Jed Bartlet

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".^[5] 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.^[2] 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] He speaks four languages, including Latin, English, and German.^[10][11][12] 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,^[9] and his research in economics is described as being focused on the developing world.

Bartlet's wife, Abigail Bartlet, is a thoracic surgeon and they have three daughters: Elizabeth Anne Westin, Eleanor Emily Bartlet, and Zoey Patricia Bartlet. There are two grandchildren from his oldest daughter, Elizabeth: Annie, who is 12 in the pilot (although she is shown as and is referenced as being much younger in later episodes), and Gus, who is about 5 in the fifth season. It is also revealed in the seventh season that middle daughter Ellie is pregnant with Bartlet's third grandchild. He is depicted as a stern but very loving and indulgent father, in contrast to his own father, who (as is seen in flashbacks) was cold and physically abusive.^[5] President Bartlet also has paternal feelings towards members of his staff, referring to Charlie Young (his personal aide, with whom he is especially close, denoted by the gift of the Bartlet family carving knife made by Paul Revere) and Josh Lyman (his deputy chief of staff) as his sons,^[5][13] and telling C.J. Cregg (his press secretary and later chief of staff) that she is part of his family.^[14]

Bartlet has relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, which at one time puts the future of his presidency in doubt. He and his wife concealed his illness during his initial presidential run and would not disclose the information until well into his first term, leading to allegations of fraud. He receives a Congressional censure for covering up his MS while running for president.

Bartlet began his political career when he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He later served three terms in the United States House of Representatives, representing New Hampshire's 1st congressional district. Like his ancestor, Jed Bartlet served as Governor of New Hampshire, and he won re-election to his final term with 69% of the vote.

A recurring motif throughout the series is Bartlet's inability to remember the names of junior staffers, a trait taken directly from Sheen's own memory tendencies. However, in the series finale episode, he meets and thanks a long series of White House staff members and addresses them all accurately by name. Bartlet also displays an obsession with trivia, often quizzing family, friends, and staff, whether they are interested or not — generally not.

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.^[15] Although initially a dark horse, Bartlet eventually defeats the Democratic frontrunner, U.S. SenatorJohn 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.^[16]

バートレットはホワイトハウスでの8年間、必要だと感じた時には軍事力を行使することをためらわず、世界のさまざまな地域で重大な外交危機に対処してきた。中東は、特にイラン、シリア、イスラエル・パレスチナ紛争、そして架空の湾岸国家クマルなど、繰り返し問題を引き起こす地域である。バートレットは、民主党と共和党双方からの反対にもかかわらず、2005年にキャンプ・デービッドで歴史的な合意を交渉し、平和維持軍を同地域に派遣することで、イスラエル・パレスチナ紛争を解決することができた。クマルを拠点とするバジ・ネットワークによるテロは継続的な問題であり、シーズン4の最終回では、バートレットは同グループによる自身の娘の誘拐に直面することになる。ラテンアメリカでは、バートレットはハイチ、コロンビア、ボリビアの状況に対処しなければならない。架空のアフリカ国家エクアトリアル・クンドゥにおける紛争と虐殺を受け、バートレットは軍事介入を行い、大胆な介入主義外交政策を宣言する。アジアでは、インドとパキスタン、中国と台湾、そしてロシアと中国の間の緊張と紛争寸前の事態に対処する。最後の危機は彼の任期最終年に発生し、カザフスタンの石油をめぐる全面的な紛争を防ぐため、14万人の平和維持部隊を派遣するに至り、これが2006年の大統領選挙における後継者選びの重要な争点となる。

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.^[17] 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.^[18] 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.

