West Wing watch; snookered by Bush.(The Talk of the Town)(Brief Article)(Interview)

Publication: The New Yorker

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

In America, we don't have shadow cabinets or governments-in-waiting. What we have instead is "The West Wing," NBC's drama about a White House staff that, compared with the Bush White House, has bigger offices, better haircuts, more Democrats, and many, many more people eager to filibuster about policy as they walk down the hall looking for coffee. As the show's creator and writer, Aaron Sorkin is essentially the country's loyal opposition. And in that role he has some questions.

The first point Sorkin raised, speaking last week from his quarters at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles, where he was writing another episode of the show, is that something has gone awry in the media's representation of the President. "President Bush seems to be handling things very...

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