In This White House

The West Wing staff was busy this week entertaining a visiting president from an African country who participated in several meetings with pharmaceutical companies at the White House, and a republican from a conservative political action group who the President wanted to hire to join his staff. While in real life, foreign presidents do visit the White House and republicans have been known to work in a White House run by a democrat President, the scenes in last night's episode portraying these events were very unrealistic.

The show opens with Sam, the Deputy Communications Director, preparing for an appearance on a political talk show where he will be debating the issue of education funding. A new character, republican political analyst Ainsley Hayes, is introduced as his opponent. At first, the show's host informs Ainsley that Sam is a tough guy to debate and even offers to help her out if she gets into trouble, because Sam is known for making the people he debates look stupid. But Of course once the talk show begins, it is Ainsley who leaves Sam looking stupid. Her winning performance causes the President to take an interest in her and he asks Leo to hire her at the White House.

Now at the real White House, President Clinton's Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, is a republican, and there even used to be a republican on the President's senior staff. But last night's scenes where 1) Ainsley is shown walking into the daily press briefing, 2) she observes CJ, the press secretary, riding a stationary bike, and 3) she sees the President meeting with the visiting president in the Oval Office would have never happened in real life. Visitors in the West Wing are not permitted to roam freely through the hall, the doors to the Oval Office are guarded by secret service and are never open to guests or staff when the President is in, no offices have windows opening into hallways, and there are no rooms big enough to even hold a stationary bike.

Regarding the visit of the African President Nimbala (from the Republic of Equatorial Kuh) - while foreign dignitaries do visit the White House in real life, they generally do not engage in the type of intense meetings there that the African president is portrayed to have attended.

In the show, President Nimbala meets with various drug companies to try and obtain cheaper and better access to drugs for fighting AIDS in his country. Toby, The Deputy Chief of Staff, also attends the meetings and is portrayed as the President's expert on drugs. In real life, such meetings would most likely be coordinated by either the State Department or the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where experts on specific policy issues are usually found, and would probably be held at the State Department or HHS. Also, the Deputy Chief of Staff would never negotiate with a foreign president on behalf of the United States, as he is not an elected official nor has he been confirmed by the Senate. A senior official from the government agency that deals with drug issues (probably HHS) would most likely be involved in the role portrayed by Toby.

Finally, the scene where Leo tries to hire Ainsley has a major procedural flaw. Leo tells the republican that the White House has reviewed her FBI file in advance of offering her a job. FBI investigations of staff do not happen until a person is hired. Indeed, this former White House staff member worked at the White House for several months while the investigation took place. At any rate, while it may not be illegal for the White House to run a FBI check on a staff candidate, it is an activity that would be politically insulting and dangerous, especially when the candidate is a conservative republican who speaks on talk shows. At any rate, Ainsley accepts the job of Associate White House Counsel.

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