The Clinton Connection

Cranky old Senator Jesse Helms said of Bill Clinton's perceived hostility towards the military (in the form of supporting the idea that sexual orientation shouldn't preclude someone from serving in the military):  "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard" (Democratic Underground). Cranky old Representative Bertram Coles said of Jed Bartlet's perceived hostility towards the military (for reasons that remain unclear): "Folks down here are patriotic, fiercely patriotic. The president better not be planning on making any visits to this base. If he does, he may not get out alive" (A Proportional Response).

When a seat opened up on the Supreme Court early in Clinton's first term, the staff favorite, Stephen Breyer, ended up with a "nanny problem."  Two of Clinton's nominees to Cabinet positions (Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood) had previously had to step down due to nanny problems, which weakened the Clinton administration from the start.  While trying to decide whether to stick with Breyer or go with the safer choice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clinton remarked that he agreed that they couldn't support Breyer, because "We don't need another gang-that-couldn't-shoot straight story" (Stephanopoulos, 170).  Though the problem that the Bartlet administration faced -- unfounded accusations of drug use amongst White House staffers -- was quite different from Clinton's, it was an open seat on the Supreme Court and the ensuing debate over which candidate to nominate that ended with Toby's memorable line: "We've been here for a year, and all we've gotten is a year older...And I'm tired of being field captain for the gang that couldn't shoot straight. We're getting this done." (The Short List).

In December of 1994, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich publicly claimed that 25 percent of the White House staff "had used drugs in the last four or five years."  In December of 1999, Representative Lillienfield called a press conference and claimed that one in three White House staffers has used drugs on a regular basis (The Short List).

Though the more liberal staffers disagreed (speechwriter Michael Waldman said it was "the death of liberalism at its own hands"), Clinton used a line authored by Dick Morris in his 1996 State of the Union:  "The era of big government is over" (Stephanopoulos, 411). Though the line "The era of big government is over" was originally in Bartlet's 1999 State of the Union, Toby protested, saying they were running away from themselves.  "But we're here now. Tomorrow night we do an immense thing.... I have no trouble understanding why the line tested well, Josh, but I don't think that means we should say it.  I think that means we should change it" (He Shall, From Time to Time...).

During their first year in office, Bartlet's senior staffers were vehemently against allowing Al Keifer, a Democratic pollster, access to the President.  Toby called Keifer "the guy who runs into the 7-11 to get Satan a pack of cigarettes" (20 Hours in L.A.)  Bill Clinton's staffers had to deal with a similar guy -- Republican pollster Dick Morris, who has been described as "a prohibitively bizarre human being...brilliant, unpredictable, and self-described quasi-autistic neurotic; he drove everyone around him crazy..." (Klein, 134).

Apparently the Bartlet for America campaign had more in common with Bill Clinton's 1992 upstart than we first assumed.  On the wall behind then-Governor Bartlet in his Manchester campaign headquarters is a white dry-erase board with the following, in part, scrawled across it:  --same;  the economy, stupid;  don't forget healthcare;  the debate, stupid;  quote of the day (In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II).  One of the centerpieces of James Carville's war room was his "haiku" of focal points for Clinton's campaign written on a dry-erase board.  Specifically:  Change vs. more of the same;  the economy, stupid;  don't forget healthcare;  the debate, stupid;  staffer of the day (The War Room).  

During his first term, Clinton was frustrated at the constant sniping from Congress and his low approval ratings.  At one point, George Stephanopoulos wrote him a note that included the following: "You're going to get a lot of advice over the next few weeks about how to fix your presidency, so let me get in my two cents: 'Be president like you ran for president'" (Stephanopoulos, 323).  During his first year, Bartlet was frustrated at his administration's lack of progress against an obstructionist, opposition Congress and his low approval ratings.  At one point, Leo McGarry confronted him in the Oval Office about the difference between the idealistic candidate and the sitting president, jotting his summation of a strategy to fix Bartlet's presidency onto a legal pad:  "Let Bartlet be Bartlet" (Let Bartlet Be Bartlet).

Hillary Clinton, whose influence on her husband's administration was the subject of admiration and abject disgust, depending on the observer's political affiliation, was not a fan of the press.  In fact, she so distrusted them that she suggested relocating the press room to the Old Executive Office Building (Klein, 58).  Though Sam Seaborn's concern was not the press so much as it was serious lack of office space in the West Wing, he nevertheless came up with the same solution:  relegating the press to the OEOB.  Though CJ Cregg told him never to mention it again, Sam corralled Josh Lyman into agreeing and the two took action that, through coincidence, landed the whole mess in the papers (The Leadership Breakfast).

Regardless of what you might think of Bill Clinton's politics or personal lives, you've got to admit that he is an incredible public speaker.  Even Newt Gingrich, the mastermind behind the Republican's 1994 "Contract with America" that swept them back into power in Congress, admitted that he'd watched one of Clinton's State of the Union speeches thinking, 'We're dead.  There's no way we're going to beat this guy' (Klein, 14).  Jed Bartlet, another fabulous talker, inspires the same grudging respect from his Republican opponents.  Representative Henry Shallick appeared on Capital Beat and admitted that "the president is a gifted public speaker," though he then likened that talent to juggling (Bartlet's Third State of the Union).

