In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part I

[at a Q&A in Nashua, NH; a dairy farmer complained that Bartlett voted against a bill that hurt the farmer's pocketbook "to the tune" of 10 cents a gallon]

President Josiah Bartlet: Yeah, I screwed you on that one.

Questioner #2: I'm sorry?

President Josiah Bartlet: I screwed you. You got hosed.

Questioner #2: Sir, I...

President Josiah Bartlet: And not just you. A lot of my constituents. I put the hammer to farms in Concord, Salem, Laconia, Pelham, Hampton, Hudson. You guys got rogered but good. Today for the first time in history, the largest group of Americans living in poverty are children. 1 in 5 children live in the most abject, dangerous, hopeless, back-breaking, gut-wrenching poverty any of us could imagine. 1 in 5, and they're children. If fidelity to freedom of democracy is the code of our civic religion then surely the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says we shall give our children better than we ourselves received. Let me put it this way: I voted against the bill because I didn't want to make it harder for people to buy milk. I stopped some money from flowing into your pocket. If that angers you, if you resent me, I completely respect that. But if you expect anything different from the President of the United States, you should vote for someone else.