Centerfield

I seem to recall that Alan Alda said that he was only signed to do 5 episodes next season, which makes it unlikely that he'll win the election and succeed Martin Sheen. Moreover, given the increasingly incredible and fantastic, but "statement-making," plot lines (fixing Social Security, brokering a Middle East peace deal, rapprochement with Cuba--heck, even a moderate Republican clenching the GOP presidential nomination), I'm pretty sure the show's writers will elect the first Latino president. The only suspense really is about how they'll get rid of the centrist Republican all the Democrats fear. Maybe Vinnick has MS, too.

Last night's episode was great--but The West Wing is still living in a fantasy world. First they have a hard-left President more "New Englandy" than John Kerry. And now they have a moderate winning the Republican nomination. Guess that's why they call it fiction.

My money is also on Jimmy Smits. For obvious reasons. West Wing, in case you haven't noticed, is a drama. If you watch TNT, the preachy actors in their commercials will tell you that drama is driven by conflict. That means partisan food fights, and no moderates and no consensus building. Such things lack drama, at least in the narrow TV view.

Alda will get taken out by a right wing ideologue in a "McCain gets submarined by GW's henchmen" type of plot line.The only real question is, how big a blackhat caricature will this guy be? Sorry Virginia, No president Hawkeye for you.

Personally, my wish would be for Dave Chappelle to reprise his role as the 1st black President:

"...why don't you take YOUR army and...what? You don't HAVE an army? Well then maybe you should just shut the F$&@# up!"

It's pretty ironic that Alan Alda would play a moderate given his persona as the classic anti-war liberal and his self-abasing apologies for male evil during the 80s. Of course, he is also spokesman for IBM.

Of course, finding a true moderate in Hollywood would be like searching for a virgin in a whore house.

I think you can pretty much nail down the whole gist of the show by the NBC front page on it. Their current video clip is titled "Alan Alda explains why his Republican character is really a good guy."

Yep, Republicans can't be good guys at NBC unless they're played by Alan Alda.

I have to say that this is a show I never miss. For some years now, the weekly drama has focused on how the Pres and the Democrats screwed up.

Pres has MS, but lied about it to the voters; Pres has Arab potentate assassinated, Arab country claims that Israel did it, Pres has to 'fess up. Every time you turned around, the Administration was in (self-inflicted) crisis. For a while there I thought that the writers were all secret Republicans, laughing and high-fiving each other every Wednesday night (I never saw Rove's name in the credits, tho).

The only true insight that I ever heard uttered on the show came from the Republican lawyer they hired and despised. She said to the regular gang one week, "The problem you're having is this, you don't like your constituents. The blue-collar worker with the gun rack in the back of his pick-up truck, you don't like him."

I do think that that has been true for the last 15 years or so.

Alda = Hitler!!!!

lmao

Huh?

Acronym: LMAO = Laughing My A** Off

The mental image of Alda in a Hitler mustache reminds me of nothing so much as Charlie Chaplin...and Alda can do a good Charlie Chaplin. Much better than his Groucho.