five years gone.
When you see this on your friendslist, quote Leo McGarry.
CJ: Is there anything I can say other than "The President rode his bicycle into a tree?"
Leo: He hopes never to do it again.
CJ: Seriously, they're laughing pretty hard.
Leo: He rode his bicycle into a tree, C.J. What do you want me to - "The president, while riding a bicycle on his vacation in Jackson Hole, came to a sudden arboreal stop." What do you want from me?
CJ: A little love, Leo.
Bartlet: Why are you doing this? You are a player. You are bigger in the party than I am. Hoynes would probably make you national chairman. Leo, tell me this isn't one of the twelve steps.
Leo: That's what it is. Right after admitting that we are powerless over alcohol and a higher power can restore us to sanity. That's where you come in.
Bartlet: Leo....
Leo: Because I am tired of it. Year, after year, after year. Of having to choose between the lesser of Who Cares. Of trying to get myself excited over a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected president. I don't believe that. Do you?
Bartlet: And you think I'm that man?
Leo: Yes.
Bartlet: Doesn't it matter that I'm not as sure?
Leo: Nah. 'Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you.' Put another way: 'Fake it until you make it.'
Leo: You're a giant, John. You're a US Senator, the Vice-President of the United States, and presumptive nominee of your party. You cannot be taken down by this... cheap person and her customers huddled around Macy's window waiting for someone to turn themselves inside out.
CJ: Okay, I think what we are going to do is I think we're going to wait until after the vote at 10:30 'cause if we don't win it would be a mistake for this picture to run tomorrow.
Leo: How big a mistake?
CJ: One from which certainly my job would have hung in the balance.
Leo: If the President's wearing a hat or that thing's wearing a Bartlet button, I'm hiding snakes in your car.
CJ: Come on. Don't say that, Not even to joke.
Leo: You're never going to know where they are, or if you got them all out. Going to lay their eggs right in the glove compartment.
There are very few, if any, celebrity deaths that have stuck with me the way John Spencer's has. The West Wing was (and continues to be) a huge part of my life and meant many different things to be over the years. Leo was a huge part of that. I wanted Leo to be my boss or my grandfather. He offered hard advice and also comfort when it was needed. He rolled his eyes and muttered about his staff and also went out of his way to help them. He was such a flawed figure, but was still the glue that held the senior staff together. The worst part of the post-Sorkin years, for me, wasn't Toby's downfall or the fracturing of the senior staff or any of that, but rather the chasm between Jed and Leo and how wrong that felt to me.
Still, every week, John Spencer gave a performance that made me believe the crap he was spewing. Every interview he did, every article I read reminded me why I loved Leo and made me love John as well. His Emmy acceptance video still brings tears to my eyes. He created someone who, to this day, feels like family to me, and I miss him.
Anyway, that's all to say that there's one celebrity death that's impacted me and it's this one. So I do this little thing every year to remember his passing in my own way.
We still miss you, John.
CJ: Is there anything I can say other than "The President rode his bicycle into a tree?"
Leo: He hopes never to do it again.
CJ: Seriously, they're laughing pretty hard.
Leo: He rode his bicycle into a tree, C.J. What do you want me to - "The president, while riding a bicycle on his vacation in Jackson Hole, came to a sudden arboreal stop." What do you want from me?
CJ: A little love, Leo.
Bartlet: Why are you doing this? You are a player. You are bigger in the party than I am. Hoynes would probably make you national chairman. Leo, tell me this isn't one of the twelve steps.
Leo: That's what it is. Right after admitting that we are powerless over alcohol and a higher power can restore us to sanity. That's where you come in.
Bartlet: Leo....
Leo: Because I am tired of it. Year, after year, after year. Of having to choose between the lesser of Who Cares. Of trying to get myself excited over a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected president. I don't believe that. Do you?
Bartlet: And you think I'm that man?
Leo: Yes.
Bartlet: Doesn't it matter that I'm not as sure?
Leo: Nah. 'Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you.' Put another way: 'Fake it until you make it.'
Leo: You're a giant, John. You're a US Senator, the Vice-President of the United States, and presumptive nominee of your party. You cannot be taken down by this... cheap person and her customers huddled around Macy's window waiting for someone to turn themselves inside out.
CJ: Okay, I think what we are going to do is I think we're going to wait until after the vote at 10:30 'cause if we don't win it would be a mistake for this picture to run tomorrow.
Leo: How big a mistake?
CJ: One from which certainly my job would have hung in the balance.
Leo: If the President's wearing a hat or that thing's wearing a Bartlet button, I'm hiding snakes in your car.
CJ: Come on. Don't say that, Not even to joke.
Leo: You're never going to know where they are, or if you got them all out. Going to lay their eggs right in the glove compartment.
There are very few, if any, celebrity deaths that have stuck with me the way John Spencer's has. The West Wing was (and continues to be) a huge part of my life and meant many different things to be over the years. Leo was a huge part of that. I wanted Leo to be my boss or my grandfather. He offered hard advice and also comfort when it was needed. He rolled his eyes and muttered about his staff and also went out of his way to help them. He was such a flawed figure, but was still the glue that held the senior staff together. The worst part of the post-Sorkin years, for me, wasn't Toby's downfall or the fracturing of the senior staff or any of that, but rather the chasm between Jed and Leo and how wrong that felt to me.
Still, every week, John Spencer gave a performance that made me believe the crap he was spewing. Every interview he did, every article I read reminded me why I loved Leo and made me love John as well. His Emmy acceptance video still brings tears to my eyes. He created someone who, to this day, feels like family to me, and I miss him.
Anyway, that's all to say that there's one celebrity death that's impacted me and it's this one. So I do this little thing every year to remember his passing in my own way.
We still miss you, John.