Tonight - right now, as a matter of fact - is the live debate on The West Wing. It’s a clever grouping of all the famous moves we’ve seen in presidential debates, from a spin-off of Governor Ronald Reagan’s “I paid for this microphone” declaration, to a very clear representation of Senator Kerry walking over to shake President Bush’s hand at his podium last fall. There has even been a small homage to the large Democratic debates from the Clinton era when every candidate talked over everyone else and the audience got very involved to the point of disruption.

There is a degree of textbook debating being displayed tonight. Rep. Santos declared that it was time up for the listing of rules at the beginning of the debate, a technique that is straight from the rule books for winning the respect of the live audience. Sen. Vinick is taking the George H. W. Bush (41) approach of starting politically correct and then eventually getting honest and frank later in the debate when it comes to the need for tax cuts and world tax relief. The audience has been on cue and quite believable in their reactions and it’s made the show very fun to watch.

It’s amazing to see this type of writing on TV, never mind live TV, and how it captures the major memories from televised debates over the past twenty five years. As long as they stay out of the Calvin Coolidge drone-style oratory, I think this will be one of the best episodes ever aired.

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The episode is over (on the east coast), and some bloggers are concerned that the average American might think the debate was real. That’s just plan funny! The presidential election was last year, people.

It was a great episode and was very well executed, despite some stutters and dropped lines. Nicely done.