Leadership and Moral Courage
A thematic throughline asks what real leadership requires: whether to prioritize reelection and compromise or to assert values even at political cost. Leo’s provocation — 'Let Bartlet be Bartlet' — plus debates over bold executive fixes (Don't Ask, Don't Tell and F.E.C. initiatives) frame moral courage as active choice rather than rhetorical posture.
Events Exemplifying This Theme
Josh emerges from Leo's office with a provocative slate — John Bacon and Patty Calhoun — and Sam and Toby immediately dismiss the picks as politically untenable, exposing the staff's …
Admiral Fitzwallace abruptly interrupts the Roosevelt Room's polite evasions and forces the room to name what they've been dancing around: they don't want gay people serving. By collapsing military euphemism …
The scene opens with Margaret's comic, conspiratorial rant about I.T. accusing her of 'hacking' over a disputed raisin-muffin calorie count — a small, absurd beat that undercuts the larger crisis. …
A stalled, demoralized senior staff absorbs devastating poll results and the news that Mandy's opposition memo will run alongside them — a public one-two punch that crystallizes months of caution. …
Triggered by devastating poll numbers and Mandy's memo, Leo confronts a chastened President Bartlet about the administration's paralysis. In a raw, intimate Oval Office exchange Leo accuses Bartlet of asking …