Politicana

After thoughtful discussion, Russ and I have decided that that last season of The West Wing is a prophetic look at this year’s election.  Observe:

* During a drawn out and bruising primary, 3 democratic candidates fight it out.  The dynamic guy in 2nd place is felled from the race when it is found out he had an affair (okay- Edwards’s came out later but it could have happened that way).  That left the current VP (Washington insider and favored to win) vs the young, dynamic man of color.  It goes all the way to the convention and Santos barely wins (there is also a floor nomination at the convention).

* Santos is a young, idealistic, liberal hispanic.  He has a beautiful wife and two young kids.  He established his reputation while mayor of Houston advocating for the city’s underpriviledged.  To add experience to his ticket, he chooses the older and very politically experienced White House chief of staff.

* Meanwhile, two Republicans battle it out for the nomination: an evangelical TV preacher and The moderate maverick governor of California.  Governor Vinick wins.  Vinick is an older, grey haired man who does not like to discuss his religious beliefs.  Evangelicals don’t like him.  He chooses the younger, pro-life governor of West Virginia as his running mate.  His running mate is handsome, looks presidential, and Vinick hopes he will appeal to conservatives and independants and will bring him a swing state (WV).

* During the campaign, several critical issues arise: Russia becomes aggressive about elections being held in Kazakhstan creating problems with China.  Information about a secret military space shuttle is leaked to the press by a White House insider; an investigation occurs; a reporter refuses to name his source and goes to jail; the leak ends up coming from one of the president’s closest allies and he is prompty fired (well, not everything can match perfectly).  Energy independance is a major campaign issue and Vinick takes one position on nuclear energy but is forced to flip-flop when it is unpopular with voters and this hurts him in the polls.

* A minor scandal occurs when the President makes an off-handed comment to a reporter when he thinks the cameras are off, putting down the Republican candidate.  It turns out he knew the cameras were on and it was a carefully orchestrated move to help the Democrat with a key constituency, the inter-mountain West (think Jesse Jackson’s cut off his balls comment that actually helped Obama with white voters).

* In the end, it was a close election.  Vinick took the swing state of West Virginia (with his VP’s help) but Santos had an unexpected win in South Carolina.  It came down to the swing states of Nevada and Oregon.  Santos got both and won the election. To show that he was truly willing to reach across the aisles, he appointed Vinick to his cabinet.

So, what do we learn from this?  Using the wisdom of West Wing as my guide, I predict that Mitt Romney will be McCain’s VP.  As a result, McCain will win Michigan (with Mitt’s help) but Obama will win Virginia.  It will come down to the swing states of Montana and Colorado.  Obama will win both and win the election.  The real question is: when he wins, will he appoint McCain to his cabinet?  What do YOU think?