Florangela Davila goes on and on about how much she loves the TV program often called Left Wing.
We're about to feel even lousier than when Mrs. Landingham died.
. . .
It's been seven fine years, but this Sunday, we bid farewell — even though we would love to hold onto our make-believe White House for just a bit longer.Because, let's just say it, we could stand proudly behind this president and feel patriotic, even when he took us to war. That's what "The West Wing" did. It gave us a conscientious, knowing president, Jed Bartlet, with a devoted, hardworking staff. And we cared.
By my quick count, Davila had eight more "we's" in that article to go with the first five.
Well, as Samuel Goldwyn said, include me out. I never considered watching West Wing, since I assumed they would often get the politics wrong, which would annoy me, and that they would be biased, sometimes outrageously so, as they were.
And I was hardly alone in this decision, as the declining ratings for the program showed. Yet, Davila says "we", anyway. Why? I don't know, but I would bet that it is because she does not even know, or at least know well, any conservatives or moderates. (Certainly, she wouldn't find many of either group at the Seattle Times. So when she says, over and over again, "we", she really means "everyone I know". And if that is so, she has told us something more than a little revealing about herself — and her newspaper.
Cross posted at Oh, That Liberal Media.
Posted by Jim Miller at May 15, 2006 02:24 PM | Email ThisMrs. S and I have been regular West Wing fans for most of its existence. I think the politics are frequently silly and after 5 years of the Bush administration the Clintonian feel of the Bartlett White House is increasingly anachronistic. I certainly don't view the Bartlett character the way Florangela Davila does ("we could stand proudly behind this president and feel patriotic"). How exquisitely lame.
But as far as TV shows go, it was a decently well-acted and well-written entertainment -- as long as you think of it as only, you know, a fictional television program.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on May 15, 2006 03:26 PMAnd you wonder why "we" liberals do not trust you guys!
Posted by: Gene Nelson on May 15, 2006 05:45 PMI give credit to the show for not demonizing the right more like the lunatic fringe left does in real life. That would have made it impossible to watch.
And Sheen, despite his real life moonbatness, was quite good as Commander in Chief. He diplayed much of the humaneness a President must have despite the circumstances. I wonder what many in the left thought of Bartlett's religious roles that permeated his TV Presidency?
The show was fantastic, and although not quite as good after Sorkin bolted from it, it should remembered as ground breaking. I have to see it go.
Posted by: Easycure on May 15, 2006 06:18 PMI'm a moderate, and a moderate that has spent a considerable amount of time helping Stefan with his election clean up projects.
I loved the West Wing, and found it to be an excellent tool to engage teenagers at home, and casual voters in my office in very real political issues. People who thought politics dull, did not think such of the West Wing, especially in its first years of exceptionally crisp writing, and anything that engages people in their nation's issues is a good thing.
Although the fictional Bartlet administration was Democratic, and as such, accurate representation of such an administration required their representation of the sitting president be more progressive than conservative, the producers hired Republican consultants to assist the writing staff in representing the conservative side of many issues, and in introducing likable Republican characters who ably presented a Republican point of view on many subjects, such as White House Associate Counsel Ainsley Hayes.
Certainly one thing that the West Wing ably demonstrated was that people can be on different sides of the political aisle, and still maintain a civil, even friendly relationship.
Would that issues could be debated so civilly in the real world.
That having been said, your assessment of the West Wing is all wrong, and the show will be missed by many.
Posted by: Insider on May 15, 2006 10:27 PMThat having been said, I find it extremely odd that a fake president with real life character flaws actually goes out on the Gore/Kerry trail as if he were the real one. And people listened to him.
I have never watched West Wing and I never will. And I am glad it is gone. Too much fake politics with movie star actors is not a real civics lesson. And it shouldn't be mistaken for one.
Posted by: swatter on May 15, 2006 10:43 PMYou do get the irony in your statement, right?
Posted by: Torch on May 23, 2006 11:18 AM