1 Sorry, I watch "Commander in Chief", and then switch to Fox for political news. Since americansforrice.com is advertising on the only show promoting women as president, and since I am part of the national group promoting a woman for president (Condi Rice), I owe to our efforts to watch the ABC show. But it is the only prime time show that I watch on ABC, as a political person, I really don't watch much network TV (most of it is just junk/no real script/ lack of believeable actors) Like West Wing, (and yes, I did watch that too) I can at times, gather information from a show portraying an image of politics to discuss issues and various viewpoints.

2 I was watching The West Wing last season, but I don't do television on Sunday nights unless it's something my husband and I can share (e.g., The Sopranos--and, in the old days, The X-Files). So I'll probably just rent this season on DVD once it's out. I've seen a few episodes of Commander in Chief, but it's strictly junk food. As Larry Elder points out on his radio show, the writers actually present Geena Davis' character making a lot of decisions out of emotion rather than in a well-considered fashion. The only thing to truly recommend that show is Donald Sutherland, who is a terrific actor, and plays the hell of of the Evil Republican in a way that I can truly admire. He is able to vault over the mediocre writing and bring that character to life despite its being made of cardboard. I love that man.

3 Ugh. What a dilemma, Crystal -- supporting Condi vs. boosting ABC's abysmally transparent presentation of conservative stereotypes. In any event, LMA, I got the same BL vibe you did. Last season, I only cringed a couple of times while wtaching; last night, I nearly got back spasms from cringing too much. Hopefully, BL isn't starting a long decline to mindless political correctness. We shall see.

4 Actually, I think the two shows, taken together, tell us all we need to know about what studio execs think of Republicans: we are all either 1) evil, like the Donald Sutherland character, or 2) charming, but confused and misguided, like the William Shatner character.