Personal life Bartlet was born in 1942 and raised in
Manchester, New Hampshire. He is a descendant of Dr
Josiah Bartlett, a real-world signatory of the
Declaration of Independence. Bartlet is a devout
Roman Catholic. This is due to the influence of his mother, as his father would have preferred that he be raised
Protestant. His relationship with his father was often strained from parental abuse. In a discussion with his subconscious, personified by the "ghost" of Mrs Landingham, his father is described as "a prick who could never get over the fact that he wasn't as smart as his brothers". Sorkin has stated that Bartlet's father, "obviously convinced he married some Catholic whore, treats his son terribly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he adopted his mother's religion." Sorkin said that Bartlet's tirade against God in the episode "
Two Cathedrals" is therefore directed just as much at Bartlet's own father as it is at God. He displays a remarkable ability for chess. Once, he engaged several members of his staff in
separate matches at the same time and won. Bartlet scored 1590 out of 1600 on his
SAT college admission test. Later he retook the exam, and received the same result, something both
Leo McGarry and Dr Stanley Keyworth find amusing. He was accepted to
Williams,
Harvard, and
Yale, but instead chose to go to the
University of Notre Dame, as he was considering becoming a priest, though decided against it after meeting Abbey, his future wife. He graduated
summa cum laude with a B.A. in
American studies and a minor in
theology. He received a
Master's and a
Ph.D. in economics from the
London School of Economics, as well as an
Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from
Dartmouth College, where he was a tenured professor prior to entering politics. He speaks four languages, including Latin, English, and German. He is a
Nobel Laureate in Economics, and is generally portrayed as a
macroeconomist sympathetic to
Keynesian views. He was required to split his
Nobel Prize with another economist, a much more conservative Japanese man whom Bartlet respects but does not particularly like. He is the author of a book entitled
Theory and Practice of Macroeconomics in Developing Countries, and telling
C.J. Cregg (his
press secretary and later
chief of staff) that she is part of his family. Bartlet has relapsing-remitting
multiple sclerosis, which at one time puts the future of his presidency in doubt. He and his wife concealed his illness during his initial presidential run and would not disclose the information until well into his first term, leading to allegations of
fraud. He receives a Congressional
censure for covering up his MS while running for president. Bartlet began his political career when he was elected to the
New Hampshire House of Representatives. He later served three terms in the
United States House of Representatives, representing
New Hampshire's 1st congressional district. Like his ancestor, Jed Bartlet served as
Governor of New Hampshire, and he won re-election to his final term with 69% of the vote. A recurring motif throughout the series is Bartlet's inability to remember the names of junior staffers, a trait taken directly from Sheen's own memory tendencies. However, in the series finale episode, he meets and thanks a long series of White House staff members and addresses them all accurately by name. Bartlet also displays an obsession with trivia, often quizzing family, friends, and staff, whether they are interested or not — generally not.
Presidency Bartlet's best friend,
Leo McGarry, persuades him to run for president around the fall of 1997, writing the slogan "Bartlet for America" on a cocktail napkin. Although initially a
dark horse, Bartlet eventually defeats the Democratic frontrunner,
U.S. Senator John Hoynes of Texas, whom Bartlet asks to join the ticket as his vice-presidential
running mate. He defeats the Republican nominee for president, winning a close election with just 48 per cent of the vote, 48 million popular votes, and a 303–235 margin in the
Electoral College. He is sworn into his first term on January 20, 1999. Bartlet's accomplishments as president include appointing the first Hispanic
Supreme Court Justice and first female
Chief Justice, negotiating a peace settlement between
Israel and
Palestine, creating millions of new jobs, providing strong support for alternative energy, and orchestrating a
Social Security reform plan (although it is never made clear whether the plan is passed by the
United States Congress, the show indicates that a revolutionary agreement is achieved with bi-partisan support). He does, however, express regret at his inability to balance the budget in his eight years in the White House. Bartlet does not shy away from using the military when he feels it is necessary during his eight years in the
White House, and deals with major foreign policy crises in various parts of the world. The
Middle East is a recurring source of problems, particularly
Iran,
Syria, the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the fictional gulf state of
Qumar. Bartlet is able to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by negotiating a historic agreement at
Camp David in 2005 and deploying peacekeepers to the region, despite opposition to these efforts from both Democrats and Republicans. Terrorism, particularly from the Bahji network based in Qumar, is a continual problem and in the season 4 finale, Bartlet has to confront the kidnapping of his own daughter at the hands of the group. In Latin America, Bartlet has to deal with situations in
Haiti,
Colombia and
Bolivia. A conflict and genocide in the fictional African nation of
Equatorial Kundu lead Bartlet to intervene militarily and declare a bold
interventionist foreign policy doctrine. In
Asia, Bartlet deals with tensions and near-conflicts between India and Pakistan, China and
Taiwan, and
Russia and China. The latter crisis, in his final year, leads to him deploying 140,000 peacekeepers to prevent a full-blown conflict over oil in
