Toby Reins In Will's Idealism
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Will presents his revised speech language, which Toby critiques as overly idealistic but ultimately approves.
The scene ends with Toby acknowledging Will's point and exiting, leaving Will to continue his work on the speech.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not an actor; functions as a rhetorical foil to disciplined prose.
Invoked metaphorically by Toby ('ancient Romans') to mock grand historical flourishes in Will's draft and insist on restraint at the podium.
- • Serve as shorthand for overblown rhetoric to be excised
- • Highlight the danger of inaccessible, lofty phrasing
- • Epic historical allusions can dilute immediate moral clarity
- • Presidential prose should be direct and accountable
Controlled, admonishing surface masking genuine anxiety about presidential vulnerability and the political costs of sloppy language.
Toby confronts Will about a remark to the President, enforces rhetorical discipline, corrects the inaugural draft with mordant asides, approves a single vague paragraph, and physically leaves the room while leaving Will to carry the speech forward.
- • Prevent undisciplined, reckless language from becoming presidential policy
- • Protect the President and the administration's credibility
- • Establish clear limits on idealistic phrasing while salvaging usable rhetoric
- • Words shape policy and political outcomes; rhetoric has consequences
- • Timing and proximity to the President magnify risk
- • Compromise language is preferable to reckless moral absolutism in speeches that commit the nation
Haunted and searching—seeking language to reconcile moral impulse with political consequence.
Referenced as having dropped into Will's office, read the speech transcript, and asked the haunting question about Khundunese versus American lives; he functions as the moral center whose unrest propels the exchange.
- • Clarify the moral justification for potential intervention
- • Find speech language that captures humanitarian commitment without needlessly risking domestic political capital
- • Human life cannot easily be ranked, yet political reality imposes hard choices
- • Staff framing matters for presidential decision-making
Concerned about operational and political fallout; pragmatic in assessing message discipline.
Mentioned by Toby as having been in the office earlier; his recent presence frames the urgency and chain-of-command concerns that color the exchange.
- • Maintain control over the administration's messaging
- • Ensure that preparations for inauguration remain on schedule and politically defensible
- • Timing and discipline are crucial in crisis communication
- • Senior staff must act to contain leaks and impulsive actions
Not present; invoked to create a sense of external pressure on the administration.
Mentioned by Toby as an example of political threat and past fights over constitutional power; invoked to underscore stakes and the need for message discipline.
- • Serve as a reminder of partisan threats to administration policy
- • Frame the cost of imprudent rhetoric
- • Opposition leaders can inflict institutional damage
- • Political context constrains rhetorical freedom
Not present; functions as background pressure shaping staff caution.
Referenced historically as a body that has censured the President; mentioned to emphasize institutional memory and political vulnerability informing Toby's warnings.
- • Protect institutional prerogatives
- • Enforce accountability (historical example)
- • Congressional actions can have long-term political consequences
- • Public institutions matter to rhetorical choices
Not present; invoked as a source of outside rhetorical pressure on presidential messaging.
Mentioned in Will's anecdote as the political body that pushed a line in a past State of the Union; used to justify Will's behavior and to illustrate past rhetorical battles.
- • Shape rhetoric to improve electoral prospects (as described)
- • Influence administration language for political gain
- • Speech language can be weaponized for political advantage
- • Party apparatus will pressure the White House for electorally friendly lines
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Toby throws the rubber ball against his office window to snap Will out of concentration and initiate the confrontation. The ball functions as an informal attention-getting prop and signals Toby's sardonic approach to discipline in tense moments.
Will reads from his inaugural speech draft aloud in Toby's presence. The document is the focal object around which the quarrel turns—its tone and chosen phrases embody the ethical compromises and rhetorical choices at stake.
The office window is the physical barrier through which Toby watches Will and against which the rubber ball is thrown. It frames the opening of the exchange and symbolically represents the line between private thought and institutional consequence.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The United States functions as the rhetorical subject and decision-maker; the staff debate how the nation's inaugural language should signal its willingness to intervene or prioritize national interest.
The Khundunese are the human referent whose slaughter and worth are debated; their suffering is the moral fulcrum that compels the President's question and makes the staff's rhetorical choices weighty and consequential.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Will's admission about the moral equivalence of Khundunese and American lives directly influences Toby's decision to acknowledge Will's point and exit, showing the evolution of their ideological clash."
"Will's admission about the moral equivalence of Khundunese and American lives directly influences Toby's decision to acknowledge Will's point and exit, showing the evolution of their ideological clash."
"Will's admission about the moral equivalence of Khundunese and American lives directly influences Toby's decision to acknowledge Will's point and exit, showing the evolution of their ideological clash."
"Will's admission about the moral equivalence of Khundunese and American lives directly influences Toby's decision to acknowledge Will's point and exit, showing the evolution of their ideological clash."
"Will's earlier conversation with the President about the value of Khundunese lives is echoed when Bartlet highlights Will's military family background during his promotion, tying his personal beliefs to his professional role."
"Will's earlier conversation with the President about the value of Khundunese lives is echoed when Bartlet highlights Will's military family background during his promotion, tying his personal beliefs to his professional role."
Key Dialogue
"WILL: He said, "Why is a Khundunese life worth less to me than an American life?" And I said, I dont know, sir, but it is."
"TOBY: You can't get in his head this close to something this important. You've got to keep the train on the tracks."
"TOBY: The speech is good. It's better than good. There's one paragraph that's vague, and we're going to live with it."