Hello, you've decided to listen to the West Wing weekly. I'm Joshua Molina, and I'm

Rishikesh Urway. On this episode we're talking about Season 2 Episode 14, The War at Home.

It was written by Aaron Sorkin. It was directed by Christopher Missiano, and at first aired

on Valentine's Day, 2001, saving me the embarrassment of having to pronounce the name of its month.

It's Episode 214, Season 2 Episode 14, and it aired on 214.

Ah, that's so cute. That won't happen again for another thousand years.

Here's the synopsis from TV Guide. The crisis over the missing DEA agents in Colombia intensifies,

and the fallout from the State of the Union address isn't so good either. For starters,

a liberal senator is upset about the speech's social security suggestions. It doesn't look like

the flap over the brutality accusation against the police officer Bartlett cited in the speech is

going to go away quickly, and Joey Lucas's polling numbers are discouraging. Or are they? Meanwhile,

Abby doesn't like the White House atmosphere. Nice. We talked last episode about how this was

essentially part two of Bartlett's third state of the Union, but I didn't realize until watching

ahead of our recording today, it's totally part two. Yeah, I mean, so much so that they really

probably should have called this a two-parter. Right. It picks up where the last one left off,

and it is absolutely the conclusion of what began the previous week. Yeah. The episode begins

with a frontal of Leo opening the door to come outside of the Oval Office to find the president.

President smoking. President smoking. And without a jacket despite the cold weather, which is a

running thing throughout this episode. Yes, outerwear is a major recurring theme.

And Leo tries to convince him that he should give up smoking, and the president inaccurately

credits George Bernard Shaw with the line about George Bernard Shaw said you don't live longer.

It just seems longer. I'm not sure I was sure. I'm not sure it was either. And who actually said it?

...