100,000 Airplanes
Encyclopedia
Plot
While the White House staff works intensely on President BartletJosiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
's crucial State of the Union
State Of The Union
"State Of The Union" is the debut single from British singer-songwriter David Ford. It had previously been featured as a demo on his official website, before appearing as a track on a CD entitled "Apology Demos EP," only on sale at live shows....
speech, Bartlet suddenly demands that a passage ambitiously promising a crusade to cure cancer within 10 years be included. Sam
Sam Seaborn
Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and...
is the point person for this speech, which is billed as the most important one of the President's career and one whose failure will end his hopes for re-election. As Sam is very reluctantly interviewed for a Vanity Fair profile by Lisa Sherborne (Traylor Howard
Traylor Howard
Traylor Elizabeth Howard is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Sharon Carter on the television series Two Guys and a Girl and as Natalie Teeger on the USA Network series Monk.-Early life:...
), who was once his fiancée, he lays out the process by which a State of the Union address comes about. Sam knows that the pledge to cure cancer is noble and the kind of over-reaching government should do, but also that for political reasons it can't be included in the final speech. He takes the excising of the section with great pain, and even the rousing success of the speech amongst poll members doesn't cheer him up much. Sam takes out most of his frustrations on Lisa Sherborne, who finally tells Sam she's taking herself off the story, and then lets him know that it was he and not her who ended their engagement. Sam recognizes she's right and then reads a smart, touching section that would have made the cancer-curing pledge official. As she leaves, Sam stares at the passage on his laptop and then deletes it.
Attracted to a prominent women's rights leader, Amy Gardner
Amy Gardner
Amelia "Amy" Gardner is a fictional character on the American television series The West Wing, portrayed by Mary-Louise Parker. Politically skilled and a strong advocate on feminist causes, the character holds various jobs throughout the timeline depicted on The West Wing, both in public-advocacy...
, Josh
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
tries to persuade her that her burgeoning romance with a Congressman is solely a result of political machinations. He later decides that he was wrong and Amy seems more taken with him at that point. Josh is also cheered by seeing Lisa, whom he hates and was thrilled Sam did not marry, and of course by the political salvation via the SoTU address.
Episode title
The title refers to SamSam Seaborn
Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and...
's explanation of why overreaching is good:
"In 1940 our armed forces weren't among the 12 most formidable in the world, but obviously we were going to fight a big war. And Roosevelt said the U.S. would produce 50,000 planes in the next four years. Everyone thought it was a joke. And it was. 'Cause it turned out we produced 100,000 planes. Give the Air Force an armada that could block out the sun."