Leo Briefs Bartlet on Missile 'Success' and Pitches Eco-Terrorism Drop-In
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo updates Bartlet on the failed missile defense test, emphasizing the technical successes despite the miss.
Leo pitches the 'drop-in' strategy to Bartlet, proposing a public rebuke of environmental groups for not condemning eco-terrorism.
Bartlet reluctantly agrees to the 'drop-in', acknowledging the political and moral implications, while humorously lamenting the backlash he anticipates.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
formal
Formally presents Ambassador Hans and family, directs posing for photos, escorts ambassador out
- • Facilitate credential presentation protocol
Earnest efficiency amid bullpen pulse
Cracks adjacent door post-C.J. exchange, pitches Toby on reviewing Sam's budding GDC speech draft, bridging comms frenzy to rehearsal handoff.
- • Facilitate Toby's speech oversight
- • Sync comms team on GDC prep
- • Timely drafts fuel winning rhetoric
- • Team coordination averts blind spots
Buoyant confidence tinged with briefing readiness
Coat-draped with briefcase, intercepted by Toby en route out, quips on New York Matrix Award jaunt citing media luminaries, affirms Clean Air briefing, absorbs surprise drop-in talking points confirming President's rebuke intent.
- • Navigate Toby's query while heading to award
- • Integrate new drop-in intel for press armor
- • Awards validate professional mettle amid chaos
- • Adaptive comms demands instant policy pivots
Defensive candor edged with political cynicism
Lurks outside Oval awaiting exit, joins Bartlet stride confirming Leo's GDC pitch, bluntly owns political calculus while batting away Sam feelings probe, errs on lynx-possum taxonomy provoking presidential correction and smile.
- • Affirm drop-in rationale directly with President
- • Sidestep fallout from Sam's exclusion
- • Politics necessitates selective idealism
- • Staff harmony secondary to bold messaging
Stoic amusement beneath dutiful reserve
Present as Bartlet and Leo conclude, walks alongside exiting President delivering deadpan retort to hyperbolic eco-protestant death threat, underscoring unflappable poise amid presidential venting.
- • Diffuse President's anxiety with understated humor
- • Maintain vigilant proximity during transition
- • Hyperbole rarely signals literal danger
- • Personal interposition fulfills protective role
smiling, agreeable
Present during credential ceremony, pose for photos with ambassador and Bartlet
- • Complete formal accreditation ceremony as Sweden's ambassador
sarcastic, reluctant, amused
Accepts credentials from Swedish Ambassador Peter Hans, banters about Swedish history, sarcastically debates Leo on missile defense test results, reluctantly approves eco-terrorism drop-in for GDC speech, discusses with Toby and instructs Charlie
- • Evaluate missile defense funding request
- • Decide on adding drop-in to GDC speech for moral consistency
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Leo thrusts DOD missile test papers into Bartlet's grasp post-ceremony, wielding dense metrics—nine of ten criteria smashed, KM software's decoy-target ID triumph—as ammunition to reframe catastrophic miss as fundable breakthrough, clashing against sarcasm to propel defense policy lifeline.
Toby recites from pocketbook then hands C.J. crisp talking points scripting drop-in defense—presidential consistency against extremism unyielding for enviros—arming her for New York press gauntlet, extending Oval verdict into comms frontline.
Bartlet slips on eyeglasses to dissect Leo's GDC pitch nuances, lenses magnifying moral-political tangle of drop-in rebuke, symbolizing shift from jovial diplomacy to steely policy calculus in Oval solitude.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
GDC surfaces as speech venue for Clean Air wins laced with Bartlet's ambush drop-in blasting eco-arson silence (lynx ski inferno), Leo/Toby hammering consistency post-Christian League precedent, greenlighting alliance fracture for moral edge.
DOD's unforgiving ten-criteria gauntlet invoked via Leo's papers, nine crushed in NMD test spotlighting software sorcery over target flop, fueling Chief of Staff's funding crusade against Oval doubt in high-stakes brinkmanship.
New York Women in Communications yanks C.J. for Matrix Award laurels amid past icons, Toby probing her absence to seed drop-in prep, underscoring external pulls fracturing White House rhythm during crisis churn.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's light-hearted banter with the Swedish ambassador temporally precedes the formal acceptance of credentials, maintaining the sequence of diplomatic protocol."
"Bartlet's light-hearted banter with the Swedish ambassador temporally precedes the formal acceptance of credentials, maintaining the sequence of diplomatic protocol."
"Bartlet's light-hearted banter with the Swedish ambassador temporally precedes the formal acceptance of credentials, maintaining the sequence of diplomatic protocol."
"Leo's pitch of the 'drop-in' strategy to Bartlet escalates into Toby's defense of the strategy as necessary political calculus during his confrontation with Sam."
"Toby briefing C.J. on the 'drop-in' symbolizes the administration's internal coordination, which later fractures when Sam accuses Toby of premeditated deception."
"Toby briefing C.J. on the 'drop-in' symbolizes the administration's internal coordination, which later fractures when Sam accuses Toby of premeditated deception."
"Bartlet's light-hearted banter with the Swedish ambassador temporally precedes the formal acceptance of credentials, maintaining the sequence of diplomatic protocol."
"Bartlet's light-hearted banter with the Swedish ambassador temporally precedes the formal acceptance of credentials, maintaining the sequence of diplomatic protocol."
"Bartlet's light-hearted banter with the Swedish ambassador temporally precedes the formal acceptance of credentials, maintaining the sequence of diplomatic protocol."
"Leo's update on the failed missile defense test and his subsequent debate with Marbury both explore the theme of technological ambition versus pragmatic skepticism."
"Leo's update on the failed missile defense test and his subsequent debate with Marbury both explore the theme of technological ambition versus pragmatic skepticism."
Key Dialogue
"LEO: That nine out of ten criterion that the DOD lays down for success in these tests were met. BARTLET: The tenth being? LEO: They missed the target."
"LEO: A drop-in. Eco-terrorism that's gone unadmonished by the GDC. BARTLET: For example? LEO: A ski development in Colorado that threatened a rare lynx was burned in protest."
"BARTLET: It would be hypocrisy not to hold our friends to the same standard... LEO: Yes. BARTLET: Yet it feels strange to score political points by doing the right thing."