It’s Super Tuesday! Everybody panic!

As a DC resident, I’m trying to think of an analogy of how big Super Tuesday (and other big political events) is around here. You could say gay pride in San Francisco or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but events like this unique bring out a distinct brand of nerdery that is unique to this city. Not that non DCers aren’t paying attention, it’s just weird here.  Let me put it this way — I’m going to a Super Tuesday party with real life cupcakes. Admittedly, these are blue Superbowl cupcakes that are being repurposed from New York Giants colors to Democratic colors, but I digress…

This all leads me to wonder, who would I vote for if I lived inside the television? I mean, more than I already do. Getting rid of that already tenuous blur between my real life and whatever’s going on on The Biggest Loser.

So who would you vote for given the following options:

Josiah Bartlet (The West Wing)

• Pro: Smart cookie — scored a 1590 on his SAT.
• Con: Won’t remember your name.

Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica)

• Pro: Nerves of steel, subtle flirtation.
• Con: Lost to Baius Galtar — didn’t have the resolve to fix the election.

David Palmer (24)

• Pro: Strong leader who can make tough decisions.
• Con: Dead.

The form of Nathan Petrelli inhabited by Sylar (Heroes)

• Pro: Smokin’ hot president.
• Con: Bent on world destruction.

A while ago I went to see the new Aaron Sorkin play, The Farnsworth Invention. Just the fact that it’s a play by television impresario Aaron Sorkin would be enough for me to mention it here, but it’s also about the invention of television and the history of why we watch the way we watch. In other words, the most interesting topic in the world.

As another show might put it, the facts are these: Philo T. Farnsworth, a scarcely-trained farmboy from Utah, transmitted the first moving image using the process we still use today (sort of). But he never quite got his television to work quite right, and his patent ended up embroiled in a dispute with GE/RCA/NBC and its leader, David Sarnoff. (Philo=Josh/Sam/Danny/Matt, Sarnoff=Jack Rudolph.) In the meantime, Sarnoff was busy laying the groundwork for regulating advertising and deciding what types of things would eventually be shown on television, once it eventually existed.

I know — good stuff, right? Or is that just me?

I found that I really enjoyed myself at the play, despite the things said in these reviews, which are all true. After a season of Studio 60, it may be that I am hardened to Sorkin’s ticks and pitfalls, and now accept them without question. Or it may be that I’m so engrossed in the topic that I don’t actually care that much about the “characters” or “structure.”

I’m leaning toward the latter explanation, because I was just watching a Modern Marvels on the History Channel about Wiring America and I realized I was just about excited that as I was about The Farnsworth Invention, in the exact same way.

I will say: Jimmi Simpson and Hank Azaria are killer. There’s a classic drunken, silly, romantic scene I rather enjoyed. And there was a truly amazing dramatization of the 1929 stock market crash. Make of that what you will.

Don’t read this if you don’t want to know who won the fake election for fake president. Also ignore the picture posted below. It’s not that guy. I mean… it’s not the other guy, either. But there was a winner. It may or may not have been the person pictured below. Just watch the damn show.

…

First of all, I don’t think it’s right that a television show should make me cry so much. And then expect me to be all happy because Santos is president.

I’m the president. Check my flag.

But it was good TV. An episode of pure giddiness and “IN YOUR FACE, LOSERS! WE WON!” would be kind of unbearable, as would losing both Leo and the election (the writers agree; see this New York Times article). Instead we get the bittersweet victory, a victory in mourning. And Alan Alda, sad, in his hotel room, alone. Alan Alda was the perfect person to play that part. He exudes reasonable-ness and likeability. When he’s sad, I’m sad. When he faces yet another attack on his principles, I feel for him even when he makes the wrong decision.

As much as I appreciated my good cry, I don’t think a whole episode dedicated to sobbing is going to be all that interesting. That’s what seems to be planned for next week. It seems like they’re getting ready for an orgy of mourning. I prefer to see the small, personal moments that stop you up short with the brutal fact of death.

Now that there’s a winner, I imagine the rest of the series is going to be a considerable let-down. Except for Rob Lowe.

Also, is anyone else totally confused by the fact that it’s November in the world of the West Wing? I know not all shows go week-by-week along with the real world (see: 24), but this willful disregard for the actual month is very disorienting.