When Josh approached Leo to offer him the Vice Presidency, Leo greeted Josh by telling him he should be with his people, watching te convention and celebrating. So where does Josh go once he's got Leo on board? Not to Santos HQ, but to be with Donna (and Will, but mostly Donna).

I'd prefer Jamie Farr.

das

Ah, got it. That makes the most sense. After Sam (who he brought it), I'd expect Donna to be the closest to him, then probably Leo (who he was already with). Good touch. While Sorkin said they'd never be together, has Wells said anything about it? Hate to say it, but I'm of the opinion that they belong together.

As for the running mate: Loretta "Hot Lips" Swit for me.

The WW GOP needs to reach out to minorities to counteract Santos with Hispanics. They need Spearchucker.

It might be. The campaign is going to be atypical though since both Santos and Vinick don't seem like the type of candidates to go after personal attacks. Santos' speech near the end kinda addressed Leo's problems as much as Baker's issue when you look back at it, which is kinda cool.

It's the governor of West Virginia played by Brett Cullen who has just played random characters on a bunch of shows.

They cast a character actor who is nowhere as well-known as Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, John Spencer, Ed O'Neill, etc. I wonder why they didn't go after someone with a recognizable name.

I guess they went with big names for Vinick's staff over a big name for VP.

Maybe, but it's not like the VP's a major character anyway. Hell, Bruce Campbell would be a "bigger name" than Brett Cullen, and Cullen's got a much better resume.

Maybe they can bring in Scott Bakula for Chief of Staff or Communications Director that he needs a job.

Their production budget was slashed I believe by half for next season so I don't think they could have afforded a big name anyway with the cast they already have.

do you guys think leo took the VP nomination simply because there was no other choice since it was so last minute and it goes along with the whole party line or do you think he really wanted the job?

The former since he knew that after all the fighting, none of the 3 losers could nor would do it.

I think it was a nod to what I think was one of Sorkin's abandoned ideas before he left. IIRC, in the penultimate episode that he wrote, "Comencement", the one where , the pre-credit segment had Josh and Charlie talking if they've found a choice for VP yet. Before the credits rolled, Josh tears up a newsclipping, tacks it on the board and tells Charlie something along the lines of, "I don't know, but how do you like this image?" cut to the newsclipping that had a pic of Leo and Jed walking together.

I would love to see Vinick win and have the show abandon its Democrat left wing standing, and go the other way. It would be very interesting, to say the least.

I don't think this would fly well with the fanbase. THey're used to one thing and I'd dare say they wouldn't be open to something too different. I wouldn't stop watching.

A largely Democratic fanbase being intollerant of a Republican-based show? No way!

i've been with this show since day one and as a die hard conservative, i had no problem with the west wing until the writing went down after sorkin left. i could deal with left wing ideas if they were well written like sorking tended to do.

Exactly, our current VP is 64 years old and has an ischemic cardiomyopathy, placing him at risk for sudden death, from which his ICD does not completely protect him. Yet, he doesn't exactly exude frailty in my opinion.

Leo's older and has had an MI, too. His MI was also extensive, and he lost a significant amount of myocardial territory. Heheheh...we may yet have an episode or two surrounding Leo's BiV ICD implant.

Care to explain ICD and BiV? Surprised I got MI.

BiV ICD=Biventricular Implantable CardioDefibrillator.

MI=myocardial infarction.

Heart attack results in dead muscle, becomes scar, thereby reducing the heart's ability to squeeze effectively. The poorly functioning pump becomes irritable resulting in a lethal heart rhythm called ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation, aka "sudden death syndrome". An ICD recognizes the rhythm at onset and after a few attempts to quietly control the rhythm with pacing, it defibrillates (shocks) the heart into a rhythm more conducive to life.

A BiV ICD does the same thing, but also has a lead in the right ventricle, resulting in a more effective/natural "squeeze", thereby improving heart failure symptoms.

Sorry I was vague...

In other words, our VP, in order to meet criteria to have such a device, has a sh*tty heart.

What an AWESOME episode. That season finale blew last season's rather lackluster season finale out of the park. Just great. Nice way to end what has quickly turned into a very good season of The West Wing.

I thought Leo was a great choice, and I'm really pumped for September now. Wow, it's gonna be a long summer. Just such a great episode.