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pwofessionaw westwing
11/09/2005 = 05:05 PM

I always liked the word "pundit." It sounds like it ought to mean something funny and cheerful. No fault of mine that it's one of the most cracker-dry-deadpan jobs in political science.

There weren't any pundits on hand after the West Wing gloves-off fake presidential debate between Matthew Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) and Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) last Sunday night, but I wish there had been.

Ah, well. It was a pretend debate; I'll be a pretend pundit.

I liked that Forrest Sawyer was there, but it sure did make me miss Peter Jennings.

I like the name "Matthew" better than the name "Arnold", but only marginally.

I like Santos' military background, but I also like Vinick's Senate history.

I didn't see a clear "winner". I did feel the (fictional parallel universe version of) the country would be a winner, no matter which one gets elected.

Of the two actors, I felt like Alda did better with the improv than Smits, but I think he's also got more stage experience just by dint of being older.

A poll said 54% favored Santos, which would be a lot more impressive to me if I didn't know he had already been a 59% favorite before the debates. Also, a lot of people I know who watch West Wing admit freely that they want Santos to win mostly so that their favorite Democratic characters (Josh Lyman = Mrowr) will stay on the show.

The same poll, by the way, said that viewers preferred (by a two-to-one margin) the no-rule-book issues-actually-being-addressed debate to the traditional debates-with-prepared-speeches that do everything to evade the questions.

So, in that world, who would I be voting for?

I'm torn. I want to see a plot twist wherein Santos the Conservative Democrat and Vinick the Liberal Republican end up working together to make a White House I could get behind and really respect, unlike our, you know, real one.

Yeah, I know. Too idealistic.

I will say that I'd like to see Vinick fall in love; he seems so lonely. No point in exploring that unless he was president. (Yeah, I know it's the wrong reason to vote for someone, but hey, look what we did in real life last presidency. Ketchup versus fuel oil ... it should never have been an issue.)

drinking: ice water
listening to: Cream, Sunshine of Your Love
craving: cinnamon toast.