West Wing Spins Out

I probably shouldn't admit this, being a conservative blogger and all, but I regularly watch "The West Wing" on Wednesday nights. The show's politics are hopelessly left-wing, but the show is well written and the characters are interesting. I watch it sort of the way a Dem listens to Rush Limbaugh - opposition research.

Last night's episode made a weak attempt to appeal to us Red State types with a minor storyline that had the Northeastern Liberal First Lady attending a NASCAR race at Martinsville, VA. She knew nothing about NASCAR, and in fact had to be prepped by one of the Southerners on the White House staff. This staffer basically told her that 45% of NASCAR attendees are women, and the reason they're there is due to the "hottie" nature of the drivers. Not being a women (or gay for that matter), I can't really render an opinion on that.

My problem with the episode is that they obviously weren't trying to appeal to real NASCAR fans, because there were a couple of glaring errors. The title of the episode was "365 Days", and the underlying theme was that the events portrayed took place 365 days before the President would leave office. In other words, the day this episode took place was January 20th.

Anyone who knows anything about NASCAR knows that there are no races in January, in Martinsville or anywhere else. The Cup Series will race twice at Martinsville, but those races won't occur until April and October. The first Cup race of the year won't happen until February 20th.

There was also mention of a traditional "kiss" in Victory Lane. The First Lady was bussed by imaginary winner Jamie McMurray (a real NASCAR driver, but a guy who has only won once in the Cup series and not for a couple of years). There is no traditional kiss in Victory Lane. They must have researched NASCAR by looking at 20 year old films of Miss Pick-Your-Title kissing the sweaty winning driver on the cheek.

West Wing needs to do a little more research before trying to incorporate NASCAR into their storylines. In reality, I'm not sure a Northeastern Liberal would have a very good reception from a typical NASCAR crowd. They tend to be a little more conservative in their politics.

Last year President Bush attended the season opening Daytona 500 (in February) and got a rousing welcome from both the fans and the drivers. I'm not sure President Bartlett would do as well.

By the way, in Martinsville today the weather is 43 degrees with snow expected tonight - not exactly racing weather.