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This week's The West Wing was a continuation of last week's show, which showed President Bartlet preparing to give the State of the Union speech, the after-the-speech party hosted by the President and First Lady at the White House, and a televised political talk show.

In this week's show, the First Lady continued to play a prominent role. While we had been led to believe that she had her own political agenda because she had been so angry about certain content removed in the President's State of the Union Speech, it turns out that her real reason for being angry is that the President appears to have decided to run for re-election. The re-election bid frightens her because the President has MS, which is expected to impact his health significantly during the next couple of years. Evidentially, the President and First Lady had made a deal that he would not seek re-election because of the health issue.

From an insider's perspective, the scenes involving the First Lady in this week's show were interesting, because they portrayed her with two staff members preparing for a trip. She and her staff were packing bags in her bedroom and the President would enter joking about the length of time it was taking her to pack and the amount of clothes she was packing. Most likely, the real First Lady would not be so heavily involved in the packing, and neither would her staff. It is more likely that White House residence staff (maids and butlers) would be packing her clothes, under the direction of the First Lady and the First Lady's staff.

This episode's most exciting moments took place during the continuation of last week's storyline regarding the hostage situation in Columbia They also provided a military history lesson, because of similarities that called to mind our crisis with Vietnam. However, Leo, the Chief of Staff, is still inaccurately portrayed as the President's advisor on the crisis. In reality, the National Security Advisor to the President would be running the meetings in the Situation Room and would be advising the President on crisis. However, as I mentioned, Leo did provide some interesting military history regarding similarities to Vietnam, and how the United States should not get involved in a jungle war that is almost impossible to win, or conclude, because of the geography.

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The scenes between Josh and Joey continued hint at a possible love affair. As discussed last week, the polling operation aimed at finding out how people reacted to the State of the Union speech would be paid for by the President's political party. This week's episode makes a direct reference to why this is necessary.

Donna asked Josh, "Why do we need our own polls" if so many other organizations, like Gallup, are conducting similar polls. This reference to "our own polls" confirms that the polling is for the political purposes of the party the President belongs to, not the purposes of the Presidency. Josh informs us that the reason for "our own polls" is that he is interested in the results from five congressional districts, because the representatives from those districts do not support certain legislation. Josh believes that if the results are favorable from those districts, they could be helpful in persuading the congressmen/women from those districts to vote with the President on legislation.

The scene where Ansley meets the President for the second time proved to be another embarrassing, if not insulting, portrayal of the women who serve on the Presidential staff. Ansley is so excited to meet the President, she tells Sam and Leo that she has to pee. Leo allows her to go to the bathroom. However, Ansley mistakenly walks into a closet in Leo's office, which she evidentially believed was a bathroom. Of course the President walks in, and Ansley is embarrassed. Why didn't the show have this scene portrayed with a male staffer? Was the implication that a male staffer would not have been so nervous about meeting the President? Certainly the real female staff in the real West Wing would have issues with this portrayal, even in a republican White House.

A comment on the bathrooms in the West Wing. In reality, there is not a bathroom in the Chief of Staff's office. Nor is there a bathroom in the Vice President's office that is located in the West Wing. The Chief of Staff and the Vice President have to use the common-shared bathrooms like the other staff. Only the President has a private bathroom, which is located off the study next to the Oval Office.

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