Could Jed Bartlet Have Been Elected in Real Life?

[modelcitizen]

Yes. Yes, in spite of or even because of his controversial assignment to kill an American general during the Vietnam War.

 

[Lord Hierarch]

I weep going from the news to West Wing.

My sister started watching the show and got me into it. She has a lot of questions.

 

[FlyingSquirrel]

Thing is Bartlet is too liberal in some ways, but to staunch progressives he'd probably be too moderate. Think of the criticisms some folks further to the left have made towards Elizabeth Warren or Beto O'Rourke. This would put him in an awkward position where it'd be difficult to resonate with either progressives in the base or the more elite centrists in the primaries.

Different era. The Democratic base of the '90s and early aughts was more willing to tolerate compromise for the sake of perceived electability.

Also, I believe it was established that Bartlet won his first election in a 3-way-race with less than 50% of the vote, along the lines of Clinton's first victory, plus he had a Republican Congress and was forced to compromise his liberal principles quite a bit as a result. Given that the GOP didn't put up a particularly strong opponent for his re-election, I can buy him getting re-elected, especially given that he did accept censure over the MS scandal.

 

[Amadeus]

Different era. The Democratic base of the '90s and early aughts was more willing to tolerate compromise for the sake of perceived electability.

Also, I believe it was established that Bartlet won his first election in a 3-way-race with less than 50% of the vote, along the lines of Clinton's first victory, plus he had a Republican Congress and was forced to compromise his liberal principles quite a bit as a result. Given that the GOP didn't put up a particularly strong opponent for his re-election, I can buy him getting re-elected, especially given that he did accept censure over the MS scandal.

He is actually more likely to be re-elected than elected the first time: incumbents have an inherent advantage in any race. IMO Bartlet would not have been re-elected by the kind of landslide portrayed in the show, but he could realistically have been re-elected by the kind of decisive margin that Obama had over Romney in 2012.

 

[Marky Bunny]

The election in 2002 was showing exactly that, a narrow lead which would have been similar to Obama's win the real world ten years later. It was the single tv debate that opened it up for the landslide, until then Bartlet was winning but it was far closer.