In Season 3, Episode 7 of the television show “The West Wing,” which originally aired in November 2001, White House press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) exults when a contender for the presidency flubs the all-important question: Why do you want to be president? Yet moments after CJ finishes gloating, she realizes that her boss, the sitting president, may not have a better answer. When she anxiously questions President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen) about his motivations, he shrugs her off. “I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of hours,” he tells her. “I almost had it.” A beat passes, and the episode ends. By the time the next one begins, Bartlet’s nonresponse is already long forgotten. The bustling denizens of the West Wing are too consumed by the crises of the hour to note that their employer has failed to answer the guiding question of his political career.
