Raise your hand if you can identify the person who said the following: “Don’t vote for us because you think we’re perfect, don’t vote for us because of what we might be able to do for you only. Vote for the person who shares your ideals, your hopes, your dreams. Vote for the person who most embodies what you believe we need to keep our nation strong and free. And when you have done that, you can go back to Seattle, and Boston, to Miami, to Omaha, to Tulsa and Chicago, and Atlanta with your head held high, and say ‘I am a member of the Democratic Party!’”

You might be thinking Barack Obama. And if you are, you’re wrong.

* * *

If you watched The West Wing, you know that it was, more-or-less, a Democratic answer to the Bush presidency. If you were a Democrat, you wished Jed Bartlett were actually president (you know, if he were real). He gave inspiring speeches, made thoughtful decisions, and made you proud to be an American. As the credits rolled at the end of every episode, however, you were sent back to reality, and you realized that Jed Bartlett wasn’t president, George W. Bush was, and the likelihood of West Wing storylines actually coming true was pretty much nil.

Well, that is, until recently.

One of my favorite episodes was the last one of the sixth season, entitled “2,162 Votes.” The episode depicted the Democratic National Convention where Rep. Matthew Santos (played by Jimmy Smits MFA ’82, who would eventually become the first Cornellian “president”) was awarded the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

It was a brokered convention. There were four (or three, or two, depending on the character you were agreed with) viable candidates at the beginning. There were back room deals, several rounds of voting, and impassioned speeches. The fake audiences were captivated. And at the end of it all, the party united behind its candidate. And he eventually won the fake general election the following season.

At this point you’re probably expecting me to make some kind of parallel behind the fake West Wing convention and the one that could feasibly occur in August, and you might think I’d be insane for doing so. After all, it would be crazy to think that life could imitate art on such an extreme level.

But, as I discovered while researching this column, the parallel has already, in part, been made.

In late February, The Guardian reported that The West Wing’s writers actually admitted to modeling Matthew Santos on another young, fairly inexperienced, minority politician— Barack Obama. And now Obama is in the thick of a heavily contested presidential primary race, just like Santos was.

The British newspaper called it “a bizarre case of art imitating life — only for life to imitate art back again.”

The quote at the beginning of this column was part of a speech made by Santos during the convention episode. But doesn’t it sound just like Obama? You have to admit, it really is kind of uncanny.

So, continuing the parallel between The West Wing and this political season, who’s to say the Democratic Party actually can’t have a wildly successful brokered convention in August?

Wouldn’t it be the most compelling political event of our lifetime?

I understand why people like Howard Dean want so badly for the nomination to be decided before the convention. It’s risky to allow John McCain to have such a head start. And there’s always the chance that a brokered convention could cause a fractured party, rather than a unified one.

That said, there’s a reason why prime time network convention coverage has been cut back to an hour a night or so. The whole thing is usually just a formality. Aside from Obama’s speech, what exactly was exciting about the Democratic convention in 2004? It’s not like John Kerry really captivated the country’s hearts and minds.

A brokered convention would bring viewers. Viewers are voters. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a country glued to its collective seat for a week watching our democracy at work? Wouldn’t the country become captivated by a real life version of The West Wing’s convention episode?

In a country where presidential primary seasons tend to be rather boring after Super Tuesday, we have an opportunity to make a real democratic decision — the way the founding fathers would have liked it.

So, Senator Clinton, no matter what happens in Pennsylvania later this month, stay in the race until the end. Let’s decide this thing in Denver, West Wing style.

I’m looking forward to it.

Eric Finkelstein ’06 is a former Sun managing editor and is currently a second-year student in the Law School. He can be contacted at efinkelstein@cornellsun.com. Saturdays Excepted appears alternate Mondays.