In January, 1995, Bill Clinton, despite public opposition and a reluctant Congress, responded quickly to the collapse of the Mexican peso by bailing them out (Klein, 142).  In April, 2001, Josh Lyman, despite opposition from Donna Moss and a reluctant Congress, responded to the collapse of the Mexican peso by urging the President to bail them out (Bad Moon Rising).

In July of 1994, the situation in Haiti grew ever worse: General Raoul Cedras and his fellow high-ranking military dictators, refused to reinstate the popularly elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  Clinton believed that military intervention was called for to restore Aristide to power, but worried about the possibility of American casualties.  Negotiations finally worked, and Cedras agreed to leave, restoring democracy to Haiti (Stephanopoulos, 309, 315).  The Bartlet administration faced a remarkably similar situation in Haiti -- Colonel Bazan headed up a military junta opposed to the democratically elected Dessaline, and refused to leave Haiti until Bartlet promised him safe passage to Venezuala and access to his money (18th & Potomac and Manchester, Part II).

During the extensive (and ultimately fruitless) Whitewater investigation, many of Clinton's staffers were subpoenaed to testify before Congress.  George Stephanopoulos was worried about one thing: "only the night before did I realize what the crucial moment of the hearing would be.... I tried to think like a Republican.  What would I do to me if I were them?  Of course!  The diary!"  In this case, Stephanopolous was spared having to read a damaging (though not incriminating) diary excerpt because it was an account of a phone conversation not from his own diary, but from another person's -- oddly, a man named Josh (Stephanopoulos, 292).  Donna Moss -- with Josh Lyman's help -- tried a different approach.  In the world of The West Wing, the Bartlet staffers were subpoenaed to testify before Congress about the president's concealment of his MS.  During her deposition, Donna lied and said she didn't have a diary.  It's unclear whether she thought there was anything incriminating in her diary or just wanted to avoid the embarrassment of reading her private thoughts aloud to a hostile audience.  Either way, Josh cooked up an illicit deal with Cliff Calley, the counsel for the Republicans, to allow Cliff to read it in private and make a determination (War Crimes).

Frustrated with Congressional defeat on larger issues, Clinton and his staff devoted some time and energy to "small bore" issues that got minimal press coverage, but earned the president points with the electorate, regardless of the press' attitude towards the approach (Kurtz, 77). To ensure a high favorability rating as the re-election campaign geared up, Toby suggested that the Bartlet administration back small-scale legislative initiatives that enjoyed strong public support.  For example, funding a program that would supply second-hand cellphones to neighborhood watch groups (The Butterball Hotline).

In the Clinton White House, polls were a way of life.  Whether the results were determinative in Clinton's mind is a matter of some debate, but for pollster Mark Penn, seemingly no issue was too trivial.  In one memorable case, he "used data that he had already collected about what Americans liked to do on vacation to convince the President that he had chosen the wrong spot for a summer trip: Martha's Vineyard, playground of the liberal elite, was out.  Wyoming -- fishing and, particularly, horseback riding (while wearing a cowboy hat) -- was most definitely 'in.'" (Klein, 137).  Abbey Bartlet, as a way of repenting for her role in the M.S. scandal, agreed to spend Thanksgiving at Camp David instead of Manchester when a poll suggested it (The Butterball Hotline). 

In 1995, the National Air & Space Museum cancelled a planned exhibit on the Enola Gay, World War II, and the bombing of Hiroshima after veterans groups and conservative Congresspersons protested that it was too sympathetic to the Japanese and too anti-American (The Debacle of the Enola Gay Exhibit).  When President Bartlet was asked to speak at the opening of a Smithsonian exhibit commemorating the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, trouble ensued when veterans protested offensive language in the exhibit that was, to their way of thinking, too sympathetic to the Japanese (The Women of Qumar).

During the summer of 1996, Gary Aldrich wrote a book called Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House which depicted Clinton & Co. as, in Kurtz' words, "sloppy, rude, drug-addled Deadheads."  George Stephanopoulos and the communications department staged a full scale attack, calling all their contacts at major news organizations to list the errors and unsubstantiated claims (Kurtz, 30).  During the winter of 2002, Ron Burkhart wrote a book called The Camera Doesn't Lie: What I Saw in the Bartlet White House which depicted Bartlet & Co. unfavorably.  Sam Seaborn spearheaded an effort to launch a full scale attack, documenting each and every factual error and unsubstantiated claim, but was overruled by CJ Cregg and Toby Ziegler, who didn't want to give the book credibility by paying it that much attention (H.Con-172).

As the Monica Lewinsky scandal continued to swirl around Bill Clinton, his 1998 State of the Union speech became ever more important.  The purpose of the speech was not so much to report the state of the Union, but to "insure his political survival" (Klein, 15).  As the M.S. scandal continued to hinder Jed Bartlet's administration, his 2002 State of the Union speech became incredibly important.  As Joey Lucas explained to Charlie, if the president didn't park the speech, "it will be his last" (100,000 Airplanes).

1. Stephanopoulos, George, All Too Human: A Political Education. Little, Brown and Company, 1999. 

2. Kurtz, Howard, Spin Cycle: How the White House and the Media Manipulate the News. Touchstone, 1998.

3. Klein, Joe, The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. Doubleday, 2002.

4. Hedges, Chris and D.A. Pennebaker, The War Room. October Films/TriMark Home Video, 1993.