Kazakhstan, and this becomes a key issue in the 2006 presidential campaign to succeed him. President Bartlet shows the most affection among his staffers to
Josh Lyman,
C.J. Cregg, and
Sam Seaborn. He predicts that Sam will one day run for president and expresses his faith in Sam's capability. While he clearly respects
Toby Ziegler, the two are prone to clash, usually when Toby feels the President is not acting according to his true morality or is ducking important issues. He is pained when he finds out Toby has leaked classified national security information and fires him. Bartlet eventually signs a pardon for Toby in his last official act as president. He does not get along well with either of his vice presidents,
John Hoynes or
Bob Russell, saying at one point he does not know what either of them is good for. For reasons presumably tied to his own lack of military service, he is somewhat intimidated by acid-tongued
Secretary of Defense Miles Hutchinson and deferential to respected
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Percy Fitzwallace. Bartlet is shot in the first season
cliffhanger finale "
What Kind of Day Has It Been". While it is revealed in the season 2 opening episode that his wounds are not serious (quick medical intervention having him on his feet within a few hours), Josh Lyman is critically injured. It is eventually discovered that the shooters were white supremacists from
West Virginia and that his
bodyman Charlie Young was the intended target of the assassination attempt, not Bartlet himself. In the second-season finale, "
Two Cathedrals", Bartlet announces to the country that he has
multiple sclerosis, and has been keeping it a secret, although this had previously been revealed to the show's audience in the first-season episode "
He Shall, from Time to Time..." This leads to an investigation of Bartlet's administration by a
special prosecutor and by the
United States House of Representatives, a storyline which dominates much of the show's third season. Eventually, Bartlet accepts a
censure from Congress, which settles all investigations against him. While Bartlet's campaign efforts are damaged by the controversy, he nonetheless defeats the Republican nominee, Governor
Robert Ritchie of Florida, by a landslide and is returned for a second term. The election is forecast to be close until Bartlet scores a decisive debate win over Ritchie.
Zoey Bartlet is kidnapped on the day of her graduation from
Georgetown University, possibly in retaliation for the assassination of the Qumari defence minister, Abdul ibn Shareef, which her father authorized. While Zoey is missing, President Bartlet fears he is incapable of maintaining the necessary dispassion while his daughter is in such danger and invokes Section 3 of the
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, declaring himself incapacitated and transferring the powers of the presidency to the next person in the
presidential line of succession. Due to the resignation a few days earlier of Vice President Hoynes, the
Speaker of the House, Republican Glen Allen Walken, becomes
Acting President of the United States. Zoey recovers with only minor injuries several days later and President Bartlet reassumes his office shortly thereafter. Soon after Bartlet resumes the presidency, he faces off against Jeff Haffley, the newly elected
Speaker of the House (replacing Walken, who was forced to resign in order to fulfil his duties as acting president) on intense budget negotiations that break down to the point where the federal government is shut down (similar to the real world 1995 and 1996
shutdowns during the Clinton administration). Eventually, Bartlet topples Haffley's influence and sees to it that the Speaker's power declines thereafter. At the end of the fifth season and the beginning of the sixth, the Bartlet administration is dragged into the Israeli-Arab dispute after terrorists attack U.S. government officials on a trip to
Gaza. Eventually, after intense negotiations at
Camp David between the Israelis and the
Palestinians, Bartlet manages to secure a peace agreement but at a great cost, firing his chief of staff
Leo McGarry in a disagreement over the conflict. McGarry has a heart attack but later returns to work as Special Counsellor to the President.
CJ Cregg succeeds him as chief of staff. On a trip to China, Bartlet is left temporarily paralyzed by an attack of multiple sclerosis. As a result, he briefly uses a wheelchair but soon recovers although he is left somewhat weakened by the attack. After seeing Congressman Matt Santos' stirring speech at the
Democratic National Convention, Bartlet has a chat with a
New York Democratic leader who had previously refused to support Santos due to concerns over education policy; the leader reverses his course and Santos becomes the Democratic nominee for president. In the seventh and final season of
The West Wing, Bartlet is in the last year of his term as president. Near the end of the season, Congressman
Matt Santos of Texas defeats the Republican nominee, Senator
Arnold Vinick of
California, in the 2006 presidential election and thereby becomes Bartlet's successor. After Santos' inauguration, Bartlet returns to his
New Hampshire home aboard
Air Force One with his wife and while en route has the last word of the series. Mrs Bartlet asks the introspective former president what he is thinking about, and Bartlet replies: "Tomorrow." The Bartlet Presidential Library opens three years after the end of his term and Bartlet is present at the opening ceremony, along with Kate Harper, C. J. Cregg, Danny Concannon,
Charlie Young, Toby Ziegler, Josh Lyman, and Will Bailey. The new president does not appear, as this scene occurs in a flash forward during season seven, before the election. West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin briefly revived the character for
Maureen Dowd's September 20, 2008
New York Times column, where he scripted a hypothetical meeting between Bartlet and then-Democratic presidential nominee
Barack Obama. He did the same after Obama's first debate against
Mitt Romney in 2012. ==Reception==