Thank you all so very much. Thanks for sticking around. You know, if you haven't left this room in a while, the sun is coming up! First, I want to say a special word of thanks to Senator Vinick, and I ask you all to join me in applauding his lifetime of service. Arnie Vinick made this a better campaign, and he's made this a better country for all of us. [beat] My father was a barber, my mother a domestic servant, and I never dreamed that I'd have this chance to serve so many people in so many ways. It would be easy for me to stand here and claim a sweeping mandate for the next four years. I can't do that. This was a razor-thin election. My intention is to be the President of everyone - black or brown, yellow or white, Republican or Democrat. I've got a lot of reaching out to do. America has become more polarized - you can't run for President and not see that. Our votes may have been divided, but our country will not be divided. Because, ultimately, it's not about left or right, it's about doing right. Together, we are going to lift up those who have been let down. We are going to ensure that the promise of America is not the privilege of the few, but the birthright of all Americans. I am more grateful than I can say, you have given me an opportunity that comes to few people. Perhaps fewer are worthy of it. God bless you, and God bless America.
S7Election Day Part II
The first time I met Leo, we argued.
About what?
Monetary... something, role of the Fed...
Who won?
I did. I'm sure if you could ask him, he'd say he did. [beat] We almost lost him fifteen years ago, did you know that? Abbey and I used to talk about it. I was prepared then. Not today.
...
It's odd, really, watching yourself being replaced on national television. Planned obsolescence. Presidents and mid-sized family sedans.
Yes, sir. Would you have run again if you could sir?
I think Mrs. Bartlet would have had something to say about that, don't you?
Well the electorate can be very persuasive when they want something badly enough.
In the service of two mistresses these last eight years has been my fate. Thank God for the 22nd Amendment, I'm spared that particular conversation with Abbey.
S7Requiem
[to Toby, at Leo's funeral] I'll walk out with you. I don't think a picture of you and me makes the New York Times. Do you?
It's just, I know we have a lot to talk about and I don't want to leapfrog any of it, but it was kind of wonderful to just...
Not talk.
Not even a little.
No, but what I asked you before.
When you propositioned me for sex?
Yeah. That's not going to happen. Donna Moss needs a place to stay, I told her she could stay with me.
Well, she can. You won't be there, she can have the place to herself.
I can't do that.
Why not?
Where will I tell her I'm sleeping?
Who cares what you tell her?
She'll ask and I'll have to come up with some reason and my ears get red when I lie, I'll stammer, she'll figure it out.
Are you seriously telling me you're passing on a night in my bed because you don't know what you're gonna tell Donna Moss?
It's not about Donna, it's about the fact that I'll spend the rest of the afternoon strategizing about how to explain it or not explain it or don't need to explain it or don't have an explanation for it or even for myself. I don't have a definition or an understanding of what it is or where it's going. I'll chew the question over in my brain quietly while other people are talking to me about death or affairs of state. We've put this off for seven years. This will keep another night.
S7Transition
This guy is the real deal.
You said that last time.
Yeah, and look how right I was.
[Josh just offered Sam the job as Deputy Chief of Staff.]
I'm going to need time to think about this
Fine... You done yet?
Josh...
What's there to think about?
Well, for one thing, whether I want to end up looking like you.
When I said we needed to talk, I wasn't necessarily thinking about tonight. I'm kind of fried.
Who said anything about talking?
[Before he can answer, she kisses him.]
So last night was nice. Nice. It was really nice. On the nice scale it was way up there in terms of... you know, niceness.
Be still and listen to me. I don't know what this is. And you don't, either, which is perfectly fine and understandable. Whatever the buildup, it's all happened amid absurdly heightened emotional circumstances: the election, Leo's death. There's been... not a moment to so much as... take a breath, much less figure any of this out. And now this roller coaster's plunging into the transition, with its time-pressure demands and then the inauguration, and it's hit the ground running, and the first hundred days and, before you know it, the midterms and the new Congress, and then we're running again and four years becomes eight, and... we've never had the talk. And you can lose that look of panic in your eyes. We're not going to have it now; we don't ever have to have it. But there's a window. I'd say four weeks. If we can't get it together in that time to figure out what we want from each other, then clearly it's not worth the trouble. While last night was lovely, I've already called a cab. You should put on some coffee, and I'll see you at the office.
Not everyone's like you, so...
Dedicated?
Monomaniacal.
Rough day?
Nah, typical.
You love it, you live for it, you were born to do it, I'm the same way. Everybody tells me to get a life, although I don't know why... I find life to be terribly overrated. It's actually quite boring when it's not disappointing. Say what you will about what we do, but boring it is not.
I know that you can parlay the Santos win into a doubling of your fee.
Tripling, if it figures into your memoirs.
Nothing is going to top this. Everything else's going to be a letdown.
Letdowns that make me semi-rich, that's a tradeoff I'm willing to endure.
You don't care about money.
Who doesn't?
You!
Not as such.
As what?
Score-keeping. Quantitative evidence that I'm smarter than you. Not you.
Who?
Everybody else.
Come on board as communications director.
Thank you, but no.
Finish what you started.
I'm not interested in governing.
Campaigning's about promise; governing's about achievement. It's, it's tougher and a lot less romantic, but it's not boring. I already think you're smarter than everyone, that's why I want you down the hall. Come on, it's not like getting a life!
That's true, look at you.
S7The Last Hurrah
Your hand healed faster than I expected.
That's 'cause I went from 1,000 handshakes a day to none.
What do you have in California?
You don't want to be the official greeter at a vineyard, do you?
[about Vinick] He'll be bored to death and won't be able to afford the Republican lifestyle he deserves.
Coffee of the day.
Tall, grande or venti? [Vinick looks confused] What size?
Whatever's biggest.
Name?
Sen... Arnie.
Venti coffee of the day for Ernie.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.