But both were trying to hold together disparate, far-flung elements of a fractious party. ![]() Says Attie: "McCain has been even worse at trying to have it both ways. Both McCain and Vinick needed to look towards the centre, but were held back by their base. In other words, this year's Republican nominee, like his fictional counterpart, has been hobbled by the deep divisions within the Republican coalition and especially by the veto power now exercised by what some call the Christianist wing of the party. To placate them, he lurched to the other extreme, picking Sarah Palin, who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest - a decision which, given Palin's cratering poll numbers, appears to have cost McCain dear. McCain was threatened with a floor fight at the Republican convention, a rebellion by the faithful. But Lieberman's pro-choice position made that impossible. It is widely known that his first choice for vice-president was his good friend and fellow senator, the Democrat Joe Lieberman. But that he had to pick someone who disagreed with him on abortion rights was never in doubt. Vinick settled eventually for the anti-abortion West Virginia governor, Ray Sullivan. He tried first to nominate the televangelist Rev Don Butler, but was rebuffed. ![]() To placate the Christian base, he had to pick a pro-lifer. Nowhere was this clearer for the TV senator than in his choice of running mate. When he tried to shift towards the centre, as past form suggests all nominees must in a general election, the base did not forgive him.Īccording to former West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie, who scripted several of the pivotal Vinick episodes, "Vinick seemed threatening from a distance, but really he exposed the fault lines in his own party." When he tried to ingratiate himself with them, it undermined his own authenticity. ![]() The Republican base, especially the Christian right, could not warm to him: they could not see him as one of their own. He had stood up to the evangelicals, famously describing their leaders as "agents of intolerance", and had regularly adopted moderate stances on immigration, campaign finance and healthcare that endowed him with all-important crossover appeal.īut look what happened to Vinick. McCain is "pro-life" and from staunchly Republican Arizona, but back in the winter he was viewed in much the same way as Vinick. In Vinick's case that was because he was from a "blue" state, solidly Democratic California, and chiefly because he was in favour of abortion rights, enabling him to appeal to women voters who had long eluded the Republicans' reach. Both Vinick and McCain were chosen because they were candidates deemed to have a good shot at beating the Democrats, in part because their appeal extended beyond the conservative core vote. But where Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) was a masterful campaigner who stayed neck-and-neck with Santos to the bitter end, McCain has proved hapless, behind in the polls now as he has been for a month or more.Īh, but look closer. Sure, they rightly predicted that the Republicans would nominate a long-serving senator from the west who prided himself on being a maverick ready to buck the party line. But what about the next stage? What did The West Wing foretell for the final battle between Democrat and Republican?Īt first glance, it looks as if the Hollywood crystal ball got a little cloudy. ![]() They had their candidate starting out as an underdog, but eventually overcoming the party warhorse in a desperately close and long primary campaign. As the Guardian revealed in February this year, Santos, played by Jimmy Smits, was eerily like Obama for a reason: the writers of The West Wing had actually modelled their presidential hopeful on the man who was then a mere state senator from Illinois. There were dozens of similarities, but the core one turned out to be no coincidence. On television the veteran was vice-president Bob Russell and the newcomer congressman Matthew Santos, but their 2006 battle came to seem like a prescient dress rehearsal for the 2008 clash of Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama. The fictional race pitted a veteran member of the Democratic establishment, who had loyally stood at the side of a popular two-term president, against a young, inexperienced and super-charismatic member of Congress who talked of change and hope - and was seeking to become the first non-white occupant of the Oval Office.
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