18th and Potomac
Encyclopedia
Plot
A crisis in HaitiHaiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
takes much of the President and Leo
Leo McGarry
Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White...
's time, while the senior staff are planning the announcement of the President's MS
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
. The democratically-elected new Haitian President is facing a military coup and the U.S. finds itself in the middle of the storm when a U.S. diplomat smuggles the new President who was hiding in a trunk of a car into the safety of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
. Later, a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation turns deadly when U.S. soldiers shoot and kill several rebel Haitians who tried to stop a plane from taking off at the airport. The senior staff recognize that a standoff is going to take place around the Embassy.
Donna
Donna Moss
Donnatella "Donna" Moss is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Donna is a recurring character during the first season, although she appears in every episode, making her a de facto regular...
is told by Toby
Toby Ziegler
Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler is played by Richard Schiff on the television serial drama The West Wing. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director.-Creation and development:...
about the President
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
's condition. He tells her "You're the first person on the assistant level to find out." The staff considers how to deal with the bad news of a carefully crafted poll by Joey Lucas which reveals voters have hugely negative reactions to the potential event of a politician having a potentially fatal and dangerous disease and then covering it up. They consider what kind of media reveal to have and what the future might hold for all of them. Eventually the President agrees with Leo that he should have a discussion with the staff about whether or not to seek reelection.
Josh follows up on his previous week's discovery that a Congressional lawsuit against major tobacco companies is running into funding problems. He's shocked to discover that the Congressional Subcommittee which is refusing to provide more money isn't doing so along lines of who takes money from Big Tobacco and who doesn't; two Congressmen, a Republican and a Democrat, receive no such contributions but do not like the case's legal merits. Josh is then furious and plans to publicly embarrass the two Congressmen to get the funds unlocked.
In a brief conversation with Mrs. Landingham, directly before she goes to collect her new car, the President says he'd like to have a word with her on her return. Later in the show we find out that she was killed in a car crash that occurred at 18th and Potomac - adjacent the main entrance to the Congressional Cemetery
Congressional Cemetery
The Congressional Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the final resting place of thousands of individuals who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Many members of...
. The title of the episode references this pivotal event. The President is thus never able to tell her this news.
Series continuity
This episode confirms that Bartlet won FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in the 1998 presidential election.