Bartlet4America News Archive

A Presidential Sheen

Fans of West Wing say Bartlet character has right stuff

By BETH NISSEN
CNN.com

LOS ANGELES (CNN) — He's savvy and stubborn, decisive and dry-witted, empathetic and idealistic — qualities many voters say they like and admire.

Gore? Bush? No, Bartlet.

That's President Bartlet, the chief executive played by actor Martin Sheen on "The West Wing," NBC's drama about life in the Oval Office. As written by series creator Aaron Sorkin, Bartlet is, well ... presidential.

"He strikes me as a character who could be the president," said Wendy Shaw, a "West Wing" viewer in Los Angeles. "He's strong, he's got a smart-aleck side to him, he's got some chinks in his armor — he's a real person."

The popularity of President Bartlet is no surprise to the man who plays him.

"I think that basically we're putting a heart and a humanity into hard-core politics," said Sheen. "We're saying that you can be a human being and be a public servant. You can be honest and you can be forthright, you can have credibility and you can be heartfelt."

And ethical: "He has a lot of moral backbone," said "West Wing" viewer Jeannie Kim. "I have a lot of respect for President Bartlet."

So much so that Kim says she would vote for Bartlet if he were a real person, a real politician. Many regular viewers of "The West Wing" say they too are Bartlet partisans.

National appeal

The Bartlet fan club extends beyond Los Angeles and across America. Sheen's character is a favorite in chat rooms, on sidewalks and nearly any other place where TV viewers gather.

"I'd vote for Josiah Bartlet," wrote Nancy Harris, of Red Wing, Minnesota, responding to a CNN message board. "He seems to have developed the courage of his convictions, to do what he sees as right instead of what he thinks will please the big-money folks and the power-hungry Congress-critters."

"I have a couple of friends, and we wish that when we go to vote, we could just write in 'Josiah Bartlet' for president," said a "West Wing" fan from South Carolina as she stood outside the White House in Washington. "If he were running for president, I would vote for him over the two choices I currently have."

That comes as little surprise to Washington insiders.

"President Bartlet is, I think, every American's idea of what they think the president should be," said Mike McCurry, a CNN political analyst and former press secretary for President Clinton.

McCurry is an expert in aspects of a president's image, and he says President Bartlet has an enviable set of characteristics.

"He has the compassion and integrity of Jimmy Carter; he's got that shrewd decision-making and hard-nosed realism of a Richard Nixon; he's got the warmth and amiability and the throw-the-arm-around-the-shoulder of a Bill Clinton; and he's got the liberal passion of a Teddy Kennedy," said McCurry.

'Dream candidate'

Donna Shalala, the secretary of United States Department of Health and Human Services, is a self-professed follower of Josiah Bartlet and his hyper-competent White House staff.

"He's your dream candidate for president of the United States," Shalala said. "He's a moral man, an intellectual. He thinks through issues, he struggles. He shows the complexity of decision-making in the White House."

She isn't at all surprised that many voters say they'd choose Josiah Bartlet over Al Gore or George W. Bush. "The candidates seem plastic in some ways compared to him," she said. "He seems more human."

She'd not only support Bartlet, but would gladly serve as a cabinet member in his administration. "I told him I was available after January 20th," she said with a laugh.

"We have to be careful in distinguishing between reality and fantasy," said Sheen, the fictional Bartlet. "There is no Josiah Bartlet — he's a makey-up president in a makey-up White House in a makey-up administration. What we do is entertainment. What the real people do is public service."

Yet the many admirers of President Bartlet say the character has given Americans a fresh image of how a good and a great president might act, and behave, and lead.

There may be some public service in that.