Art imitates life, then life imitates art imitating life , , ,

Jimmy Smits, who played the West Wing's Matt Santos, with Barack Obama in 2005. Photo via the Guardian, by Chris Greenberg/Getty

Did you get the connection? The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland explains it all. Apparently (and rather bizarrely) the character of Matthew Santos was loosely based on Barack Obama in the first place, back when Obama was not even dreamed of as a near-term presidential candidate, but was just a fresh new face after his amazing speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.
What a difference four years make, eh? I was musing on this today at work, and it occurred to me that an ill-fated US TV show called, I think, Commander-in-Chief followed in the coat-tails of TWW with a female president. She (the character) was not as charismatic and universally loved as the character of Matt Santos. (Sort of like you-know-who.) And I began to wonder about the spooky power that fictional TV (like 24, for instance) holds over the American psyche.

Guardian on the cancellation of The West Wing

Bye bye Bartlet. Josiah we hardly knew ye. David Remnick, in the Media Guardian, takes the measure of TWW, albeit affectionately:

In between the riffs of snappy repartee, Bartlet's noble satraps would step to centre stage and unburden themselves of some of the most mind-bendingly un-ironic speeches about virtue and public life since Tacitus carried a briefcase.

Yeah, maybe so, but some of us need that in these cynical times.

I AM the President

: "

Powerful. Intimidating. Trivia Nazi. President Bartlet is all of these and more. A super-nerd who's into chess, National Parks, and rambling off things in Latin, POTUS is the 'real thing.' Not being completely upfront with the American people may cause him re-election headaches, though...

:: Which West Wing character are you? :: "

the Jeds: annual West Wing fanfiction awards

Some of you may know that I am a major West Wing fan. I suffered terribly from moving to the UK, where West Wing broadcasts are patchy and unpredictable and always several years behind. Well, tonight, just now in fact, through a venerable women's mailing list I am on and LiveJournal, where many of the women hang out, I just discovered the wonderful world of West Wing fanfiction. The woman on my mailing list who writes this stuff is one of these winning authors. Oh, boy, this will keep me busy for weeks.