The West Wing way in

How one of this blogger’s favourite TV shows may help with revision

Watching TV drama is no substitute for opening a book or working through some past papers, but if watching a couple of episodes inspires you to overcome the mental hurdle of revision block then job done.

The complete series of the West Wing is available as a box set from Amazon at just under £50 - an incredible price for a seven series set when you consider that that is less than each series retailed for when first launched.

Now, I’m not suggesting that students stock up on Pro Plus and Red Bull and watch every episode and return to school after the Easter break exhausted. But for those struggling to find a way in to American government then switching normal programme habits for a couple of West Wing DVDs may have dividends.

As an end of term treat I stuck on an episode from the third series (which I happened to have at school after an ex-student returned it). In “Ways and Means” we saw:

The importance of skilful congressional liaison - both across the aisle and within the President’s party
Fierce partisanship in Washington
The role of Chief of Staff as the President’s political eyes and ears
The significance of 290 as the number needed to override a Presidential Veto
The importance of the House Ways and Means Committee
Federal-state relations in negotiations between the Department of Interior and Wyoming over a forest fire

Remember, of course, that it is fictionalised and as such poetic licence is taken with some matters. For example, an adviser to the President is unlikely to be so off with a member of Congress face to face as you often see in the programme. But it helps put what you should be studying into some sort of perspective.

A number of useful websites have grown since the series was first aired.

Footnote TV lists a background information on the politics and policy mentioned in each programme. For instance, in the episode I discussed earlier there is an explanation of: the Estate Tax; the role of the Special Prosecutor; the Presidential Veto; Amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The West Wing Wikipedia entry notes some uncanny similarities between the fictionalised election and last year’s actual contest:

‘Similarities between the fictional 2006 election and the real-life 2008 U.S. presidential election have been noted in the media: young minority Democratic candidate (Matthew Santos on the show, Barack Obama in real life) has a grueling but successful primary campaign against a more experienced candidate (Bob Russell on the show, Hillary Clinton in real life) and chooses an experienced Washington insider as his running mate (Leo McGarry on the show, Joe Biden in real life), whereas the Republican contest is determined early in the primary season with an aging maverick senator of a Western state being the nominee (Arnold Vinick on the show, John McCain in real life), defeating an ordained minister as the closest competitor (Reverend Butler on the show, Mike Huckabee in real life), and then selecting a socially conservative running mate from a small Republican state (West Virginia Governor Ray Sullivan on the show, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in real life). After the election, the President-elect nominates a former rival to the post of Secretary of State (Arnold Vinick on the show, Hillary Clinton in real life).

Writer Eli Attie called David Axelrod to talk about Obama after Obama’s 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and says that he “drew inspiration from [Obama] in drawing [the Santos] character,” while actor Jimmy Smits says that Obama “was one of the people that I looked to draw upon.” Writer and producer Lawrence O’Donnell says that he partly modeled Vinick after McCain. Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, is said to be the basis of the Josh Lyman character, who became Santos’ Chief of Staff.’

Happy watching!