Bartlet4America.org - Jed Bartlet

Personal Background

Although his full name is Josiah, Bartlet prefers to be called Jed [1.1]. Abbey sometimes calls him Jethro (or Jackass), but he doesn't seem to like that [3.15].
Jed's great-grandfather's great-grandfather was Dr. Josiah Bartlet, a signer of the Declaration of Independence [1.22]. Paul Revere was a friend of the family [2.8]. Jed is so proud of being a New Hampshire Bartlet that, Josh thinks, if asked whether he'd prefer to win his home state or the election, Jed would have to think about it [4.5].
Bartlet's grandmother taught English to the children of Italian stonecutters in the basement of a rectory [2.7].
Bartlet's mother is apparently still living [2.22] -- is dead [3.12].
Jed's father never liked him, was jealous of his son's intelligence [2.22],] and sometimes hit him [3.12]. On Sundays, after church, Jed's father would let Jed and his brother split a beer [3.5]. These days Jed drinks bourbon [3.12].
Jed Bartlet bought the Bartlet family Bible at an auction to donate to the New Hampshire Historical Society [4.14].
Jonathan Bartlet, the President's brother, once locked him in a steamer trunk with actual seafood. Jonathan is now heading up the Bartlet Presidential Library Commission [2.16].
Jed and Abbey, who have been married for 32 years [1.4], have three daughters -- Elizabeth [1.1], Eleanor [2.15], and Zoey [1.5] -- and one granddaughter, Annie [1.1].
When Zoey is abducted from a club in Georgetown, Jed confesses to Leo that were he to receive a demand from Zoey's kidnappers to aim cruise missiles at Tel Aviv, he might do it [4.23]. The President, Abbey, the First Family, and Charlie attend a private service during Zoey's kidnapping [5.2].
Abbey is the person in the White House who has known him the longest [3.9]. When Abbey and Jed slip away during the day, it's listed on the President's schedule as "barbecuing" [4.2].
Ellie and Jed don't get along very well; he doesn't think she likes him, and thinks that she's "always belonged to Abbey" [2.15]. Jed used to bribe his daughters with candy when Abbey wasn't around [4.15].
The Bartlet kids named their two cats Mr. Finch and something like Mrs. Wilberforce, who, Abbey reminds Jed, is their former housekeeper who moved to Miami to take up massage [4.9].
Jed and Leo have known each other for 40 years [1.1], and have been good friends for the past 11 years [3.9].
The Bartlets own a farm in Manchester valued at $750,000 due to Secret Service improvements, which include a helipad and the ability to run a global war from the sun porch [1.4]. They also have cattle, horses, and an old red pickup truck [3.1]. According to Jed, the farm is "beyond the village"; according to Leo, it's in the middle of nowhere [3.1].
Oddly, the Bartlets fly into Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire when they go to the Manchester house. Pease was decommissioned in the early 1990s and is now a tradeport [3.1].
Bartlet's Health:

Sometime in 1993, Jed Bartlet was diagnosed by Dr. Herman Vikram with a relapsing-remitting course of Multiple Sclerosis [2.21]. In 1991, Bartlet began feeling run down and had a pain in his leg, which subsided, returning in 1993 along with numbness. His vision was blurry and he experienced dizziness. During an eye exam, an opthamologist detected abnormal pupil response and ordered and MRI, after which the radiologist detected plaque on Bartlet's brain and spine, a sign of MS [2.18].
Although the president's life expectancy is normal, fever and stress can bring on attacks, after which he experiences full recovery [1.12].
Abbey Bartlet, a medical doctor, gives him injections of betaseron to reduce the frequency of attacks, which is in violation of her medical license [1.12].
Bartlet's relapsing-remitting MS could turn into secondary, progressive MS about ten years after the initial diagnosis, which is right around re-election. Consequently, Jed made a deal with Abbey that he wouldn't run for a second term, which is how he justified keeping his illness a secret [2.14].
After Jed was shot, Abbey told David Lee, the anesthesiologist at GW, about the MS, making him the 15th person in the world to know [2.1].
The original 17 people who knew of the President's MS are: Abbey, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Zoey, Dr. Herman Vickram and five other original doctors and radiologists, his brother John, Leo, Admiral Fitzwallace, Vice-President John Hoynes, Dr. David Lee, Toby, and the president himself [2.18].

1. Dr. Josiah Bartlett -- with two 't's -- is, in fact, a historical figure. Bartlett was, among other things, the first Governor of New Hampshire, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.