It's a slow news day, and even if CJ can't come up with a good sports metaphor to describe how that's bad for the administration, she turns out to be right. Toby's late-night realization that an influential Republican Senator is going to announce his retirement seems to be the perfect opportunity to fix Social Security. The President reluctantly agrees to let Toby try, so of course a pesky reporter catches wind of the plan. Meanwhile, the rest of CJ's unruly reporters are loathe to write about policy, preferring puff pieces on CJ's alleged desire to adopt instead. Will's plea for help sets Josh on the path to unwittingly interfere with Toby's plan. In the end, the President has to decide between an esteemed legacy or actually saving Social Security

Starring:

STOCKARD CHANNING as First Lady Abigail Bartlet
DULÉ HILL as Charlie Young
ALLISON JANNEY as C.J. Cregg
JOSHUA MALINA as Will Bailey
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

Toby:  More college kids think they'll see UFOs than Social Security checks.

Bartlet:  But they don't tell you how many believe in UFOs.  That's the number we oughta be worried about.

Josh:  Maybe no news is good news.

CJ:  No news is very, very bad news.  If we're not running offense, we're running defense.  And if we're playing defense, then there's some other sports analogy that explains what happens then.

Josh:  We're screwed.

CJ:  That'll do.

Will:  Did you ever have presentation problems with the president?

Josh:  The first campaign.  Every speech was an eighteen-point plan for something or other.

Will:  How'd you handle that?

Josh:  Gave him an eighteen-point plan to make his speeches snappier.

Josh:  Why didn't you tell me?  You don't trust me?

Toby:  I didn't tell you because you would've body blocked me.

Josh:  'Cause it was a stupid thing to do and you knew it.  Don't you want to try to take back Congress so we can legislate on a hundred of our issues?

Toby:  Spoken like  a true reformer.

Toby:  So we exploit the hard stuff until it can't be solved?  That's what we want to be remembered for?

Josh:  We do what's possible.  We exploit what's not.  That's how we win elections.

Toby:  Well, I came up on losing campaigns, and every time I lost, at least I knew what I went down for.