Toby's Turkey Ploy: Pitching Cell Phones and Poverty Reckoning
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby enters with a strategic advance - asking about turkey prep as psychological ploy before pivoting to the cell phone initiative.
Toby reveals the high approval ratings (82%) for the neighborhood watch cell phone program, forcing Bartlet to reconsider his dismissal.
The conversation shifts back to turkey specifics in a tense exchange about food safety, underscoring Bartlet's defensive pride.
Toby drops the OMB poverty definition bombshell, forcing Bartlet to choose between statistical reality and political optics.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Feigned levity concealing urgent cynicism and principled alarm
Enters post-Charlie's exit, approaches desk with calculated turkey query for rapport, pitches cell phone initiative tying it to message calendar and 82% polls, banters stuffing details, then pivots sharply to OMB poverty definitions with provocative framing before exiting with lingering glance.
- • Build rapport to land policy pitches
- • Force confrontation with poverty stats crisis
- • Secure polling data request as foothold
- • Rapport disarms resistance to tough news
- • Poverty redefinition demands immediate scrutiny
- • Optics like cell phones mask deeper failures
Eager anticipation tempered by quick deference to protocol
Standing beside Bartlet, receives the signed paper into the folder, eagerly prompts Nancy to admit Toby despite earning a dirty look, then steps out deferentially as Toby enters, facilitating the private policy exchange.
- • Smooth transition for Toby's entry
- • Avoid presidential ire while aiding access
- • Protocol demands presidential decision on visitors
- • Urgent matters like Toby's warrant interruption
Amused detachment masking irritation at trivial interruptions, shifting to defensive wariness on policy bombshells
Seated at the Resolute Desk, Bartlet engages Toby in witty banter over turkey recipes and stuffing, dismisses the cell phone initiative as insignificant despite polling appeal, demands data verification, and reacts defensively to the OMB poverty revelation with a curt preference for fewer poor people.
- • Deflect minor policy pitches to focus on larger issues
- • Verify polling claims before commitment
- • Minimize political damage from poverty stats
- • Small initiatives like cell phones are beneath presidential scope
- • Accurate data drives decisions over optics
- • Fewer poor people aligns with core values despite definitional traps
Calm professionalism with courteous deference
Knocks and partially opens the Oval door, politely interrupts Bartlet's turkey lecture to request permission for Toby's entry, enabling the subsequent rapport-building policy ambush.
- • Secure approval for Toby's urgent meeting
- • Maintain interruption protocol
- • Respect Oval access hierarchy
- • Toby's issue merits presidential time
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The signed administrative paper is thrust from Bartlet to Charlie just before interruption, symbolizing bureaucratic drudgery yielding to urgent policy intrusion; it underscores the shift from routine signing to substantive confrontation, handed off as Toby arrives.
Toby unveils the 82% polling data for the cell phone initiative verbally, prompting Bartlet's skeptical demand to 'Bring me that polling data,' elevating the minor policy from trivial to potentially viable optics win amid poverty pivot, driving narrative tension.
Bartlet's folder of papers receives the freshly signed document from Charlie amid the interruption, embodying the administrative backlog interrupted by Toby's entry; it fades into background as turkey banter and policy pivots dominate, highlighting holiday distractions over paperwork.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Bartlet deflects cell phone initiative to YMCA as local nonprofit alternative, underscoring preference for decentralized execution over federal bloat, diminishing Toby's pitch while invoking grassroots model in broader welfare optics debate.
OMB's new poverty definitions loom as Toby's climactic reveal, framed provocatively as inflating poor numbers by raising thresholds to $22K, thrusting administrative metrics into Oval spotlight and catalyzing subplot escalation amid re-election polls and holiday chaos.
Narrative Connections
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Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"TOBY: Eighty-two percent. BARTLET: Get out of here. TOBY: Hand to God."
"TOBY: You know about the new OMB definitions? BARTLET: I know they're coming out. What's it going to look like? TOBY: Depends. You want more poor people or fewer poor people? BARTLET: Fewer. TOBY: You got it. Thank you, Mr. President."