Bartlet Downplays Market Jolt — Qumar Reopens, Campaign Cut Short
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Margaret informs Leo that the President is on the phone.
Leo answers the phone and exchanges pleasantries with the President.
Leo informs Bartlet about the Dow Jones drop and its connection to Jennings-Pratt.
Bartlet reassures Leo that the market will rebound and expresses his positive campaign experience.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professional calm; no visible anxiety, maintaining office protocol and conserving space for senior staff to manage the call.
Enters Leo's office, briefly interrupts to notify Leo that the President is on the line, and then steps back—functioning as the efficient conduit that allows the urgent exchange to occur without ceremony.
- • Ensure Leo is aware the President is calling immediately
- • Keep the handoff clean so the briefing proceeds uninterrupted
- • Preserve the decorum and flow of the senior staff environment
- • Clear, immediate communication is essential in the West Wing
- • Her role is to enable senior staff to perform, not to intervene
- • Protocol preserves efficiency during crises
Implied seriousness and readiness to present sobering military facts; professional focus rather than political posturing.
Mentioned by Leo as the person he will see 'for a minute'—implied to be the military voice who will brief and contextualize the Qumar reopening; not present on-screen but central to the forthcoming operational response.
- • Brief the Chief of Staff and coordinate an immediate military/national-security response
- • Provide factual assessment of the reopened investigation
- • Advise on operational risk and legal exposure
- • Reopened investigations into allied regimes can trigger operational and legal complications
- • Clear, direct military counsel is required in high-stakes diplomatic moments
Shifts from buoyant and confident to stunned-quiet and then resolved; surface cheer masks an underlying readiness to accept the presidency's weight.
On the line from the campaign site, initially buoyant and dismissive of a Dow dip; his mood switches to immediate concern and decisive action upon hearing that Qumar has reopened the investigation, ordering a return to Washington.
- • Protect the feel-good momentum of the campaign while possible
- • Assess the seriousness of national-security news quickly
- • Restore control by ordering an immediate return to Washington
- • Avoid public panic while reasserting executive authority
- • Markets will typically correct (a Dow dip is likely transient)
- • He bears ultimate responsibility for national-security matters
- • Campaign spectacle cannot supersede a real international crisis
Externally calm and procedural but shifting to contained urgency; he masks alarm until he must force the gravity of the situation through to the President.
Answers the President's call in his office, trades light banter to preserve campaign tone, conceals growing alarm, references a quicksheet and Fitzwallace, and then delivers the grave line revealing Qumar's reopened investigation.
- • Shield the President and campaign optics from unnecessary panic
- • Transmit an accurate national-security update to the President
- • Set up a follow-up briefing with Fitzwallace and other principals
- • Trigger an orderly presidential response (recall to Washington) if necessary
- • Small market blips can and should be downplayed to preserve campaign momentum
- • National-security developments ultimately trump campaign considerations
- • Information should be delivered in measured increments to avoid overreaction
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Dow is invoked as the early, political-economic distraction: a sudden plunge tied to Jennings-Pratt that Bartlet is inclined to dismiss. It provides the false alarm of the scene — a public-relations problem that competes with, but is ultimately overridden by, the Qumar security emergency.
The quicksheet briefing is referenced by Leo as the source of the 'something' he needs to discuss with Fitzwallace. It functions narratively as the condensed packet that contains the Qumar development and market notes, underwriting Leo's authority and providing the factual backbone for the pivot from campaign to crisis.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Sultanate of Qumar's decision to reopen the investigation is the seismic catalyst in this exchange; represented by Leo's terse disclosure, it instantly transforms the call from campaign banter to national-security crisis, forcing the President to abandon the campaign site.
Jennings-Pratt is named as being in the fund tied to the Dow dip; its presence functions as the proximate financial trigger that the President briefly weighs and dismisses. It is an economic actor whose entanglement with a fund creates domestic market ripples that demand political attention.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The news of Qumar reopening the investigation into Shareef's missing plane prompts Leo to inform Bartlet, leading to his decision to return to Washington immediately."
"The news of Qumar reopening the investigation into Shareef's missing plane prompts Leo to inform Bartlet, leading to his decision to return to Washington immediately."
"Fitzwallace's warning about potential war crimes charges for the President escalates the Qumar investigation's stakes, prompting Bartlet's immediate return to Washington."
"Fitzwallace's warning about potential war crimes charges for the President escalates the Qumar investigation's stakes, prompting Bartlet's immediate return to Washington."
Key Dialogue
"LEO: You know about the Dow?"
"BARTLET: Jennings-Pratt was in the fund?"
"LEO: Qumar's reopened the investigation."