Bartlet is shot in the first season cliffhanger finale "What Kind of Day Has It Been". While it is revealed in the season 2 opening episode that his wounds are not serious (quick medical intervention having him on his feet within a few hours), Josh Lyman is critically injured. It is eventually discovered that the shooters were white supremacists from West Virginia and that his bodyman Charlie Young was the intended target of the assassination attempt, not Bartlet himself.^[19]

In the second-season finale, "Two Cathedrals", Bartlet announces to the country that he has multiple sclerosis, and has been keeping it a secret, although this had previously been revealed to the show's audience in the first-season episode "He Shall, from Time to Time..." This leads to an investigation of Bartlet's administration by a special prosecutor and by the United States House of Representatives, a storyline which dominates much of the show's third season.^[20] Eventually, Bartlet accepts a censure from Congress, which settles all investigations against him.^[21] While Bartlet's campaign efforts are damaged by the controversy, he nonetheless defeats the Republican nominee, Governor Robert Ritchie of Florida, by a landslide and is returned for a second term. The election is forecast to be close until Bartlet scores a decisive debate win over Ritchie.^[22]

Zoey Bartlet is kidnapped on the day of her graduation from Georgetown University, possibly in retaliation for the assassination of the Qumari defence minister, Abdul ibn Shareef, which her father authorized. While Zoey is missing, President Bartlet fears he is incapable of maintaining the necessary dispassion while his daughter is in such danger and invokes Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, declaring himself incapacitated and transferring the powers of the presidency to the next person in the presidential line of succession. Due to the resignation a few days earlier of Vice President Hoynes, the Speaker of the House, Republican Glen Allen Walken, becomes Acting President of the United States.^[23] Zoey recovers with only minor injuries several days later and President Bartlet reassumes his office shortly thereafter.

Soon after Bartlet resumes the presidency, he faces off against Jeff Haffley, the newly elected Speaker of the House (replacing Walken, who was forced to resign in order to fulfil his duties as acting president) on intense budget negotiations that break down to the point where the federal government is shut down (similar to the real world 1995 and 1996 shutdowns during the Clinton administration). Eventually, Bartlet topples Haffley's influence and sees to it that the Speaker's power declines thereafter.

At the end of the fifth season and the beginning of the sixth, the Bartlet administration is dragged into the Israeli-Arab dispute after terrorists attack U.S. government officials on a trip to Gaza. Eventually, after intense negotiations at Camp David between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Bartlet manages to secure a peace agreement but at a great cost, firing his chief of staff Leo McGarry in a disagreement over the conflict. McGarry has a heart attack but later returns to work as Special Counsellor to the President. CJ Cregg succeeds him as chief of staff.

On a trip to China, Bartlet is left temporarily paralyzed by an attack of multiple sclerosis. As a result, he briefly uses a wheelchair but soon recovers although he is left somewhat weakened by the attack. After seeing Congressman Matt Santos' stirring speech at the Democratic National Convention, Bartlet has a chat with a New York Democratic leader who had previously refused to support Santos due to concerns over education policy; the leader reverses his course and Santos becomes the Democratic nominee for president.

In the seventh and final season of The West Wing, Bartlet is in the last year of his term as president. Near the end of the season, Congressman Matt Santos of Texas defeats the Republican nominee, Senator Arnold Vinick of California, in the 2006 presidential election and thereby becomes Bartlet's successor. After Santos' inauguration, Bartlet returns to his New Hampshire home aboard Air Force One with his wife and while en route has the last word of the series. Mrs Bartlet asks the introspective former president what he is thinking about, and Bartlet replies: "Tomorrow."

The Bartlet Presidential Library opens three years after the end of his term and Bartlet is present at the opening ceremony, along with Kate Harper, C. J. Cregg, Danny Concannon, Charlie Young, Toby Ziegler, Josh Lyman, and Will Bailey. The new president does not appear, as this scene occurs in a flash forward during season seven, before the election.

West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin briefly revived the character for Maureen Dowd's September 20, 2008 New York Times column, where he scripted a hypothetical meeting between Bartlet and then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. He did the same after Obama's first debate against Mitt Romney in 2012.^[24][25]