Is That Silence Usually a Good Sign? | The West Wing

“We don’t have anybody out there right now, do we?”
Season 2 Episode 12: The Drop-In
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[@aeloswindrunner]

I love Lord Marbury's reaction to this, "it could have missed by 37 fewer miles and it still would have missed by 100 miles!"

[@stephenhelmeci328]

“By the way, the words you’re looking for are oh, good grief” 🤣🤣

[@billfresh3776]

hilarious

[@veramae4098]

The beginning of Israel's "Iron Dome"?

[@bigbadjohn7053]

"We Missed it by 137 feet" "Miles" "We Missed it by 137 miles!?" That one gets me every time 🤣

[@iandhr1]

"The are a couple of three-star generals in there. Call them Lucy and you're on your own." 🤣🤣

[@ER1CwC]

I love Leo and Mrs. Landingham's banter. It isn't their first time doing this.

[@kossttamojaan]

"sharpen a pencil wouldja" 😅

[@gchild1286]

“Leo were you born at the age of 55?”😂

[@Rotarrin]

Like everyone else, I love the banter between Leo and Mrs. Landingham in this scene. However, I also love the brief knowing glance Bartlett gives her as he & Leo are leaving the Oval Office, as if to say: "Here we go again..."

[@ScorpiusZA.]

The Charlie Brown of Missile Defence. - lol

[@KellySedinger]

"Well, I can't make you Thailand's Ambassador to the US because I just signed that guy's letter." For some reason, that's my favorite line in this scene. Always makes me laugh!

[@KellySedinger]

Though "Leo, were you BORN at the age of 55?" is a close second.

[@KellySedinger]

OK, one final observation...I'm noticing through these clips that Bartlet had a habit of saying the most random things to Leo while in tense Situation Room circumstances...I wonder if he did that just to mess with Leo sometimes. The look on Leo's face with Bartlet suddenly mentions James Michener's typewriter....

[@ethanpan2335]

@@KellySedingerif you look at photos of a young John Spencer he looks like old John Spencer with a crappy wig; he really was born to be in his fifties.

[@derrickstorm6976]

"We missed it by a *Hundred* and thirty-seven miles!? 😂

[@potterpotty01]

It was just enthusiastic! LOL!

[@liquidsnake321]

3:04 Tackleberry!

[@alexpeartree2019]

Still playing with guns too!

[@bobh2610]

Thank you! I was trying to place him!

[@Ch1may]

@@alexpeartree2019 If Tackleberry knew there was a chance to miss by 137 miles he would have brought a way bigger gun.

[@jursamaj]

Huh. Didn't even recognize him. But then, he's a lot older than he was in Police Academy.

[@alexpeartree2019]

@@jursamaj that is indeed how time works.

[@FutureReverberations]

"Oh good grief" would have been a better title. :)

[@macdonaldukah1680]

Absolutely! That or "The Charlie Brown of Missile Defence".

[@imissnewspapers]

Fitting cause Fireworks 🧨 Happy 4th West Wing fans !

[@WyldstaarStudios]

For those who may be wondering (I certainly was) since this episode was aired about twenty years ago, I just looked it up, and the US still doesn't have an effective ICBM interceptor missile. The current version is only 55% effective, and that's when the test is held under extremely controlled conditions. On the plus side, if Russian ICBMs are as reliable and well maintained as the armored combat vehicles they sent to Ukraine, we should be fine.

[@Haannibal777]

I just have this idea. Why don’t you put all in the money invested in R&D for the interceptor into corrupting the Russian military, as in bribing them. Wouldn’t that be more effective?

[@WyldstaarStudios]

@@Haannibal777 I’d have to say no. The reason the Russian military is in such a sorry state now is because their officers are already so corrupt. They take money meant for maintaining their equipment and keep it for themselves. Additional money from the US might make the Russian situation worse, but it might not. Bribing their officers would add money to the Russian economy, which is bad for NATO. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

[@jursamaj]

@@Haannibal777 Who says we haven't? It's not exactly something they'd report to the public.

[@pympton]

I was honestly thinking about this scene yesterday.

[@gheller2261]

Look. It's Tackleberry in the Situation Room.

[@Elthenar]

Tackleberry IS a situation

[@phils866]

And one of the officers was Tackleberry, from Police Academy. 😀

[@JJZephyr374]

A Colonel actually.

[@diablo888]

holy shit lol

[@phils866]

@@JJZephyr374 I have ammended my comment accordingly. 🙂

[@stoytrivia1126]

"What do you get? Well, I can't make you Thailand's ambassador because I just signed that guy's letter" Is a great example of the writing that made this show so good.

[@jimchik]

Just awesome.

