President Josiah Bartlet's internal crisis of confidence and the staff's effort to restore his rhetorical and performative authority (the two‑minute drill → recovery and decisive debate performance).
President Josiah Bartlet's internal crisis of confidence and the staff's effort to restore his rhetorical and performative authority (the two‑minute drill → recovery and decisive debate performance).
Events in This Arc
Leo detects a sudden crisis of confidence in President Bartlet and improvises a psychological intervention: during a two‑minute drill the staff will give only positive reinforcement to snap the President …
Facing a sudden crisis of confidence in the President hours before a decisive debate, Leo organizes a sting: a two‑minute drill where senior staff give only positive reinforcement while Bartlet …
On the debate feed backstage, Governor Ritchie frames the contest as states' rights and cheap rhetorical flourishes. President Bartlet punctures that frame — correcting Ritchie's misuse of 'unfunded mandate,' insisting …