Well, our West Wing marathon has come to an end. Just as I remembered it, the West Wing really was an extraordinary show. We started again from the beginning and realized that about halfway through was the point at which we had stopped watching the first time around. The last one that we both remember having watched was the episode when Donna was in Gaza, and the motorcade was attacked by Palestinian terrorists.

Much of the last season was taken up with the election of Jed Bartlett’s successor and I think the writers and directors did an excellent job of getting across the intensity and exhaustion of a political campaign. I’ve never been involved with this kind of campaign, so I have no way of knowing whether or not the picture they drew was accurate, but it certainly seemed to me that they had an insider’s knowledge of what a political machine looks like.

The foreshadowing of the Obama election was, I think, fortuitous but nonetheless it was very interesting. By putting forward two fairly moderate candidates, a centrist Democrat and a centrist Republican, they portrayed what everyone assumed would be the outcome of the 2008 campaign. Of course, as it turns out, John McCain refused to play the role for which he had been preparing his whole career, and instead attempted to run a very right wing campaign.

The genius of The West Wing, I think, is that they portray politics as we wish it would be, rather than as it really is. How wonderful to have a president as thoughtful, rounded and creative as the role models that Aaron Sorkin and his writers put forward for us. I hope (and suspect), that Barack Obama will turn out to be just such a President. Of course, time will tell.