Game On (The West Wing)

The episode centers around preparing Josiah Bartlet for his sole debate against Robert Ritchie, the Governor of Florida and Republican nominee for president in the upcoming election. The opening scene of the episode depicts a prank related to debate preparation—Bartlet bets ten dollars against the rest of the White House senior staff that he can dupe Toby Ziegler into believing that Bartlet is a having a "crisis of confidence" for the upcoming debate. After learning that he'd been tricked, Toby simply comments to Josh Lyman, "he's ready". Josh is also tasked in the scene with finding "ten word" answers, sound-bite answers to policy questions that show that the Bartlet campaign can be folksy and in touch with the American public.

After Toby alerts C. J. that a Democrat is going to be providing support for Ritchie in the post-debate spin room, Toby tells C. J. to find Albie Duncan, a Republican at the U.S. Department of State, who has agreed to similarly provide support for Bartlet. Despite objections that Duncan is "a little bit" crazy, C. J. prepares Duncan for the spin room on the flight to the debate. After practicing an answer on free trade, Duncan tells C. J. that trade is complicated, and that these simplified sound bites are misleading. Duncan also criticizes Josh for trying to get him help Josh come up with the ten word answers. During the debate, Ritchie answers a question on his tax plan simply by stating that "The American people know how to spend their money better than the federal government does." Bartlet, although given time for a rebuttal, ignores the content of Ritchie's answer, responding with the following:

There it is... That's the ten-word answer my staff's been looking for for two weeks. There it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns. They're the tip of the sword. Here's my question: What are the next ten words of your answer? Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next ten words. How are we going to do it? Give me ten after that, I'll drop out of the race right now.

In the post-debate room, Duncan gives his prepackaged answer on trade, but C. J. steps into the gaggle, asking "Isn't there a decent chance you and the President are wrong? ... I mention this because the President just reminded us that complexity isn't a vice." After that, the entire senior staff leaves the spin room, reasoning that Bartlet's performance in the debate can speak for itself.

Meanwhile, Sam Seaborn, the Deputy White House Communications Director, goes to California to meet with Will Bailey, who is managing the congressional campaign of the deceased Democrat Horton Wilde against a seven-term Republican incumbent. This is the first appearance of Will Bailey on The West Wing. Sam tries to get Will to suspend Wilde's campaign at the request of the President, telling him that it's become "a national joke", but Will refuses. Sam goes to watch Will hold a press conference, where he defends Wilde and the campaign against the idea that a dead candidate should not be voted for. After the debate, Sam visits Will at a bar, and after further discussion, Will still refuses to back down from his campaign. Will tells Sam that Horton Wilde's widow, Kate Wilde, wants assurance that a Democrat will run for the seat should a special election occur, and after further discussion, Sam tells Will that he can tell Wilde that Sam grew up in Orange County, and would be willing to run for the seat should Wilde win.

Meanwhile, the Mastico, a ship in the Mediterranean Sea bound to the nation of Qumar, was stopped by the U.S. Navy on the suspicion that it was smuggling arms to a fictional terrorist group known as the Bahji. In an attempt to get the Qumar to turn the ship around, Leo McGarry summons the Qumari Ambassador to the United Nations, Ali Nassir, to the White House, along with Leo's lawyer, Jordon Kendall. The two argue over the death of Abdul Ibn Shareef, a Qumari cabinet minister secretly assassinated by the United States, because the Qumari government was spreading disinformation that Shareef was assassinated by the Israeli government. After Nassir attempts to de-escalate by telling Leo that he knows that Bartlet couldn't admit Israel's complicity during a close election, Leo laughs, responding that to win in a landslide, all Bartlet would have to do is "blow the Sultan's brains out in Times Square, then walk across the street to Nathan's and buy a hot dog". Leo tells the ambassador that he has to turn around the Mastico, and stop attempting to link Shareef's death to Israel.

• "Game On" at IMDb