compare Bartlet to Clinton, not in terms of background or ideology but in terms of the events that befall his presidency/administration (the Lewinsky Scandal-esque MS Scandal, the Rwanda-esque Kundu crisis, the Shutdown etc). Unfortunately, all this is speculation and can't go in the article itself. EJB341 (talk) 18:27, 20 November 2007 (UTC)