Professional Backgound
- Jed Bartlet got 800/790 on his SATs. Twice [4.11]
- Though accepted to Harvard, Yale, and Williams, Jed Bartlet attended Notre Dame because he was thinking of becoming a priest -- then he met Abbey [2.7]. He is also an alumnus of the London School of Economics, despite almost being tossed out for writing a controversial paper at age 26 [1.9].
- Bartlet holds a Ph.D. in economics [1.9], spent an unspecified period of time as an economics professor [1.5], and is a Nobel laureate in economics [1.2]. He loves filing tax returns [3.17]. Like many economists, he is somewhat superstitious about the market [4.2].
- Jed Bartlet served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (but is unfamiliar with Senate rules [2.17]), and two terms as Governor of New Hampshire [1.2]. Though Bartlet was Governor 10-12 years ago [2.1], he was also Governor when Leo approached him to run for President, presumably in late 1997 [3.9]. (Incidentally, Bartlet also references a "bad day at the New Hampshire State House" in 1971 [1.1], though he claims that the people of New Hampshire "sent me to Congress three times and then elected me Governor" [2.1]).
- Bartlet has always filed for elections in New Hampshire himself, which he feels is a profound statement about democracy. For his re-election campaign, he was not able to make the trip because the Portland, a nuclear submarine, had gone quiet [3.6].
- Notable moments in his early political career include:
- While a Congressman, voting against the New England Dairy Farming Compact -- to the detriment of many of his constituents -- because he didn't want to make it harder for people to buy milk [2.1].
- Realizing that Congress would never pass real campaign finance reform laws because they still have to get themselves re-elected, Congressman Bartlet proposed reform laws that wouldn't take effect for thirty years [4.14].
- Bartlet led an Equal Protection suit to block the federal death penalty, because federal law applies almost exlusively on Native American reservations [4.14].
- In a speech on the House floor, Bartlet said: "We are for freedom of speech everywhere, freedom to worship everywhere, freedom to learn for every child... freedom from the tyranny of oppression, economic slavery, religious fanaticism..." [4.14].
- Being elected Governor of New Hampshire, a fairly conservative state, with 69% of the vote [2.2]; early in his tenure in this position, he pardoned a prisoner named Wallace Turner who later committed violent crimes; years later, this seems to still haunt Bartlet [5.11].
- As Governor, signing the Historic Barn and Bridges Preservation Act, which later prevented him from building his presidential library at the location of his choice [2.16].
- Although Leo called Jed a "crappy politician" [2.1], he convinced Bartlet to run for the Democratic nomination in 1998. Bartlet, who had never lost an election in his life [1.20] and who had run his congressional and gubernatorial campaigns without Leo's help [2.1], was in some trouble thirteen weeks before the New Hampsire primary -- Hoynes had a 48 point lead [2.1]. Bartlet eventually realized the strength of the Bartlet for America campaign:
- Toby Ziegler, the only operative on the early stages of the campaign that Bartlet didn't know, and also the only person that Leo kept when he fired Jed's guys [2.2].
- Josh Lyman, whom Leo wooed away from Senator John Hoynes (D-TX), the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nominee. Josh came aboard as Senior Political Director [1.15] when he realized Jed Bartlet was the real thing [2.1].
- Sam Seaborn, a lawyer and erstwhile speechwriter whom Josh convinced to leave his job protecting oil companies from litigation by flashing his "pretty bad poker face" [2.1].
- CJ Cregg, who was fired from her job as a P.R. consultant to petty studio executives in Hollywood on the same day that Toby arrived to tell her that Leo McGarry wanted her to join the Bartlet for America campaign [2.2].
- Donnatella Moss, who drove from Wisconsin to New Hampshire because she thought that she could be valuable, and became an invaluable assistant to Josh Lyman [2.2].
- Mrs. Landingham, who was Bartlet's assistant for at least ten years before the presidential campaign [2.1], and Margaret, who was in charge of the new arrivals [2.2].
- Key moments of the Bartlet for America campaign -- headquartered in Manchester, for reasons that remain obscure since the capital of New Hampshire is actually Concord -- include:
- Bartlet claims he wasn't supposed to win; As of just before South Carolina's primary, both Jed and Abbey expected Jed to get "whupped on Super Tuesday" [3.9]. He got into the race to give some speeches and keep Hoynes honest, then, he says, Josh, CJ, Toby, and Sam " came along and all of a sudden I got 22% in Iowa, and then South Carolina and Michigan, and then Illinois" [3.2].
- The South Carolina primary, in which Bartlet presumably came in second. Senator William Wiley (D-WA), another presidential wannabe, dropped out of the race after South Carolina, and consequently his money and endorsements went to Bartlet [2.2].
- The Illinois primary -- aka "high noon" -- after which the tide of the primaries turned in Bartlet's favor, and the Democratic nomination was his to lose. This was also the night that Bartlet realized he was ready to lead, and vowed never to take Toby, Sam, CJ, Josh and the rest of his staff for granted again [2.2].
- Bringing John Hoynes onto the ticket as the Vice-Presidential candidate, which the staffers thought would help Bartlet with the Southern states, especially Texas [3.9].
