Election 2008 Imitates the ‘West Wing’

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Election 2008 Imitates the ‘West Wing’

James Joyner | Saturday, March 1, 2008

My wife and I have been watching “The West Wing” on DVD the last few weeks and are on the last few episodes. It occurred to me last night, watching the closing days of the campaign between Matt Santos and Arnie Vinick, how eerily similar the candidates were in style and tone with Barack Obama and John McCain. Slate’s Torie Bosch explains that this was no accident:

While it will likely get dragged down into the mud by the natural forces and impulses of American politics, an Obama-McCain matchup has at least the possibility of being the political junkie’s fantasy: Two moderate-in-style candidates with significant disagreements on the issues and differences in approach who will conduct a clean, articulate campaign based on those differences but aimed at bridging the divide in the country.

The Santos-Vinick campaign ultimately becomes a 50% plus one contest as it goes down the home stretch, but the candidates at least try to make it more than that. We’ll see how long real life will imitate art.

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About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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