The Burden of Power
Leadership here is portrayed as moral weight: the President’s choice about clemency is less a political calculation than a personal crucible. Scenes emphasize sleepless deliberation, pastoral counsel, and the exhausting responsibility to balance law, conscience, and institutional consequence—showing how power isolates and forces agonized ethical decisions.
Events Exemplifying This Theme
Leo briefs Bartlet that the Supreme Court has denied the final appeal and the federal death sentence for Simon Cruz is now a White House problem. Bartlet questions why a …
Toby finds Rabbi Glassman in the synagogue after the rabbi's sermon and they quietly parse what moral counsel should mean inside the White House. Glassman reveals Bobby Zane called, making …
Late in the Oval, Toby returns from synagogue and forces the debate over commuting Simon Cruz into moral and religious terms. He cites rabbinic legal maneuvers that effectively made state …
At the brink of a federal execution, President Bartlet summons his spiritual advisor and submits to a private reckoning. Father Cavanaugh's river parable reframes Bartlet's attempts to find a legal …