- [at a Q&A in Nashua, NH; a dairy farmer complained that Bartlett voted against a bill that hurt the farmer's pocketbook "to the tune" of 10 cents a gallon]
- President Josiah Bartlet: Yeah, I screwed you on that one.
- Questioner #2: I'm sorry?
- President Josiah Bartlet: I screwed you. You got hosed.
- Questioner #2: Sir, I...
- President Josiah Bartlet: And not just you. A lot of my constituents. I put the hammer to farms in Concord, Salem, Laconia, Pelham, Hampton, Hudson. You guys got rogered but good. Today for the first time in history, the largest group of Americans living in poverty are children. 1 in 5 children live in the most abject, dangerous, hopeless, back-breaking, gut-wrenching poverty any of us could imagine. 1 in 5, and they're children. If fidelity to freedom of democracy is the code of our civic religion then surely the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says we shall give our children better than we ourselves received. Let me put it this way: I voted against the bill because I didn't want to make it harder for people to buy milk. I stopped some money from flowing into your pocket. If that angers you, if you resent me, I completely respect that. But if you expect anything different from the President of the United States, you should vote for someone else.
- Dr. Whitaker: I need to ask you some questions, Sir. Do you have any medical conditions?
- President Josiah Bartlet: Well, I've been shot.
- Josh Lyman: Leo, the-the Democrats aren't gonna nominate another liberal, academic former governor from New England. I mean, we're dumb, but we're not that dumb.
- Leo McGarry: Nah-I think we're exactly that dumb.
- Leo McGarry: [regarding Bartlet having been undefeated in all his previous elections] No, seriously, that's a real political accomplishment considering your family founded this state. Were you even opposed in any of those elections?
- Josh Lyman: If I see the real thing in Nashua, should I tell you about it?
- Sam Seaborn: You won't have to.
- Josh Lyman: Why?
- Sam Seaborn: You've got a pretty bad poker face.
- Woman in Bar: You've been a... um, what do you call it?
- Toby Ziegler: Professional political operative.
- Woman in Bar: You've been one your whole life?
- Toby Ziegler: Well, there was a while there I was in elementary school.
- Sam Seaborn: Josh. Hoynes: He's not the real thing, is he?
- Josh Lyman: See, the thing ya gotta know about Hoynes is...
- Sam Seaborn: It's okay.
- Josh Lyman: No, I, I, I'm saying...
- Sam Seaborn: Josh. What're you doing?
- Josh Lyman: I don't know. What're you doing?
- Sam Seaborn: Protecting oil companies from litigation. They're a client. They don't lose legal protection because they make a lot of money.
- Josh Lyman: Can't believe no one ever wrote a folk song about that.
- Danny Concannon: ...who's in charge?
- C.J. Cregg: The Vice President, the Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the White House Chief of Staff.
- Danny Concannon: You just named six people. Who's in *charge*?
- C.J. Cregg: The Canadiens.
- Danny Concannon: CJ...
- C.J. Cregg: You understand I'm talking about the hockey team.
- Cal Mathis: Do you enjoy losing?
- Toby Ziegler: Not that much, no. Then again, I really don't have a lot to compare it to.
- Woman in Bar: [regarding the Presidential primary] I gotta tell you, I didn't even know Bartlet was running.
- Toby Ziegler: Yeah, well, we keep that secret pretty good.