MADAM PRESIDENT NEEDS SOME SPUNK

Tonight I watched Commander in Chief for the second time. As a West Wing fan of course I am enthralled. My only complaint is this - the writers need to let the main character grow and stop being so tentative. There is a severe lack of witty retort or sarcastic slip shot. Let's ignore the lack of reality for a moment (i.e. invading a South American country and announcing it in a press conference BEFOREHAND) because sometimes artistic license needs to be taken for plot purposes. However, the language and conversational style of the show is as exciting as watching paint dry. That poor press sec'y has not completed a sentence in the two hours of show time I have watched thus far. She's vulnerable, she is trying to get a handle on her job - I get that, but come on, she is not a blithering idiot. They have her painted as the antithesis of what a press sec'y should be. I realize I have been spoiled by the legacy of C.J. Craig, but come on people.

What really got me going tonight was one particular scene. I love Geena Davis, I think she was an excellent choice for this role. However, I think the writers are SO preoccupied with making a strong female character that is not portrayed as a bitch that they overplay their hand. The president's children were being hounded by the press (shocker) at a public school. (Hellooo to the writers, in an age of terrorism and such, high profile kids like that should be where they are most protected even if it means private school, no president since Carter has sent his children to public school - but I digress).

The President finds out about this and immediately makes a beeline for the press room where she holds an impromptu pow wow with the press corps (there's that reality thing again) where she tells the press that her kids' first day of school is not technically news and to lay off. Whereupon one journalist says, "Don't you think you should let the press decided what is news?" Now here is the part that grates on me. I would have said "Normally yes, the press does get to decide what is news, however let me help you since you seem to be having trouble with that particular task today."

Does Madam President step up to bat like a mother bear protecting her cubs? Does she have some damning sarcasm with a hint of a foreboding warning? NOOO, she says ..... wait for it ... "Nobody better mess with my kids." Are you freaking kidding me?! She sounds like an annoyed PTA mother, not the Commander in Chief. Joey Potter could have come up with a better response. I was dissapointed. I like the intellectual banter, the witty sarcasm, the put 'em in your place soliloquies. That was just shameful. I could have done better in the early AM without any caffeine.

The show has potential and the premise is excellent, but really folks, grow a set. Madam President does have her moments, but consider this, a man would never be seen to walk on eggshells the way Mackenzie does at times. The President has to make the toughest decisions, usually in record time. A little caustic abruptness is not out of place.