Season 3: 2001–2002
Cast: Rob Lowe, Stockard Channing, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford and Martin Sheen
The third season, which covers the administration's third and fourth years in office, starts off with Bartlet announcing his intention to run for reelection and is heavily devoted to the upcoming presidential election. Other prominent plotlines include Congressional investigations into whether Bartlet committed electoral fraud by concealing his MS, a death threat against C.J. and the ensuing relationship she develops with a Secret Service agent assigned to her, the Qumari defense minister Abdul Shareef plotting terrorist attacks against the US, and a troubling meeting between Toby and the President that leaves Bartlet with a bout of insomnia in "Night Five." The season finale, "Posse Comitatus" closes several of these storylines as Bartlet meets his opponent in the elections and reaffirms his commitment to beat him. The episode ends with the president finally deciding to order Shareef's assassination (a legally questionable act) and C.J.'s agent's murder, just after the man threatening C.J. was caught.
From a critical perspective, series creator Aaron Sorkin acknowledged in October 2002 that the terrorism-related plots designed to keep the series relevant after the real-life 9/11 attacks were awkward at times, saying "from week to week, you felt like you were writing the show handcuffed, a little bit. I didn't know how to write it anymore. It was a constant search for what I wasn't doing that used to make the show work. [...] Maybe there was a way to make it work there probably was. I wasn't able to find it in twenty-two episodes." [1] Nonetheless, the show went on to win its third "Outstanding Drama" Emmy in a row.
民主党领袖巴特勒(马丁·辛 Martin Sheen 饰)在美国总统大选中赢得胜利,成为美国新一任总统入主白宫。巴特勒总统任期开始,他的竞选团队也开始了在白宫的政治生涯。经验丰富老道的幕僚长李奥(约翰·斯宾塞 John Spencer 饰)作为总统身边最亲近的高级幕僚负责给巴特勒总统提供最关键的政治意见,聪明绝顶的副幕僚长乔西(布莱德利·惠特福德 Bradley Whitford 饰)是李奥的二把手。