Fourteen Days Of The West Wing - Day 4 (sort of)

Apologies. Wednesday I was suffering from a migraine, and Thursday was spent taking care of stuff I didn't do on Wednesday and prepare for a spring bowling league, so I got a little behind on my West Wing project. I'll try to clear that up today although it will likely be today and tomorrow

White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler is probably the most liberal member of the President's inner circle. He's a New Yorker through and through; his father was a member of Murder incorporated and his brother was a NASA mission specialist. Toby is a professional political operative whose job during the Bartlet campaing and now at the White House is to help craft the President's message and political agenda, but he's not above reminding the President of his need to do what Toby at least regards as the right thing. In this excerpt from the first season episode He Shall From Time To Time, Toby has been fighting a battle to preserve funding for the National Endowment For The Arts when he comes to a realization about a point he's been fighting in the run up to the State Of The Union address which he can now articulate

Bartlet: What's on your mind?
Toby: The era of big government is over.
Bartlet: You want to cut the line?
Toby: I want to change the sentiment. We're running away from ourselves, and I know we can score points that way. I was the principle architect in that campaign strategy, right along with you, Josh. But we're here now. Tomorrow night, we do an immense thing. We have to say what we feel. That government, no matter what its failures are in the past, and in times to come, for that matter, the government can be a place where people come together and where no one gets left behind. No one... gets left behind, an instrument of... good. I have no trouble understanding why the line tested well, Josh, but I don't think that means we should say it. I think that means we should... change it.
Bartlet: I think so, too. What do you think, Josh?
Josh: I'd make it a point never to disagree with Toby when he's right, Mr. President.
Bartlet: Then you and Sam get your people together and get to work.