Countdown to The West Wing Election

The countdown to The West Wing presidential election and the final episodes of the show began last night. I'll be posting material about this fictional election because as I've mentioned it 's been my favorite show the past seven years and I think they do a good job of reflecting real life presidential campaigns. Last night's episode confirmed that because of the nuclear power plant accident the race is now dead even, with Congressman Matt Santos polling well not only in swing states, but in the South and California as well. As a result, the Vinick campaign was forced to campaign in the South to shore up support there while the Santos campaign went to Senator Vinick's home state of California. It's quite a bold move really, the Santos campaign is attempting to take away not only their opponent's home state, but also the state with the most electoral votes. In real life, the 2000 election hinged on Florida, in 2004 it was Ohio, and for The West Wing election my bet is it will hinge on California.
There are new questions to consider in terms of what issues will be highlighted in the remaining weeks of the campaign. The Kazakhstan crisis has escalated to the point where President Bartlett has sent 150,000 American troops in order to keep the peace. Unfortunately this whole crisis is essentially about China and Russia's desire for oil in Kazakhstan. The American army is standing in the middle of the advancing Chinese and Russian armies so it should be very intriguing to see if a conflict erupts. I think the Chinese and Russians will stand down though because to do otherwise would open up World War III, something I'm pretty sure The West Wing writers are not going to tackle in the final weeks of the show. The real question is how long American troops should stay in Kazakhstan and that will probably be debated between Rep. Santos and Senator Vinick.