Setting the Pace: Bartlet Cuts In, Protects Leo, and Sets the Day
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet brushes aside Leo's detailed briefing on banana trade politics with dismissive efficiency, establishing his control over the agenda and setting the scene's rapid political tempo.
The President's focus snaps to the stalled CPB nominations, charging Toby with breaking the Republican blockade and ensuring public broadcasting's legacy remains intact.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Alert and professionally concerned — aware of both human sensitivity and media ramifications.
C.J. stands at the doorway, raises the sex‑education report and the Lydells' visit, presses for presentation strategy, and accepts Bartlet's instruction to wait until he's reviewed the report at day's end.
- • Handle the Lydell family's visit with appropriate tact
- • Shape how the Sex Ed report is presented to minimize backlash
- • Shield the President and administration from avoidable optics problems
- • Optics and timing matter for sensitive releases
- • Staff should coordinate presentation with the President
- • Compassion and disciplined messaging can coexist
Measured, paternal urgency — outwardly calm and playful while sharply focused on damage control and loyalty protection.
President Bartlet ends a tedious policy riff, reasserts control, issues direct operational orders to staff (pre‑empt the hearing, protect Leo), interrogates Leo about Simon Blye, and defers the sex‑education report until evening.
- • Prevent a House hearing that could be weaponized against Leo
- • Move the CPB confirmations forward and neutralize the blockade
- • Protect Leo's reputation and family from political exposure
- • Control the release and optics of the sex‑education report
- • Political hearings will be used as weapons unless actively pre‑empted
- • Protecting senior staff protects institutional stability
- • He should personally manage prioritization and morale
- • Simon Blye is potentially untrustworthy and merits scrutiny
Calm professionalism with underlying acceptance of responsibility; composed but aware of political friction.
Toby is briefed about CPB confirmations and asserts confidence that he's prepared to handle the meetings, implicitly accepting the President's charge to break the blockade and secure confirmations.
- • Win confirmation for the CPB appointees
- • Protect the institutional legacy associated with public broadcasting
- • Manage the political optics of the nominations
- • He is the right person to shepherd sensitive cultural legacies
- • The opposition is political, not substantive, and can be negotiated
- • Maintaining message discipline will secure confirmations
Polite, service‑oriented — doing ceremonial duties without visible stress.
Nancy appears as the ceremonial staffer who answers the President's greeting and participates in light banter about a banana, underscoring the Oval's formal hospitality even during urgent business.
- • Facilitate access and small comforts for the President
- • Maintain decorum during the Oval's activity
- • Ceremonial staff should keep the President's routine smooth
- • Politeness and efficiency are essential in the White House environment
Uneasily grateful and slightly exposed — seeking counsel but wary of appearing weak or disloyal.
Leo delivers the banana briefing, accepts Bartlet's directional shift, admits he is meeting with Simon Blye for counsel, and concedes to Bartlet's protective stance while asking Bartlet to read the Sex Ed report later.
- • Obtain private counsel during a difficult moment
- • Avoid public scrutiny for personal relationships
- • Keep the President's confidence and not appear burdensome
- • Trusted outside counsel can help when things are hard
- • Bartlet values him and will protect him if convinced
- • Discretion is necessary in personal matters during political crises
Focused and dutiful — ready to execute a pre‑emptive political maneuver while conscious of the President's expectations.
Josh is addressed directly by Bartlet in a hallway aside, receives the orders to pre‑empt the Hill hearing at noon, acknowledges the directive and the need to consult the President before conceding anything.
- • Prevent the hearing from occurring or blunt its damage
- • Protect Leo and the administration from political ambush
- • Coordinate with Sam and senior staff to hold negotiating leverage
- • Opponents will exploit hearings for political gain
- • Negotiations should preserve maximal leverage until cleared by the President
- • Swift, coordinated action is necessary to contain a political crisis
Cheerful, straightforward — providing an earthbound, human note to the Oval's formality.
Mrs. Landingham engages in brief, domestic banter about bananas at the scene's opening, setting a tonal counterpoint of ordinary liveliness before the President's serious directives.
- • Maintain household routine and small comforts for the President
- • Anchor the Oval's personal tone amid political business
- • Small gestures of care (like offering a banana) matter
- • Practical, no‑nonsense behavior grounds the President
Margaret is invoked as the source who told Bartlet about Leo's meeting with Simon Blye, functioning as a backstage informant …
Simon Blye is not physically present but becomes the subject of Bartlet's suspicion; Bartlet questions Leo about him and frames …
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Sex Education report is referenced as an explosive, public-facing document; C.J. presses the President about its timing and presentation, and Leo requests the President read it — Bartlet defers reading until the end of the day, postponing a volatile policy communications decision.
The President refers to his compact camera as a comic-but-revealing prop: he claims to have taken infrared photos of Leo's secret schedule compartment, using the camera as a rhetorical device to undercut privacy and justify a pointed question about Simon Blye.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Portico functions as the threshold through which Bartlet and Leo enter, signaling the movement from exterior staging to interior authority; it establishes arrival and the transition into the Oval's decision-making space.
The West Wing Hallway becomes the arena for a private, brisk presidential aside: Bartlet pulls Josh and Sam out to give direct tactical orders to pre-empt hearings and to control concessions, compressing strategy into a furtive corridor exchange.
The Outer Oval Office is the proximate space where staff gather and gossip before formal entry; it frames the briefing's lead-in and houses the quick social beats (Mrs. Landingham's banter) that set tone before decisions are crystallized in the Oval.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's protective loyalty to Leo remains consistent across both moments."
"Bartlet's protective loyalty to Leo remains consistent across both moments."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: I don't want to spend the whole day talking about bananas."
"BARTLET: We have appointed five people to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans in the House, as well as an alarming number of Democrats, have been holding up those appointments... I want to pre-empt a hearing. I don't want it. I don't want it for Leo. I don't want it for his family. I don't want it for us. They know that, and they're gonna play "Let's Make a Deal." Don't take anything off the table until you've talked to me. You understand?"
"BARTLET: The measure of a man is, how does he behave when things are otherwise?"