Bartlet's Father

Father to President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet, remembered as a compact-telling, moral storyteller whose sayings supply the rhetorical scaffolding for his son's public posture. He lives primarily in memory and metaphor: the Irish lads/brick wall anecdote functions as a moral template Jed deploys to recast risky policy as courage. Affectionately recalled and rhetorically influential, he anchors Jed's appeals to principle, shaping courage-infused language that steadies advisers and reframes political wagers as matters of character rather than mere tactics.