Come Watch the West Wing Debate Episode With Us

This week's presidential debate! It was a something, right? Since presidential debate season is upon us , this time around we're taking a slight detour from films: For our next Political Theater segment, we'll watch a " Game On ," the debate episode of The West Wing . "Game On" finds President Bartlet running against the George W. Bush-esque Governor Ritchie, and the episode contains, for my money, everything I love to hate-and hate to love-about The West Wing : blithe partisanship, broad-brush treatments of complicated public policies, optimistic institution porn, characters delightfully pranking each other.

The Candidate and the Sequel That Never Was

Jeff, the J.S. reader who wrote in before with great thoughts about The Candidate , followed up with a fascinating tidbit I hadn't been aware of: The movie almost-almost-got a sequel. "In case you hadn't heard," Jeff writes, "there was talk a few years ago of a sequel, in which an older Robert Redford would play Bill McKay as the president he went on to become later in his career.

Pro-Johnson group to launch new ad this weekend

Hollywood star Robert Redford made a plea Monday for donations even lower than the average movie ticket price to defeat Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, while a super PAC supporting the incumbent said it planned to launch a new half-million dollar attack ad portraying Democrat Russ Feingold as weak on national security. Democratic Senate candidate Russ Feingold defends his plan for fighting terrorism ahead of a new attack ad expected to be launched by a group supporting his opponent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, in Madison, Wis.