I've started watching West Wing from the beginning again. I never missed an episode when it was on and I'm enjoying it again on DVD. It's such a good show!

There's this one episode where Josh gets a card with instruction on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack or something and feels guilty that CJ and Sam and the others didn't get one. I was trying to remember exactly what Josh's position was (Deputy Chief of Staff) so I looked it up on Wikipedia and I found this:

Similarities between the fictional 2006 election and the real-life 2008 U.S. presidential election have been noted in the media. Specifically, it has been noted that a young minority Democratic candidate (Matthew Santos on the show, Barack Obama in real life) has a grueling but successful primary campaign against a more experienced candidate (Bob Russell on the show, Hillary Clinton in real life) and chooses an experienced Washington insider as his running mate (Leo McGarry on the show, Joe Biden in real life), whereas the Republican contest is determined early in the primary season with an aging maverick senator of a Western state being the nominee (Arnold Vinick on the show, John McCain in real life) and then a running mate from a small Republican state (West Virginia Governor Ray Sullivan on the show, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in real life).[38][39][40] [41] The Santos character was based on Obama. Writer Eli Attie called David Axelrod to talk about Obama after Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and says that he "drew inspiration from [Obama] in drawing this character,"[42] while actor Jimmy Smits says that Obama "was one of the people that I looked to draw upon."[43] Writer and producer Lawrence O'Donnell says that he partly modeled Vinick after McCain.[44] Other perceived similarities include Santos being "a coalition-building Congressional newcomer who feels frustrated by the polarization of Washington," Santos delivering "a speech on race at a critical moment for his campaign" (a parallel to Obama's A More Perfect Union speech), Santos and Obama both being Bob Dylan fans, Vinick being criticized as "not conservative enough," etc.[44]

Folowing his election, Santos chose Josh Lyman as his Chief of Staff. President-Elect Barack Obama chose Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff. Santos Chief of Staff Josh Lyman is said to be based on Emanuel.

How weird is that?