- Bartlet, as it turned out, was whomped in Texas twice -- during the primary, and again in the general election [1.2].
- Just before the last debate -- and nine days before the election -- Bartlet collapsed. The doctor labeled the collapse an inner ear infection [3.9]. Interestingly, also just before the last debate, Bartlet snuck out into the alley to smoke a cigarette and accidentally set his tie on fire; in the ensuing rush to get Bartlet on stage on time, Josh offered up his tie, which became Bartlet's lucky tie until it was ruined by the dry cleaner in 2002 [4.6]
- In November of 1998, Bartlet was elected President [1.1] with 48% of the popular vote [1.19]. (This does not mean that he lost the popular vote, but that more than half of the voters chose somebody else -- the Republican nominee, and third party candidates.) In total, 48 million people voted for Bartlet [2.6]
- Josiah Bartlet took office on January 20th, 1999, and brought his campaign staff with him as key members of his administration [1.1]. He has five secretaries: two research secretaries, a social secretary, and a senior and assistant scheduling secretary [4.2].
- Bartlet ran unchallenged in the 2002 Democratic Caucus in Iowa [3.12]. Two months before the 2002 elections, he was leading his Republican challenger by 49 or 50% to Ritchie's 44 or 43% among registered voters, but they were in a 46 to 45% dead heat among likely voters [4.1].
- As it turns out, Bartlet carried many states in the 2002 election -- including Iowa, Nebraska, both Dakotas, and the humid bayou of Louisiana -- and won the popular vote by 11 percentage points (at 11:01 p.m. EST, the count was Bartlet: 53,766,221. Ritchie: 42,992,342. Which is, yes, roughly 11.2%) [4.8]. Oddly, Josh, not none for understatement, claimed that 51 million Americans voted for the President [5.8].
- The President's Secret Service name was "Eagle" [1.2], then "Liberty" [1.12], then back to "Eagle" [2.1].
- Because he's still envious of Abbey's long ago relationship with Ron Ehrlich, the President was reluctant to name Ehrlich the new Fed Chair [1.17].
- Bartlet picked Hoynes to be his running mate 72 hours before accepting the nomination. At the same time, he told Hoynes that he had relapsing/remitting MS [3.9]. The President was unaware that John Hoynes is an alcoholic until his fourth year in office [3.17].
- Though the President vetoed his first bill with much discussion in late 2001 [3.4], he also, according to Sam, vetoed the Republicans' version of the Education Bill (because it prohibited schools from distributed condoms) sometime in 2000 [2.4]. He also pocket vetoed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (limiting marriage to heterosexual couples) [2.7] and equal pay [4.18]. According to Josh, the President has vetoed every bill he's received that includes school vouchers [5.15].
- The staffers aren't allowed to give tours of the West Wing until after 10p.m., when the President has left the Oval Office -- only he's usually there later than that [2.16]. Bartlet claims that he usually gets four or five hours sleep per night [3.13].
- Bartlet favors stricter gun control laws [3.5] and is opposed to soft money [3.6].
- Had Jed lost, he would've been the Economics Chair at Phillips Andover Academy. Which would be, incidentally, quite a drive from his home in Manchester [4.5].
- Toby says that, despite his reluctance to change foreign policy, the "acts of genocide" in Kundu haunt President Bartlet. Clearly they do, since he makes the bold decision to change American foreign policy to allow intervention even when the goal is purely humanitarian [4.15]. Bartlet took the airport in the Kundunese capital and gave the genocidaires a 36-hour deadline before he'd take the capital itself [4.16].
- When it became clear that Sam's DNC-approved staff was bungling the Congressional campaign, Bartlet gave Toby leave to stay in California and run the last week of the campaign [4.16].
- Bartlet rather inexplicably appointed a judge to the Tenth Circuit who calls sexual harassment "a flight of fancy for the overindulged." Abbey is not amused [4.18].
- Bartlet reacts very poorly to attacks that in any way involve his daughters; as Leo puts it, "we won't be able to get him to focus on his breakfast order because he'll be asking for the launch codes" [5.16].
- Despite the fact that John Hoynes shared classified information with his mistress, Bartlet seemed to think the administration could weather the scandal. Hoynes resigned [4.21].
- Zoey's Kidnapping:
- When Jed's youngest daughter Zoey ws abducted on May 7, 2003, the President had a harrowing several hours of Situation Room meetings, but all he could think about was the image of Zoey with a knife to her throat.
- Sometime early in the morning of May 8, 2003, Jed invoked Section 3 of the 25th Amendment, handing his powers temporarily over to Speaker of the House, Glen Allen Walken [4.23].
- A picture of Zoey holding USA Today surfaced on al-Jazeera with a threat that she would be killed if the kidnappers' demands were not met [5.2]. When Americans were killed overseas in an attack, Acting President Walken ordered military retaliation against Qumar, despite the probability that such action would lead directly to Zoey's death [5.2].
- After Zoey was rescued on the night of May 10, 2003 -- about 72 hours after she was kidnapped -- the President resumed his office on the morning of May 11, 2003 [5.2].
- In thanks, Bartlet offered to campaign for Walken [5.2].
