The Saudis want American-like elections and freedoms.


Saudi prince: "Mister President, do you know what these schoolboys call us? They call us Americans."


Could this possibly be a comment on the Bush administration?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Aren't Toby AND Josh from New York?

Josh was a Wall Street attorney (as was Sam). Doesn't mean he's from NY originally.

Right, right. And there's another episode when someone said Toby had a "New York sense of humor," Josh buts in with "Jewish. She meant Jewish sense of humor. I'm from CT.."


See, Sorkin wouldn't have made the Bush analogy in this episode as heavy-handed as it was.

How far back does this alternate reality go? We've heard mention of Truman and Eisenhower, but we had 2 (not counting Walken) fictional ex-presidents on last night's show. And didn't it look odd that they picked such a tall actor to walk along next to Martin (shorter than most presidents) Sheen?

James Cromwell was Newman. We never saw Lassiter.

I liked this episode but there was something off with the pacing, I felt this episode would have been better as a 2 part episode. I enjoyed the James Cromwell character and I hope he returns for future episodes. I did not think they did enough with John Goodman's character in this episode.

Scott, I know we didn't see Lassiter, but he was mentioned. That means, assuming no more than one term per President, except for Bartlett, the alternate reality goes back at least as far as 1988. Lassiter sounded like he was meant to be Reagan.

Was Newman (Cromwell's character) supposed to be Clinton or Carter?

Since he served one term I would assume Carter

Holy sh*t, there be messages, captain! New ones!

Synopsis for this episode: A middle eastern crisis develops as a former President dies. Bartlett must deal with advice from all sides. Meanwhile, Josh is dealing with two states squabbling over a stolen Bill Of Rights...