Bartlet’s Turkey Obsession Meets Toby’s Sly Policy Pitch
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet provides detailed turkey instructions to Charlie while signing paperwork, showing his obsessive focus on Thanksgiving preparations.
Nancy interrupts with Toby's request for a meeting, triggering a brief power struggle between Bartlet and Charlie over protocol.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Slyly strategic, armored in sarcasm to navigate resistance.
Enters post-Charlie exit, opens with feigned turkey info request as pretext, pitches cell phone initiative via message calendar (82% popular), defends its value against dismissal, banters stuffing safety, drops OMB poverty redefinition framed as binary choice, exits after securing 'fewer' preference.
- • Soft-land cell phone initiative despite dismissal
- • Secure Bartlet's alignment on OMB poverty metrics
- • Popular micro-policies build broad support amid big legislation
- • Framing poverty stats as 'fewer poor' exploits intuitive biases
Eager and deferential, briefly chastened by Bartlet's glare but swiftly corrective.
Stands next to Bartlet receiving signed paper and filing it, eagerly affirms Toby's entry before deferring with apology after dirty look, exits room to allow private meeting.
- • Assist seamlessly with paperwork and instructions
- • Facilitate Toby's entry without overstepping
- • Protocol demands presidential final say on interruptions
- • Anticipatory service strengthens aide-President bond
Playfully irritated by interruptions yet whimsically fixated on turkey, masking deeper detachment from policy gravity.
Sits at desk signing paper and handing it to Charlie, micromanages turkey brining/roasting instructions with precise details, shoots dirty look at Charlie during protocol spat, banters turkey/stuffing with Toby, dismisses cell phone initiative as too small, demands polling data, reflexively chooses 'fewer poor people' on OMB defs.
- • Perfect the Thanksgiving turkey recipe via Charlie
- • Evaluate and dismiss minor policy pitches
- • Secure validation on preferred poverty metric
- • Small initiatives like cell phones belong locally, not federally
- • Fewer reported poor people aligns with intuitive good governance
Calmly professional, unflappable amid Oval tension.
Knocks and enters to politely interrupt signing session, relays Toby's request for audience directly to Bartlet.
- • Gain clearance for Toby's urgent entry
- • Respect interruption etiquette
- • Chain of command routes requests through President
- • Timely access serves national security priorities
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Bartlet hunches over desk signing this administrative paper amid turkey banter, then thrusts it commandingly into Charlie's hand for folder filing; it symbolizes routine Oval drudgery contrasting quirky obsessions and pivots to weightier policy intrusion.
Toby cites 82% approval metrics to bolster cell phone pitch; Bartlet demands its delivery post-skepticism, transforming abstract popularity claim into tangible evidence propelling policy debate and underscoring data's persuasive power in Oval pivots.
Charlie receives Bartlet's signed paper and inserts it into this battered folder of documents awaiting ink; it grounds the scene in bureaucratic grind, tension rising as interruptions pull focus from administrative tedium to crisis pitches.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Bartlet deflects federal cell phone initiative to YMCA as local alternative, underscoring preference for decentralized grassroots over D.C. bloat in minor policies, diluting Toby's pitch.
Toby unveils OMB's impending new poverty definitions—threshold hike swelling poor ranks by millions—framed as Bartlet's choice for 'more or fewer poor people,' slyly eliciting 'fewer' to bind administration politically amid holiday chaos.
Narrative Connections
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Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: Long as you've got an oven, and you go to three hundred and twenty degrees. You take your turkey, which has been soaking overnight in water, salt, coriander..."
"NANCY: Excuse me, sir. Toby would like to see you, should I send him in? CHARLIE: (eager) Yes. BARTLET: She was asking me."
"TOBY: You know about the new OMB definitions? ... TOBY: Depends. You want more poor people or fewer poor people? BARTLET: Fewer. TOBY: You got it. Thank you, Mr. President."