S3E16 · The U.S. Poet Laureate

Toby looks forward to meeting the new U.S. Poet Laureate; Jed fires the first salvo of his reelection campaign when he calls his likely opponent less than brilliant, and the national press just can't get enough of it; Ainsley gets promoted; Josh overreacts to posts on the message board of a website devoted to "all things Josh".

Plot summary and ending

Spoilers ahead. Coverage follows the scope labeled below.

Complete story — includes the ending

President Bartlet makes a disparaging comment about a potential Republican nominee after a television interview, apparently not realizing that he is still being recorded. Meanwhile, Toby tries to dissuade the newly named US poet laureate, Tabatha Fortis ( Laura Dern ), from publicly objecting to the government's lack of support for a treaty on land mines. Sam offers Ainsley Hayes a big promotion and Josh discovers he has an Internet message board following that turns into a fictionalized version of Aaron Sorkin's real-life flame wars at Television Without Pity.

Sources and content license

Source and revision history · Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The West Wing season 3. HTML formatting and reference markers removed. · Content license