Diplomas Down: Amy's Shaky First Day
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Amy hangs diplomas on her office wall, but they fall off as she steps back, symbolizing her shaky start in her new role.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Focused and businesslike—curtly informative rather than theatrical, trying to contain a potential PR fire.
C.J. enters with Will, supplies a factual correction ('A privateer actually'), frames the DAR member's complaint as a media/optics problem, and conveys the immediate pressure the Boston Globe story creates for Abbey's office.
- • present the DAR/Boston Globe problem clearly to Abbey and Amy
- • ensure the administration responds quickly to media pressure
- • protect the First Lady's public standing
- • clarity and facts defuse misframed controversies
- • the press will exploit genealogical claims for headlines
- • rapid, disciplined response reduces damage
Embarrassed and rattled on the surface, but externally dutiful and determined to comply with Abbey's order.
Amy is hanging diplomas, steps back, and watches them fall. She greets Nat, is informed Mrs. Bartlet is waiting, receives a urgent assignment to marshal staff on a veto threat, and endures an immediate PR interruption from Will and C.J.
- • establish competence and credibility in her new role
- • obey Abbey's directive to organize staff pressure
- • recover composure after an early humiliation
- • assess and prioritize competing tasks (policy veto vs. PR scandal)
- • first impressions matter for authority and effectiveness
- • the First Lady's office must actively influence White House decisions
- • direct orders from Abbey are non-negotiable and must be executed quickly
Oppositional and organizing (as reported by staff).
Mrs. Helena Hodsworth Hooter-Tooter of Braintree is cited as the DAR member threatening a boycott — the named antagonist in the optics problem; she does not appear but her action is the spark for PR work.
- • challenge Abbey's DAR membership on genealogical grounds
- • organize a boycott to police organizational standards
- • DAR membership hinges on strict ancestral criteria
- • public pressure preserves institutional purity
Not present; implied to be cautious and weighing humanitarian consequences against moral stances.
President Bartlet is referenced as the official whose intention to veto must be signaled; he does not appear but his likely reaction and institutional constraints drive Abbey's strategy.
- • avoid precipitous veto threats that could harm humanitarian aid
- • reconcile campaign promises with practical outcomes
- • veto threats should be backed by political and humanitarian calculation
- • the administration must balance principle with consequence
Absent in person but functionally weighty—their authority creates procedural requirements and slows unilateral action.
The Senior Staff are invoked by Abbey as the body whose input the President would want to hear before a veto decision; they are not physically present but their expected role shapes Abbey's directive to Amy.
- • provide counsel to the President about major decisions
- • legitimize and vet threats like a presidential veto
- • presidential decisions require senior staff consultation
- • public threats (like vetoes) carry political costs requiring deliberation
Not present; characterized as deliberately provocative and politically maneuvering.
Senator Clancy Bangart is invoked by Abbey as the author of the amendment — the political provocation that created the need for a veto push; he is off-stage but causally central.
- • attach an amendment to force the administration into a difficult choice
- • advance ideological policy through legislative riders
- • policy can be advanced through procedural amendments
- • creating binary choices pressures opponents politically
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The 'global gag rule' amendment is invoked verbally by Abbey as the immediate policy crisis: she instructs Amy to marshal staff to pressure the President to signal a veto because Senator Bangart attached the rider to the Foreign Ops bill. It functions narratively as the catalytic policy object that transforms Amy's personal stumble into a professional trial.
Amy's picture frames and diplomas are the physical catalyst of the beat: she hangs them to establish a composed professional space and they immediately fall, creating an audible and visual stumble that punctures her authority and provides a comic yet humiliating opening for other characters to enter and interrupt.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Amy's new office is the physical stage: a freshly occupied, domestic but professional space where she attempts to hang diplomas, meets an intern, is briefed by Abbey, and is immediately inundated with competing demands — it collapses from a private settling-in scene into a command-and-control node for policy and PR work.
Braintree is named as the hometown of the DAR member raising objections; it functions as a geographic anchor for the DAR complaint and lends small-town, pedigree-focused credibility to the public challenge.
The Alaskan glacial lakes are mentioned briefly by Abbey and Will as a concurrent crisis — an offstage calamity that adds weight to the day's agenda and underlines the multiple simultaneous demands on the administration's attention, even though they play no active role in the immediate scene.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Boston Globe is the medium through which the DAR/pirate-privateer claim becomes public; staff cite the paper's reporting as the source of the controversy and an accelerant for a reputational crisis.
The Senior Staff organization is the intended audience and procedural gatekeeper for the veto strategy Abbey orders; they represent the institutional deliberation the President expects before major pronouncements.
The Office of the First Lady is the employer of Amy and the origin of the lobbying directive: Abbey, speaking as its principal, tasks Amy to pressure the President via senior staff. The office functions as both advocate (for reproductive-rights related policy) and defender (against social legitimacy attacks).
The Daughters of the American Revolution is the organization at the center of the optics problem; a member is threatening to boycott a White House reception over Abbey's ancestor. The DAR functions as a conservative social arbiter whose grievance risks creating a public spectacle that distracts from substantive policy fights.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's revelation of the 'global gag rule' amendment directly leads to Abbey assigning Amy the task of influencing the President to oppose it."
"Bartlet's revelation of the 'global gag rule' amendment directly leads to Abbey assigning Amy the task of influencing the President to oppose it."
"Amy's diplomas falling off her wall symbolize her shaky start, paralleling Abbey's later comment about items falling off the wall again, hinting at ongoing challenges."
Key Dialogue
"NAT: I'm Nat. We met yesterday during your orientation. I'm an intern here in the First Lady's office. Or I was until Mrs. Bartlet fired my boss and hired you."
"ABBEY: The Foreign Ops bill came out of mark-up late last night. Senator Bangart, Clancy Bangart, added an amendment, the global gag rule. I'd like you to get the staff together and start coming up with a way this office can influence the President to let Congress know he'd veto the bill with that amendment attached."
"WILL: The legitimacy of her membership in the DAR is being questioned because her qualifying relative was a pirate. C.J.: A privateer actually."