[@shiftfocus1]

“I heard there was a dog”

[@TheStuport]

@ 2:57 " The Kill Vehicle"....the excitability in the voice of that Lt. Gen was palpable! 🤣 Obviously "interceptor" was more precise....but the switching of one word completely amped up the commentary!

[@darrinbaker00]

“Leo, were you born at the age of 55?” One of the best lines in the history of this series.

[@citythink]

Genius writing.

[@paulfaulconer2512]

Was Charlie holding a Palm Pilot? A blast from the past.

[@27devarshi]

this is too funny

[@kossttamojaan]

"When you consider the size of outer space Leo, that's not so bad."

[@tinto278]

Now the system works!

[@buddy3635]

My favorite west wing opening!!! Second is Galileo V

[@blueyestu7950]

Tackleberry!!!!

[@aaronelya]

Glad to see Tackleberry worked his way up to a 3-star General. ; (RIP)

[@AmitKumar-tg7of]

Well it did work... eventually

[@andyh4518]

I think every president from the past 50 years would strongly disagree with Jed's opinion about golf.

[@CertifiedIndustryProfessional]

When your actions don’t change your opponents strategy, you’re playing a game, not a sport. Like with darts, or bowling. What you do only affects your own scorecard.

[@normanlazarus1836]

@@CertifiedIndustryProfessionalI was going to say that I agree but then I thought about chess….

[@CertifiedIndustryProfessional]

@@normanlazarus1836 mmm, true. I wouldn’t argue that chess is a sport, I feel that you at least have to change your shoes to be playing a sport. But I do think that you and your opponent sharing ground at the same time should be a requirement for a sport. Like in motorsports, or boxing. But then I do feel that track and field events like javelin are sports, even though it’s only one person competing at a time. It’s tricky business. Anything you can do drunk, like golf, is not a sport worth anyone’s time.

[@TWFydGlu]

@@CertifiedIndustryProfessional I never thought track and field was sport either.

[@keithduvall812]

Golf is absolutely not a sport. Golf is a game that you play against yourself even if you are competing in a tournament. Just like pool or billiards.

[@Rary.0]

well that contraption is working now misses landleham

[@tomb7942]

EXACTLY! Like so many weapons systems that didn't work until they did.

[@shalashaska9946]

I think it's pretty likely we do have something like this active and working today. In fact I'd say it's unlikely we don't.

[@shinjisan2015]

Problem is the missiles are too fast and agile now to intercept in the "cruise" phase as this was intended. Energy weapons are the only defense to a hypersonic glide vehicle.

[@jamesmaclennan4525]

Democrats across the USA are wishing they had Bartlett running.

[@samm9397]

well, yeah. we wish we had anyone else running really. corpse still better than theocracy enabling Nazis tho.

[@mnfrench7603]

Everyone wishes Bartlett is president.

[@suestroud]

You have him. His name is Joe Biden.

[@jamesmaclennan4525]

@@suestroud

[@chiptovar]

Bartlet

[@chewy739]

Were you born at the age of 55 😂😂

[@WWFanatic0]

Kinda funny how this has aged. Missile defense has come a loooooong way since then. There's a reason the concern these days is hypersonic cruise missiles and not your standard ballistic missile.

[@DannyMercer1993]

This scene kept popping into my head when I read “Nuclear War”. There really is no answer or contingency to an ICBM.

[@JohnSmith-gb5vg]

Well except maybe (over decades) infiltration into both the ruling parties, the government infrastructure, control over its manufacturing base by relocating it to your country by utilizing that countries capitalist greed, as well as influence the educational system and change ideologies to either conform to your country’s beliefs or cause enough division to negate any decision policy of using them ICBM’s or the military system either through lack of maintenance funding or confusion over control management as well as degradation of the mental competence of leadership, and spread distrust from those in uniform as well as the greater population in the said competency of said leadership. Seems a better tactic than direct nuclear / non-nuclear confrontation that is known to be a no win situation for anyone. Hello China 😊

[@jpa5038]

There is. It's called PRISM. While this scene is funny, it is meaningless. The prototype they're testing in this scene goes on to become the Patriot missile which is currently intercepting Russian missiles in Ukraine successfully each and everyday.

[@rockon41]

@@jpa5038 There's a big difference between intercepting atmospheric missiles like in Ukraine or Israel, and intercepting ICBMs, which is what this scene is about.

[@jpa5038]

@@rockon41 That literally is the difference between Patriot missiles and PRISM. PRISM can intercept ICBMs outside earth's atmosphere.

[@Quasimodo-mq8tw]

@@jpa5038 Is that the only system that has a 100% Success rate? Because they only tested it once in 20 years?😅

[@MIGBMWLOVER]

can someone convert it from imperial units to metric?

[@casey6556]

He initially thinks they missed it by about 40 metres, only to be told it actually missed by 220 km

[@PeterHarlequinWhite]

You have the entire internet at your finger tips and you can't use it to do it yourself?

