The Midterms

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“The Midterms”
The West Wing episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 25
Written by Aaron Sorkin
Directed by Alex Graves
Guest stars Elisabeth Moss
Claire Yarlett
Rebecca Creskoff
Jamie Denton
NiCole Robinson
Alfonso Freeman
Production no. 226203
Original airdate October 18, 2000
Season 2 episodes
  1. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I
  2. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II
  3. The Midterms
  4. In this White House
  5. And It's Surely to Their Credit
  6. The Lame Duck Congress
  7. The Portland Trip
  8. Shibboleth
  9. Galileo
  10. Noël
  11. The Leadership Breakfast
  12. The Drop-In
  13. Bartlet's Third State of the Union
  14. The War at Home
  15. Ellie
  16. Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail
  17. The Stackhouse Filibuster
  18. 17 People
  19. Bad Moon Rising
  20. The Fall's Gonna Kill You
  21. 18th and Potomac
  22. Two Cathedrals
List of The West Wing episodes

"The Midterms" is the 25th episode of The West Wing.

[edit] Plot

This episode is fast paced, taking course over 12 weeks and focusing exclusively on campaigning for the Midterm elections. Josh is out of the office for the entire time, but communicates over the phone with the staff. Sam persuades an old law school friend to run in his home district for the House, but when the friend is accused of being a racist (due to picking white juries for black suspects during his tenure as D.A.), Leo pulls the plug, cutting off money and cancelling a visit by the President. Sam, powerless to offer the support that he promised, must watch as his friend's campaign is destroyed.

Toby is obsessed with finding a new way to lean on terrorist groups. Specifically, he wants groups like the KKK to have to register with the FBI. Bartlet consoles Toby by saying that the shooting has frustrated both of them because it was not merely an assassination attempt; it was a lynching attempt against Charlie. Charlie has been having a hard time coping as well, which strains his relationship with Zoey until the end of the episode.

President Bartlet is distracted: he becomes obsessed with an old political foe winning a seat on a local school board back home, focusing more on the school board race than on the Democrats' attempt to win back the House. The President reveals to Toby that he is obsessed with the school board race because his old foe is a bigot, and the attempt on Charlie's life has brought his opponent's bigotry to the forefront of his mind. He confesses his frustration that he cannot remember how he beat the foe in a long-ago election.

On the night of the election, the White House hosts a reception for talk radio hosts. Amongst them is the very conservative Dr. Jenna Jacobs (a caricature of Dr. Laura Schlessinger). When the President joins the reception, he explodes in a whirlwind of Scripture quoting to attack her position against homosexuality, ending with the admonishment, "In this house, when the President stands, nobody sits." The embarrassed Jacobs hesitantly rises, and the President tells Toby that this is how he beat his old foe.

At the end of the night, some of the staffers visit Josh at his home. The results of the election come in: twelve incumbents all lost their elections, resulting in the Republicans maintaining control of Congress.

Apparently turning their attention to the rights of hate groups such as the one responsible for Josh's shooting, the staffers marvel at the notion that a democracy protects the rights of those who would destroy it. They consider the notion and respond with the refrain, "God bless America."

[edit] Trivia

  • Aaron Sorkin notes the Dr. Jenna Jacobs character is direct reference to Dr. Laura Schlessinger.[citation needed] The biblical tirade that President Bartlet unleashes is based on an anonymous email that Sorkin received. He notes that every effort was made to find the original author of the email to give them proper credit on the episode but searches came up empty.

[edit] External links