Josiah Bartlet

Creation and development

Show creator Aaron Sorkin had not initially intended to feature the president at all. He envisioned the series as focused on the White House senior staff who execute and advise on major policy and political matters. "Then I felt that would become hokey," he said. "We'll constantly be just missing the president. As he walks around the corner, we'll see the back of his head." The character of Josiah Bartlet was then created as a recurring figure, and Martin Sheen was signed to appear in four episodes. Alan Alda (who went on to portray Senator Arnold Vinick), Jason Robards, and Sidney Poitier were also considered for the role. After seeing Sheen's dailies, the producers were so impressed that they asked him to join the regular cast. "They realized that people might catch on that I'd be there only once a month, so they talked to me about a longer commitment," says Sheen. The actor said that part of the reason he took on the role of Bartlet was his involvement in social issues.

Sorkin's main interest in writing for the character was exploring the side of the president that the public does not generally see. Sheen described the character as being drawn largely from Bill Clinton: "He's bright, astute, and filled with all the negative foibles that make him very human," he told Radio Times. Sheen said elsewhere that he adored Clinton and was welcomed into the Clinton White House for visits during the period between the show's beginning in the fall of 1999 and the inauguration of George W. Bush as president in January 2001. Sorkin said he took some of Bartlet's characteristics from his own father, namely his "great love of education and literature [and] all things old," his "[belief] in a genuine goodness in people," and his "'Aw, Dad' sense of humor."

In the middle of the show's first season, it is revealed that Bartlet has multiple sclerosis. According to Sorkin, this was not planned; the plot came about because he wanted to write an episode in which the president was in bed watching a soap opera and the audience discovered that the first lady was a physician. "When I wrote the pilot, I didn't have any idea what was going to happen in Episode 2, much less 12," he says.

Character biography

Personal life

Bartlet was born in 1942 and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. He is a descendant of Dr Josiah Bartlett, a real-world signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

Bartlet is a devout Roman Catholic. This is due to the influence of his mother, as his father would have preferred that he be raised Protestant. His relationship with his father was often strained from parental abuse. In a discussion with his subconscious, personified by the "ghost" of Mrs Landingham, his father is described as "a prick who could never get over the fact that he wasn't as smart as his brothers". Sorkin has stated that Bartlet's father, "obviously convinced he married some Catholic whore, treats his son terribly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he adopted his mother's religion." Sorkin said that Bartlet's tirade against God in the episode "Two Cathedrals" is therefore directed just as much at Bartlet's own father as it is at God. However, when his father's unkind and sometimes abusive treatment of him is mentioned by Toby Ziegler, Bartlet attempts to defend his father. Though he is long dead, Toby suggests that Bartlet is still trying to get the man to like him, hoping that "maybe if you get enough votes, win one more election," Bartlet will finally be able to earn his father's approval.

He displays a remarkable ability for chess. Once, he engaged several members of his staff in separate matches at the same time and won.

Bartlet scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SAT college admission test. Later he retook the exam, and received the same result, something both Leo McGarry and Dr Stanley Keyworth find amusing. He was accepted to Williams, Harvard, and Yale, but instead chose to go to the University of Notre Dame, as he was considering becoming a priest, though decided against it after meeting Abbey, his future wife. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in American studies and a minor in theology. He received a Master's and a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Dartmouth College, where he was a tenured professor prior to entering politics. He speaks four languages, including Latin, English, and German. He is a Nobel Laureate in Economics, and is generally portrayed as a macroeconomist sympathetic to Keynesian views. He was required to split his Nobel Prize with another economist, a much more conservative Japanese man whom Bartlet respects but does not particularly like. He is the author of a book entitled Theory and Practice of Macroeconomics in Developing Countries, and his research in economics is described as being focused on the developing world.

Presidency

Bartlet's best friend, Leo McGarry, persuades him to run for president around the fall of 1997, writing the slogan "Bartlet for America" on a cocktail napkin. Although initially a dark horse, Bartlet eventually defeats the Democratic frontrunner, U.S. Senator John Hoynes of Texas, whom Bartlet asks to join the ticket as his vice-presidential running mate. He defeats the Republican nominee for president, winning a close election with just 48% of the vote, 48 million popular votes, and a 303–235 margin in the Electoral College. He is sworn into his first term on January 20, 1999.