[@rocketman544]

I was always on Leo's side in this. The world invented a nuclear weapon, it owes it to itself to find a way to uninvent one. I didn't much care for the president's and Mrs. Landingham's disdain for the idea.

[@bladactania]

While I agree in principle, I'm more on the side of Lord Marbury: if you beat the nuclear missile, someone will build a better missile.

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

​@@bladactaniaPlus as Marbury points out, there are international treaties against what Leo is trying to build with the shield... Indeed as Marbury brings up; even if the treaties weren't an issue and no one developed a better bomb in response (which they absolutely would), the shield simply doesn't work. Despite years and billions in R&D money, they are still missing the target by over a hundred miles during a training exercise. Now I completely agree that Leo's intentions are noble here, he wants the threat of nuclear warfare stifled and that is a desire I can get behind, but at least based on the Shield's performance in this test, negotiation is still the most viable path to that goal.

[@JohnnyC133]

Leo's well intended and Bartlet and Mrs. Landingham are dumb and short-sighted about technology, but there are good reasons why people don't like ABMs. A missile shield could set off a new nuclear arms race, since countries will be racing to build more nukes than the shield can defend against which will in turn force the US to build more nukes. Then it arguably makes the threat of conventional wars higher, since if no one has to worry about nuclear retaliation, then aggressive nations might be more likely to wage conventional wars. That said, technology is going to advance anyway. Someone, somewhere is eventually going to build a viable counter to nuclear weapons.

[@tyu3456]

That's why you make it a top-secret program, so people don't know you have such a shield.

[@davidweihe6052]

@@JamesTobiasStewartThe ABM Treaty limited the number of ABM sites. Marbury and his country may have been banned from developing an ABM shield, but not the USA.

[@thejanitor3337]

You wanna know why I ultimately don't like Bartlet? Because of what Leo has to remind him later in the episode. It doesn't matter if it missed by 137 miles, 137 feet, or 137 inches. We need to try. We need to keep trying over and over and over and over and over again until we get it right because at the end of the day, a missile intercept system that would stop all ICBM launches around the globe isn't just something that will be a worthwhile investment, it is a moral and ethical necessity. We brought into this world weapons capable of leveling entire nations and by God Almighty it is our duty to design something that makes those weapons useless so that we can never use them again. Let's see Jed get lippy and dismissive about that.

[@cyberperson53]

To be totally fair to Jed on this one, Leo's high-minded rhetoric about nuclear disarmament doesn't stop this particular method from clearly being a boondoggle that's obviously not working. And to be further fair to Jed, as Marbury points out, this particular system would only work to shield the United States -- i.e. one country -- from nuclear weapons, not every single person on the planet. You're somewhere not covered by this shield and the bombs start flying, you're shit outta luck I guess. And to yet again be totally fair to Jed, when Leo says this exact same thing in the scene you mention, Jed clearly doesn't get "lippy and dismissive" but reacts perfectly respectfully. Because he's clearly all for removing the dangers of nuclear weaponry from the world, he just thinks that this particular method is dumb and unlikely to work no matter how much money is thrown at it.

[@Dan210871]

In short, you dislike Bartlet because you fail to understand the nature of the interpersonal dynamic between him and Leo. Got it.

[@GBTCO2b]

Negative intercept. . . . . . .

[@potterpotty01]

Golf is a sport! it's in the Olympics for god's sake!

[@davidcat1455]

Kinda hard for me to view hitting a little ball with a bent stick into a hole as a sport. Although I must admit, I’m jealous of people who are proficient at such a useless activity becoming millionaires. Funny old world, eh?

[@kenimiller3896]

As much as IQ dislike golfers in general, golf is a sport because winning is determined by the participants themselves, ie by running the fastest, jumping the highest, or in golf, having the lowest score. I don't consider anything a sport where judges decide who the winner is.

[@potterpotty01]

@@davidcat1455 obviously never tried it. It's a lot harder than it sounds, and you don't just turn up on course and become a millionaire. Like any other sport you have to train and practice every single day. To say nothing of the mental strength this requires. My favourite story about golf is how back in the day Dan Marino the QB for Miami Dolphins tried to qualify for the US Open but he said he didn't have the mental strength to compete at that level. Dan Marino! Not mentally strong enough for Golf!

[@stevefranks9873]

It just occurred to me that Bartlett mispronounced plenipotentiary. I doubt anyone, not an absolute pedant (like me) would notice or care.

[@gerardhunt1890]

All these guys with stars are wasting the tax payers money. the only reason their doing it is to desperately try to keep the program, and their careers alive. And yes this is a tv show.

[@benjarongprojects]

They both totally butchered the Thai king’s name, to the extent it was totally unrecognisable.