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.
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.
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.
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!
A lot of what you read is better than our intelligence. I was impressed with what you said about Kazakhstan during the campaign. I always had wished that I had said it first.
You two must've coordinated messages. You're not reckless enough to undermine the president on foreign policy in the middle of a crisis. You're trying to make the Russians and the Chinese believe that it's gonna be tougher to deal with you than Bartlet. Put pressure on them to negotiate a settlement with Bartlet now. Well, it could work.
You've got better relationships with all the important heads of state than I do. You know the diplomatic corps. You're respected in every capital in the world. You agree with me on foreign policy. And you are the best strategic thinker I know. I'm not asking you if you'd consider it, Arnie, I'm asking you to do it.
$200,000. You might want to establish a fund raising committee to raise a few million dollars and do it right. There really is a lot to do, especially in this room. I've never really liked the color of this rug but the Bartlets ... Well. It's up to you now.
[to CJ] We keep shoving this conversation downstream. At some point you have to choose to have a relationship. We're not 25 any more. At our age you can't date a little and screw a little and wait around to see if you get sentimental at Christmas. You have to decide if you're gonna make another person a part of your life. A partner.
