More West Wing Connections
Well, by now, anyone who’s a West Wing fan should know all about the eerie coincidences between the final season of the show and this year’s election cycle. In one corner there was Matt Santos, a minority candidate for the Democratic party and Congressman from Texas, rather inexperienced in national politics, but very a very inspiring public speaker. In the other corner, there was Arnold Vinick, a moderate senator from California known for going against his party.
Santos was modeled after Barack Obama after the show’s writers talked to Obama chief strategist David Axelrod. And Vinick was at least in part modeled after John McCain. Fans will obviously remember that Santos won, but only by the skin of his teeth. But the similarities between the story and real life don’t end there.
- On election night, Santos’ running mate Leo McGarry died of a heart attack. The weekend before the real 2008 election, Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died of cancer.
- After winning the election, Santos picked Josh Lyman, a tough and sharp-minded man, to be his Chief of Staff. Lyman was apparently modeled after, you guessed it, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s selection for Chief of Staff.
All we need now is for Obama to select John McCain as Secretary of State. In the show, Vinick was asked by Santos to be SoS for the cause of unity. Not sure if that one will happen, but with all the other similarities, who knows?
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not too tough to figure out who he molded Gore after.