Bartlet's accomplishments as president include appointing the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice and first female Chief Justice, negotiating a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine, creating millions of new jobs, providing strong support for alternative energy, and orchestrating a Social Security reform plan (although it is never made clear whether the plan is passed by the United States Congress, the show indicates that a revolutionary agreement is achieved with bi-partisan support). He does, however, express regret at his inability to balance the budget in his eight years in the White House.

Bartlet does not shy away from using the military when he feels it is necessary during his eight years in the White House, and deals with major foreign policy crises in various parts of the world. The Middle East is a recurring source of problems, particularly Iran, Syria, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the fictional gulf state of Qumar. Bartlet is able to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by negotiating a historic agreement at Camp David in 2005 and deploying peacekeepers to the region, despite opposition to these efforts from both Democrats and Republicans. Terrorism, particularly from the Bahji network based in Qumar, is a continual problem and in the season 4 finale, Bartlet has to confront the kidnapping of his own daughter at the hands of the group. In Latin America, Bartlet has to deal with situations in Haiti, Colombia and Bolivia. A conflict and genocide in the fictional African nation of Equatorial Kundu lead Bartlet to intervene militarily and declare a bold interventionist foreign policy doctrine. In Asia, Bartlet deals with tensions and near-conflicts between India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, and Russia and China. The latter crisis, in his final year, leads to him deploying 140,000 peacekeepers to prevent a full-blown conflict over oil in Kazakhstan, and this becomes a key issue in the 2006 presidential campaign to succeed him.

President Bartlet shows the most affection among his staffers to Josh Lyman, C.J. Cregg, and Sam Seaborn. He predicts that Sam will one day run for president and expresses his faith in Sam's capability. While he clearly respects Toby Ziegler, the two are prone to clash, usually when Toby feels the President is not acting according to his true morality or is ducking important issues. He is pained when he finds out Toby has leaked classified national security information and fires him. Bartlet eventually signs a pardon for Toby in his last official act as president. He does not get along well with either of his vice presidents, John Hoynes or Bob Russell, saying at one point he does not know what either of them is good for. For reasons presumably tied to his own lack of military service, he is somewhat intimidated by acid-tongued Secretary of Defense Miles Hutchinson and deferential to respected Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Percy Fitzwallace.

Reception

The West Wing's portrayal of multiple sclerosis through Bartlet was applauded by Mike Dugan, president of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Dugan stated that the group was especially pleased that the affected character was a world leader, that the show educated viewers about MS and made it clear the disease is not fatal, and that Bartlet was shown as taking advantage of medical breakthroughs to treat his condition. "Since fiction often becomes more real to people than fact, President Bartlet's life with MS has the potential for great good," he said, suggesting that as Bartlet was able to overcome the challenges of his disease to succeed, "the public will become more accepting of individuals with MS and individuals with MS will become more accepting of themselves and their abilities to lead fulfilling lives."

Mike McCurry, a former press secretary for the Clinton administration, described Bartlet as the ideal president, possessing "the compassion and integrity of Jimmy Carter... that shrewd decision-making and hard-nosed realism of a Richard Nixon... the warmth and amiability and the throw-the-arm-around-the-shoulder of a Bill Clinton; and... the liberal passion of a Teddy Kennedy." James Poniewozik described the character in 2002 as "a folksy Nobel laureate with touches of F.D.R., Stephen Hawking, Will Rogers and the Buddha."

At one point, the producers of The X-Files considered having Sheen portray Bartlet in the final episode of the show, in a scene where he would be informed by members of The Syndicate that Fox Mulder escaped from government custody. Instead, Bartlet was replaced by an actor playing George W. Bush, although the scene was cut from the final episode altogether.

A Wall Street Journal poll in 2016 named Martin Sheen's Josiah Bartlet as the second greatest fictional president, behind Harrison Ford's President James Marshall in Air Force One.