9:00 Kickoff — New Hampshire Projection Steadies the Team
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Josh announces the start of election coverage, setting the tone for the night's events.
Toby comments on union household voting trends, hinting at the close race and the unpredictability of election results.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Anticipatory and professional — energized by being the hinge that moves the team from waiting to action.
Carol coordinates phone coverage, cues lines, and physically counts down the 9:00 moment, then announces it to the room, converting a technical cue into collective action.
- • Ensure lines are covered and communications staff are ready to take calls.
- • Engineer the precise timing of the room's public-facing response (the 9:00 pivot).
- • Timing and phone coverage matter as much as the content of messages.
- • Small operational cues (a countdown) create the discipline needed for high-stakes nights.
Tense and energized — excited by favorable data but disciplined against premature celebration.
Standing at the monitoring wall, Josh calls attention to incoming tallies and anchors the room's attention, articulating that the returns are visible while keeping staff focused rather than celebratory.
- • Ensure the team interprets early returns responsibly and stays operationally ready.
- • Translate raw returns into actionable messaging and next-step tasks for staff.
- • Early returns can sway morale and must be treated as provisional.
- • A visible data moment (the 9:00 pivot) must be managed to avoid mistakes.
Professional and purposeful — privately relieved but outwardly controlled to manage both the President's mood and staff expectations.
Answers a timed phone call, deliberately leaves the bullpen to brief the President, and physically escorts the institutional judgment up the chain — trading the chaos of the bullpen for the Oval's formality.
- • Convey the network read to the President quickly and accurately.
- • Control the narrative arc from the Communications Office to the Oval, preventing leaks or premature celebration.
- • Control of information flow to the President is central to disciplined messaging.
- • A single confident briefing can change the room's emotional tempo and focus operations.
Cautiously optimistic but guarded — intellectually absorbed in the numbers, unwilling to let emotion override analysis.
Toby offers a sober, analytic read of the vote pattern, explicitly warning against letting the cheer become complacency by noting union vs. non-union household dynamics.
- • Temper celebratory impulses with structural interpretation of where votes are coming from.
- • Preserve strategic caution so messaging remains defensible as returns evolve.
- • Vote patterns (demographics, unions) explain early returns and predict volatility.
- • Public morale should be matched to reality; premature spin invites blowback.
Apprehensive but steadied — wants to keep tone appropriate while internally aware of the political stakes.
Receives C.J.'s greeting and a drink, tries on a self-deprecating tone for his public remarks, and reacts wryly as staff brief him on the projected New Hampshire win.
- • Set an appropriate public tone for any forthcoming remarks (avoid triumphalism).
- • Absorb the briefing and prepare for the staff-driven messaging and stagecraft to follow.
- • Tone matters as much as victory; a victory lap must be calibrated.
- • Staff will convert raw projections into polished public statements — he must trust but oversee.
Impartial and professional — focused only on delivering facts that audiences will parse for significance.
On television, the CBS reporter delivers the early returns line that triggers the room's pivot: noting seven percent of Delaware precincts reporting and the network's readiness to declare the state's electoral votes.
- • Report live election data to a national audience accurately and promptly.
- • Provide a definitive network read that news consumers (including the White House) will treat as a cue.
- • Network projections are meaningful signals to political actors and the public.
- • Speedy, clear reporting is the broadcast's duty on election night.
Relieved and cautiously joyful — group energy surges but remains tethered to the work ahead.
The assembled Communications Office staff collectively erupts in cheers at 9:00, their mood shifting from frayed anxiety to a functional uplift that fuels the room's next tasks.
- • Express short, controlled celebration to acknowledge progress without losing focus.
- • Immediately transition that energy into executing the night's communications plan.
- • Visible network projections guide staff morale and justify resource allocation.
- • Group morale will influence performance; a brief, disciplined cheer is useful fuel.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
C.J.'s cell phone is the instrument of rapid authoritative contact: she uses it to receive a call, provide a short acknowledgement, and then exits the Communications Office to carry the information to the President, enabling the information chain.
C.J. mixes and hands a drink to President Bartlet in the Oval Office — a small, humanizing ritual that punctuates the briefing, calms the moment, and underscores the shift from bullpen chatter to executive gravity.
Television sets in the Communications Office broadcast multiple network reporters' returns and projections; their audio/visual feed is the proximate cause of the 9:00 countdown and the subsequent cheer, providing the factual substrate for staff action.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The West Wing hallway is the transit connective tissue: C.J. moves through it with the briefing, meeting Leo en route and bringing the Communications Office's signal to the Oval Office; it visually and physically links tactical work to executive decision-making.
The Mural Room receives the President, C.J., and the staff after the Oval briefing; it becomes the brief celebration space where applause formalizes the projection and communal morale visibly shifts.
The Communications Office functions as the tactical nerve center: screens, phones, and staff converge here; the 9:00 countdown and cheer occur in this cramped, electric space and catalyze the information cascade to the Oval.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
CBS provides the early-return signal that triggers the room's pivot — its on-air reporter declares Delaware with seven percent reporting, a network-level call that staff treat as a cue for operational and morale adjustments.
NBC's projection that Maryland is in the President's column appears on the room's screens and contributes to the sense of favorable momentum; multiple networks' concordant calls amplify perceived legitimacy.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"JOSH: "It's on. You can see it.""
"TOBY: "I'm not spitting. I'm not turning around. Union households are beating non-unions in some of these districts..""
"LEO: "You're going to win New Hampshire.""