Because I'm tired of it. Year, after year, after year, after year, having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected. Well, I don't believe that.
The season premiere picks up right where the finale left off, in the wake of a chaotic shooting. As the shaken staff attempts to reassemble in Rosslyn, the President is rushed to GW with a gunshot wound in his abdomen. Just before he's wheeled into surgery, First Lady Abbey Bartlet arrives and confides in the anesthesiologist that her husband has MS. Leo is still dealing with this shock when another ambulance rolls in -- this one carrying a critically wounded Josh. As the staffers handle fever-pitch press briefings and thorny Constitutional issues, the inception of the Bartlet for America campaign is shown through flashbacks: Jed's early, subdued appearances; Leo's frustration with local campaign operatives; Josh's initially disaffected trip to New Hampshire; and Sam's impromptu decision to leave his posh Manhattan law firm in pursuit of "the real thing."
Awards
Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)
Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series
Credits
Directed by THOMAS SCHLAMME
Starring:
ROB LOWE as Sam Seaborn
DULÉ HILL as Charlie Young
ALLISON JANNEY as C.J. Cregg
JANEL MOLONEY as Donna Moss
RICHARD SCHIFF as Toby Ziegler
JOHN SPENCER as Leo McGarry
BRADLEY WHITFORD as Josh Lyman
and MARTIN SHEEN as President Josiah Bartlet
Guest Starring:
Related Links:
Dialogue Excerpts:
Bartlet: Is anybody dead back there?
Butterfield: We don't know. We don't think so.
Bartlet: What happened to your hand?
Butterfield: I got hit.
Bartlet: Oh, God. Coop! Turn around. We've gotta go the hospital
Butterfield: We've got to get you to the White House.
Bartlet: We're going to the hospital. Let's go!
Butterfield: I have to put you inside the White House, Mr. President. This isn't something we discuss.
Josh: Mr. Secretary--
Leo: Leo.
Josh: Leo, the Democrats aren't going to nominate another liberal, academic, former Governor from New England. I mean, we're dumb, but we're not that dumb.
Leo: Nah. I think we're exactly that dumb.
Sam: Josh, what are you doing?
Josh: I don't know. What are you doing?
Sam: Protecting oil companies from litigation. They're a client. They don't lose legal protection because they make a lot of money.
Josh: I can't believe no one ever wrote a folk song about that. If I see the real thing in Nashua, should I tell you about it?
Sam: You won't have to.
Josh: Why?
Sam: Because you've got a pretty bad poker face.
Toby: Donna, Josh was hit.
Donna: Hit with what?
Toby: He was shot in the chest.
CJ: He's in surgery right now.
Donna: I don't understand. I don't understand. Is it--Is it serious?
Toby: Yes, it's critical. The bullet collapsed his lung and damaged a major artery.
Toby: What letter?
Nancy: Customarily, if the President's going to be under a general anesthetic--
Toby: He's got to sign a letter giving the Vice President power?
Nancy: Absent the 25th, the Constitution doesn't give it to him unless the President's dead.
Toby: He's hemorrhaging and he's supposed to draft a memo?
Nancy: Yeah.
Cal: You told him to go ahead and piss off the dairy farmers, didn't you? If he's asked about the New England DFC, you told him to piss off the dairy farmers.
Toby: I asked him about his vote; he told me. I said that if asked about it tonight he should, if only because it's the easiest thing to remember, tell the truth.
Cal: Do you enjoy losing?
Toby: Not that much, no. But then again, I really don't have a lot to compare it to, so...
Bartlet: I want to see him.
Abbey: I told him about Josh.
Bartlet: Please, help me to the door.
Leo: You should stay in bed.
Bartlet: Charlie brought me some clothes. Please, let me see him.
Abbey: Okay, just for a minute.