Rhetoric vs. process: The fight over who authors and owns presidential doctrine — energetic speechwriting that seeks moral clarity and a new interventionist doctrine (Will/Toby alliance) vs. institutional caution (Toby's process warnings, State/State D...
Rhetoric vs. process: The fight over who authors and owns presidential doctrine — energetic speechwriting that seeks moral clarity and a new interventionist doctrine (Will/Toby alliance) vs. institutional caution (Toby's process warnings, State/State Department constraints, and staff control over presidential voice).
Events in This Arc
Will consults his sister Elsie to map President Bartlet's unconventional legal instincts and rhetorical tendencies so he can capture the President's voice for an urgent inaugural address. Toby barges in …
In Will's office, Bartlet reads the draft of a newly aggressive inaugural doctrine and transforms a policy debate into a moral provocation: "Why is a Khundunese life worth less to …