At that point it wasn’t really a “surprise” per se. Not in the vein of the “Draft Baker” attempt.

@@nilesyensel7516 Never liked the Leo as VP plot point. Did not seem realistic.

Wells came nowhere close to Sorkin.

Post Sorkin was just lame. Season five was absolute dogshit

I thought it was Anaheim

Organizing almost seems too kind a word, looked more like wrangling :D

I don't know there was anyone else the campaigns would have listened to.

There's a reason for that. The housing bubble popped in 2008, right before the West Wing-verse's midterms. The President before Bartlet likely repealed Glass-Steagall, so with it popping at almost exactly the halfway point in his presidency, it's unlikley Santos wins a second term.

It is exceedingly rare for one party to hold the White House for 16 straight years

@@untexan just ask gerald ford, hw bush, ... wait.. they were the only 2 in the last damn near 100 years who got close Then FDR, thats obviously differeent scenario. But then even Harding Coolidge Hoover only had the 1920s lol

@@CT_Taylor FDR only held the Presidency about 12 years and about 4 months, he died around April right after winning a 4th time. But the combo of FDR and Truman held the Presidency of 20 years.

Who defeated Santos in the AU's alternate universe?

Yup. Don't worry, your vote doesn't matter. They already know who wins the election.

Well naming CJ the Chief of Staff wasn't exactly realistic either.

@@jamesrawlins735 true...probably even less realistic. She acted the hell out it though.

Except Santos didn’t. In earlier episodes it’s clearly stated that he graduated Annapolis, and was on active and reserve duty with the Marines. He was never in the Air Force, this is just one of many continuity errors on any long-running show.

Craig Heller This is discussing the primary election, not the general, In the primary you have delegates from local constituencies of the parties and in the general you have electors from the majority winner of each state.

Actually, most states have laws preventing faithless electors. Some even have criminalized it. And some states will replace faithless electors.

Season 6 and 7 are almost unwatchable because of all of the shaky camera work.

It's real.

It was the SAP Center (formerly the HP Pavillion) in San Jose, Ca. The hockey team The Sharks play there.

@@jamesrawlins735It’s actually where the Ducks play… the Honda Center in Anaheim. SAP Center has a white roof with gray and black seats.

Yeah you can tell the budget was an issue when you never got full shots of the convention hall - a lot of close-up shots focusing on smaller crowds.

jdavy1691 marine pilot so potentially trained with Air Force?

It's both. You can transfer but they also put the wrong academy down.

You can cross commission as a usmc pilot from the air force academy through the bull dog program

Don't know the answer, but most Marine aviators go through the naval program.

He is a marine pilot. Went to Annapolis. That's it.

Because that's what it looks like!

This is a very late answer, but budget was a huge issue. West Wing was a very expensive show so they couldn't afford crowds big enough to fill the hockey stadium there. They resorted to a lot of tricks like closeup and shakey cam to make it seem like the place was filled.

KROCKOHOLICSHTOWN Honda center

It was the SAP Center (formerly the HP Pavillion) in San Jose, Ca. Look at my first line of question.

That's for a General Election, this is a primary nomination controlled by the party rules, not state laws.

That's America.

It happened twice in recent years.Gore vs Bush and Clinton vs Trump.

A simpler solution would be to have a candidate's campaign, rather than the state party leaders, choose the electors. Less chance of them being faithless.

Actually, most states have some kind of mechanism for dealing with faithless electors. And once you're a faithless elector, you're done in politics. That is usually enough to keep people in line. That said, I do think it's time to get rid of the Electoral College. And please don't bother offering another point of view. I won't read it or respond to it.

You had no idea what came down the pike.

Kathyglass2922: Eleanor Roosevelt. Betty Ford. Rosalynn Carter. Nancy Reagan. Barbara Bush. Hillary Clinton. Michelle Obama. All of these First Ladies had tremendous influence with their husbands, and many were involved in actual policy decisions. I don't know if you're married. If so, how much influence do you have in your husband's decision-making?

Such naïveté about how government actually works might be mildly amusing if you were fresh out of middle school civics class, but by now, you ought to know that most government policy is made by the (unelected) bureaucrats of the administrative state.