Aaron Sorkin has taken his rightful place among the intellectual touchstones of American democracy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a speech on Wednesday that leaders in Burma told her that while forming their nascent democracy, one leader told her they “went on to tell me that they were trying to teach themselves by watching old segments of The West Wing.” The anecdote reportedly drew laughs, but precisely why President Josiah Bartlet should not be considered on par with some of the more minor Founding Fathers was not immediately clear.
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