Plot

President Bartlet

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...

 and his staff ponder whether to counter a fast-rising Republican presidential candidate's verbal assault on affirmative action

Affirmative action

Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...

, deciding at the end to make a very bland statement that does not stand up strongly for its merits. C.J. debates with 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:...

 over the merits of affirmative action; she points out that their parents were immigrants and they went to college, but Toby is shocked that she is not in favor of affirmative action. C.J. admits that her opposition is personal: she believes that her father's career growth was stunted by affirmative action. She is feeling particularly sensitive as her father is suffering serious memory lapses and she is worried about his health.

Josh

Josh Lyman

Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...

 impulsively plans a romantic vacation to Tahiti with women's rights advocate Amy Gardner

Amy Gardner

Amelia "Amy" Gardner is a fictional character on the American television series The West Wing, portrayed by Mary-Louise Parker. Politically skilled and a strong advocate on feminist causes, the character holds various jobs throughout the timeline depicted on The West Wing, both in public-advocacy...

, but must postpone the trip in order to defuse a risky situation in Vieques

Vieques, Puerto Rico

Vieques , in full Isla de Vieques, is an island–municipality of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands...

, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, an area that serves as a U.S. Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 firing range. As he prepares to remove protesters who have put themselves in harm's way on the island, Josh telephones his longtime friend, a popular Latino actor who is leading the group. Josh tells 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...

 that he agrees with the protestors, but Leo makes it clear that Josh must get in line with the government's need to certify ships and bombers at Vieques so that they can head to the Persian Gulf. A compromise is reached, and Josh later finds a way to make things up to Amy: she arrives at his apartment to find it decorated with a tropical theme.

Meanwhile, Sam

Sam Seaborn

Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and...

 meets with an eccentric conspiracy theorist, Robert Engler, who believes that the gold bullion in Ft. Knox has been moved, and that the facility now houses UFO wreckage. Sam is annoyed by the abrasive activist but feels sorry for him because he is carrying on his father's life work; he later makes it clear that Engler can continue his quest to audit the vault, but can't expect any help from the White House.

Toby confronts the President over his weak response to the affirmative action issue, expressing concerns about the electorate's views of his GOP opponent as more masculine than the President. Toby tells the President that there are "two Bartlets": one, a hard-driving realist, and the other, a vacillating idealist. At first, the President listens, but Toby crosses the line when he pushes the President on his relationship with his abusive father.

Trivia

The basis of the plot regarding the "popular Latino actor" protesting is based on future star of the show Jimmy Smits

Jimmy Smits

Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...

who has been regularly arrested for his leading of protests in Puerto Rico against the US naval presence.

External links

• The West Wing Episode Guide