Jimmy Smits, who played the West Wing's Matthew Santos, with Barack Obama in September 2005. Photograph: Chris Greenberg/Getty
Devotees
of the West Wing have been talking about it for weeks: the uncanny
similarity between the fictional presidential contest that dominated
the final seasons of the acclaimed TV show and the real-life drama of
this year's election.
Both the real and imagined campaigns have
centred on a young, charismatic candidate from an ethnic minority,
daring to take on an establishment workhorse with a promise to
transcend race and heal America's partisan divide.
But there's a twist.
For
what those West Wing fans stunned by the similarity between the
fictitious Matthew Santos and the real-life Barack Obama have not known
is that the resemblance is no coincidence. When the West Wing
scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in
the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Illinois
politician - not yet even a US senator - by the name of Barack Obama.
"I
drew inspiration from him in drawing this character," West Wing writer
and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. "When I had to write, Obama
was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at
the convention [which nominated John Kerry] and people were beginning
to talk about him."
Attie, who served as chief speechwriter to Al
Gore during the ill-fated 2000 campaign and who wrote many of the key
Santos episodes of the West Wing, put in a call to Obama aide David
Axelrod.
"I said, 'Tell me about this guy Barack Obama.'"
With
the Latino actor Jimmy Smits already cast for the show, Attie was
especially keen to know how rising star Obama approached the question
of his race. Axelrod's answers helped inform Santos's approach to his
own Hispanic identity.
"Some of Santos's insistence on not being
defined by his race, his pride in it even as he rises above it, came
from that," Attie said.
The scriptwriter also borrowed from
Obama's life the notion of a superstar candidate. "After that
convention speech, Obama's life changed. He was mobbed wherever he
went. He was more than a candidate seeking votes: people were seeking
him. Some of Santos's celebrity aura came from that."
The result is a bizarre case of art imitating life - only for life to imitate art back again.
In
the TV show, Santos begins as the rank outsider up against a national
figure famous for standing at the side of a popular Democratic
president. There are doubts about Santos's inexperience, having served
just a few years in Congress, and about his ability to persuade voters
to back an ethnic minority candidate - even as his own ethnic group
harbour suspicions that he might not identify with them sufficiently.
But
the soaring power of his rhetoric, his declaration that the old
divisions belong in the past and his sheer magnetism, ensure that he
comes from behind in a fiercely close primary campaign and draws level
with his once all-commanding opponent. Every aspect of that storyline
has come true for Barack Obama. Axelrod, now chief strategist for the
Obama campaign, recently joked in an email to Attie: "We're living your
scripts!"
What's more, the West Wing had the Republicans choose
between a Christian preacher - a pre-echo of Mike Huckabee - and an
older, maverick senator from the American west whose liberal positions
on some issues had earned the distrust of the party's conservative
base: a dead ringer for John McCain.
In the West Wing, the
McCain figure emerges comfortably as the party's choice. Apparently the
character was not based on the current Republican frontrunner, but was
simply a function of the casting of Alan Alda.
"It was always an
inside joke on the West Wing that the show had a prophetic quality,"
recalls Attie, now a writer and producer of House, starring Hugh
Laurie.
Various political scenarios sketched out on the
programme would often materialise within weeks of airing. But the 2008
campaign, Attie concedes, is in an entirely different league.
There
are small differences of course. Santos had a white wife - stressing,
says Attie, Santos's standing as a "post-racial figure" - while
Michelle Obama is African-American. Ms Obama is the more outspoken, but
with two young children each, both are equally photogenic.
Obama
aides will be hoping that the West Wing's prophetic streak holds:
Santos eventually emerged as the Democratic nominee from a brokered
convention - and went on to win the presidency.
Barack Obama v Matt Santos
Barack Obama
Young, handsome and charismatic member of Congress, attempts to become America's first non-white president.
Began
political career as a community organiser in a big city (Chicago)
before winning first election at local level. Married, with two young
children.
Faced stiff opposition in Democratic primary against
occupant of the White House during previous Democratic administration
(first lady Hillary Clinton)
Rivals attack him as inexperienced
after just four years in Congress, but triumphs through grassroots
support, inspiring speeches and message of change.
Republican opponent is veteran moderate senator from a western state, unpopular with conservative base (John McCain of Arizona).
Matt Santos
Young, handsome and charismatic member of Congress, attempts to become America's first non-white president.
Began
political career as a community organiser in a big city (Houston)
before winning first election at local level. Married, with two young
children.
Faced stiff opposition in Democratic primary against
occupant of the White House during previous Democratic administration
(vice president Bob Russell).
Rivals attack him as inexperienced
after just six years in Congress, but triumphs through grassroots
support, inspiring speeches and message of change.
Republican
opponent was veteran moderate senator from a western state, unpopular
with conservative base (Arnie Vinick of California).
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