The President's Small-Scale Rage
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Sam inquires about the progress of interviews for a new secretary, revealing Bartlet's dissatisfaction with the candidates due to their lack of humor or being unimpressed.
Bartlet recounts a failed joke during an interview with a secretary to an Ambassador to France, highlighting his frustration with candidates who don't understand his humor.
Bartlet expresses his impatience with Josh and Toby's inability to navigate, contrasting their intelligence with their lack of practical skills.
Bartlet reveals his internal conflict about replacing his secretary, ending the scene with a reflection on his own complexity.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Implied embarrassment and flustered; the mention signals perceived incompetence rather than real-time participation.
Mentioned as part of a bungled duo (with Toby) whose navigational ineptitude becomes fodder for Bartlet's mockery; indirectly shamed by the President's anecdote.
- • To keep the campaign moving despite logistical errors (contextual)
- • To solve immediate trail problems like routing and access
- • Field logistics are messy but fixable
- • Donna's competence is essential to their functioning
Alert and slightly amused; professionally focused on gathering useful information amid levity.
Listens, prompts Bartlet with measured questions about the interviews, clarifies details, and functions as the conversational anchor between policy and personnel talk.
- • To gather concrete information about hiring prospects
- • To steady the conversation and translate Bartlet's anecdotes into actionable hiring insight
- • Staffing choices matter to communications and operations
- • Bartlet's anecdotes contain useful signals if parsed calmly
Implied frustration and fatigue; the offhand ridicule underscores his tenuous command of immediate operations.
Also referenced as lost and part of the comedic target; his practical competence is questioned indirectly through Bartlet's GPS jab.
- • To manage communications and messaging on the trail
- • To maintain campaign coherence under pressure
- • Real-world voter issues trump campaign theater
- • Operational missteps can undermine larger strategy
Mentioned with implied loyalty; his opinion is used as emotional evidence rather than direct testimony.
Referenced by Bartlet as having intimate knowledge of one candidate and as someone who believes Bartlet 'doesn't want anyone to replace her'; serves as the connective tissue to the 'crazy woman' candidate.
- • To influence hiring through personal recommendations (as implied)
- • To protect the President's immediate operational needs by vetting aides
- • Personal knowledge is valuable in personnel choices
- • Some positions should be filled with people loyal to the President's style
Bruised and irritable—publicly authoritative but privately petty and fearful about replacement; venting to reclaim control.
Leads the room from policy into personal territory, recounting interviews, mocking staff navigation, and exposing irritation; his voice moves from constitutional authority to wounded, petty comedy.
- • To assert intellectual and moral authority on faith-based policy
- • To test and communicate frustrations about staff and hiring
- • To push off or delay the emotional reality of replacing a longtime aide
- • Precision and principle matter in policy language
- • Personal slights (real or perceived) reflect deeper loyalty wounds
- • He can control morale through wit and judgment
Implied steady and quietly authoritative; presented as the team's operational backbone.
Referenced by Bartlet as the stabilizing presence who prevents Josh and Toby from collapsing into chaos; credited with domestic competence.
- • To keep the campaign team functional (implied)
- • To manage logistics so leaders can focus on strategy
- • Organizational effectiveness depends on capable support staff
- • Practical skills matter more than rhetoric when systems break
Portrayed as emotionally serious and possibly judgmental; her literalism alarms the President.
Referenced as the 'second one' who failed to recognize Bartlet's joke about D'Astier, used to illustrate social misattunement for Oval Office roles.
- • To demonstrate administrative competence (implied)
- • To maintain professional boundaries in informal presidential settings
- • Literal, professional responses are safer than levity
- • Diplomatic correctness matters more than jocularity
Presented as aloof and unflappable; her demeanor unsettles Bartlet more than intrigues him.
Identified by Bartlet as 'the first one' and labeled 'not easily impressed'; serves as an exemplifier of candidates who don't fit the President's tonal needs.
- • To present herself as a competent, independent professional (implied)
- • To be assessed on competence rather than charm
- • Professional distance is appropriate in interviews
- • Being unimpressed can be an asset in high-office roles
Characterized by others rather than shown; her eccentricity is used to highlight the fraught hiring process.
Mentioned as the 'crazy woman' Charlie knows; Bartlet gives her a colorful label, signaling anxiety about replacing an old confidante.
- • To secure an Oval Office executive secretary role (implied)
- • To leverage personal connections to gain consideration
- • Personal recommendations matter for intimate staff roles
- • Non-traditional personalities can still be effective in the Oval Office
Described as offended in the anecdote; serves as foil to Bartlet's comedic test of social radar.
Referred to in Bartlet's anecdote as the Ambassador to France who was 'visibly insulted' by a joke about cheese; his reaction is used to measure social calibration.
- • To maintain national and personal dignity in diplomatic settings (implied)
- • To test the social awareness of visiting leaders
- • Protocol and cultural sensitivity matter in diplomacy
- • Comments perceived as insults can have diplomatic consequences
Inquisitive and mildly defensive; seeking policy concessions while gauging presidential limits.
Has just pushed a faith-based funding line and remains in the room as Bartlet pivots; offers a pointed quip prompting the soup-kitchen illustration.
- • To secure federal support for religiously-affiliated social services
- • To frame the debate in practical, voter-facing terms
- • Religious organizations fill gaps government cannot
- • Political framing can win funding even against constitutional scruples
Pleading and pragmatic; focused on constituency results rather than abstract legality.
Advocates for churches, synagogues, and mosques as practical service providers; leaves the policy exchange as Bartlet turns inward toward personnel grievances.
- • To obtain funding for faith-based programs in his state
- • To position faith organizations as indispensable service providers
- • Local religious groups are effective where government solutions lag
- • Tangible results will trump constitutional hair-splitting in politics
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The 'Faith-Based Soup Kitchen' functions as a rhetorical prop in the policy exchange: Senator Schuler's hypothetical about 'Christian soup' prompts Bartlet to delineate constitutional limits and pivot into personnel complaints, linking high policy and petty grievance.
Bartlet's anecdotal 'cheese' operates as a miniature diplomatic prop: the joke and subsequent offense exemplify a candidate's social reading (or lack of it) and justifies presidential discomfort with that candidate's suitability.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Mosques are included in Choate's list of community actors, widening the religious-societal argument and emphasizing bipartisan or pluralistic claims for faith-based support.
Churches are cited as practical providers of social services; their real-world effectiveness is used by Senator Choate to argue for federal support, setting up Bartlet's constitutional counterargument.
Synagogues are grouped with other faith organizations as part of the senator's pragmatic argument, reinforcing the political claim that religious groups fill civic service gaps.
Faith-Based Initiatives is the policy fulcrum that begins the exchange; its invocation forces constitutional clarification and sets the tone for Bartlet's move from high-minded legality into petty personnel wounds.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"SAM: "She didn't get you were joking?""
"BARTLET: "It didn't bode well for me.""
"BARTLET: "300 IQ points between them-- they can't find their way home. I swear to God, if Donna wasn't there, they'd have to buy a house.""