A puzzling pick
During its seven -year run, the hit NBC show “The West Wing” saw its fair share of far-fetched scenarios. In one episode the president’s daughter is being kidnapped by Islamic extremists, or the president crashes into a tree while riding his bike or the deputy communications director spends an evening with a call girl.
But, according to “West Wing” producer and creator Lawrence O’Donnell, who has been an advocate for liberal causes, the decision by John McCain to name Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his veep pick is so head-scratchingly curious that even the “West Wing” writers wouldn’t try to pass it off as credible to their viewers.
“If a ‘West Wing’ writer had proposed a Palin-like idea to me, I would have shot it down,” O’Donnell told Yeas & Nays. “No one would believe that. The audience wouldn’t have bought it. This woman with hardly any experience being named vice president just would have seemed like a gimmick.”
“Now, granted, it’s a very Hollywood choice: Flashy idea, with no real substance,” O’Donnell said. “If a writer proposed a Palin-like character, I’d think that they were just trying to find a way to get Glenn Close on our set.”
“And, then you add Palin’s odd background elements that have surfaced lately, and the whole thing just seems stranger than fiction,” said O’Donnell. “As a script, it would have been too easy, too convenient and our readers would have spotted that. I’m not really sure what McCain was thinking!”
