Episode 8: It's All About the Timing

FADE IN

INT. White House. Evening. Press Briefing Room

President BARTLET sits with CJ and JOSH. All three have beers, sitting lackadasically in the seats normally occupied by reporters.

CJ: The MS.

BARTLET: Of course.

JOSH: Qumar.

BARTLET: Not as bad, but sure. Don't forget Kundu.

CJ: You know how many times I screwed those up and had us selling weapons to Kundu? Oh wait...we did that too.

BARTLET chuckles.

JOSH: Government shutdown.

CJ: Abductions. Bullets in The White House. (Points to the window that she was almost shot through years before)

BARTLET: Hoynes resigning. Leo's alcoholism on trial. And yet...

JOSH: You managed to condemn racism.

CJ: It's not just condemning it. He did that. Just way too late. Remember when Danny had the pilot that shot down Sharif's plane? We hit it hard and fast and came out in front of it. Now, granted, Zoe was-

BARTLET nods it off. Sore subject, still over a decade later.

JOSH: Right, it's the timing. And the...fill-in-the-boxes of it all. You were called erudite and populist but never insincere, sir.

CJ: So, what do we do?

BARTLET takes a long pull and finishes his beer.

BARTLET: It's our reality now. It's becoming clearer, every day, that he doesn't know what he wants, let alone what he's doing. What we need to do? Fight. Win. Destroy.

-End scene-