It may be a stretch, but how many posters here think the upcoming
Obama x McCain race for the White House resembles the fictional Santos
x Vinick match-up in the series "The West Wing" ?
The similarities: McCain, like Vinick, is a moderate elder statesman
and veteran senator with great expertise in foreign policy and broad
appeal to independents, who wins the nomination despite opposition
from the conservative wing of the Republican party. Obama, like
Santos, is a young and charismatic minority candidate with little
foreign policy experience and little previous national exposure who
starts the primary season as an underdog and ultimately beats the
early favorites (Russel and Hoynes in TWW; Hillary in the real world)
to become the Democratic nominee.
The differences: Vinick of course is far more liberal than McCain on
social issues and lacks McCain's distinct military record. Conversely,
Obama, unlike Santos, is not a military veteran (Santos was a marine
who served in the Gulf War) and, in many ways, Obama appeals to
different constituencies than Santos (for example, Obama does very
poorly among latinos, blue-collar men and senior women).
What's next: Will McCain pick up a conservative running mate (Huckabee
perhaps ?) to boost his support among evangelicals as Vinick tried to
do by offering the VP slot to Don Butler and then to Ray Sullivan ?
Will the Democrats be unable to nominate a candidate before the
convention with Hillary and Obama splitting the delegates the way
Russel and Santos did in TWW ?
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