Something for Thursday

A change of pace this week. Here’s one of my favorite scenes from The West Wing. The set-up is that a death row prisoner is about to be executed, and somehow (I don’t recall the particulars) it comes to pass that his only hope is a commutation from the President, who spends most of the day worrying about what to do. He asks several people for advice — his Jewish commnications director, a visiting political consultant who is a Quaker, and finally his own parish priest. Ultimately, Bartlet does…what he does here.