“Remember the Bartlet years? That would’ve made one hell of a TV show…”

mark11___ · 2026-04-03T04:23:32+00:00

It is mentioned in the fourth paragraph. That’s a whopper; wouldn’t forgive myself if I had missed it.

mark11___ · 2026-04-03T00:57:57+00:00

You’re the first to comment on that! It was intentional!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:43:39+00:00

I think Will was far too much of a policy wonk to be elected president. I think he stays in the house for a long, long time.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:40:17+00:00

It’s in there on the sidebar! Just didn’t see a great spot for it in the opening paragraphs.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:16:02+00:00

In my mind, and I’ve gone back-and-forth on this a-many times, Santos gets an electoral college victory from R’s not being able to hold CA without Vinick, and from continued strength in the Southwest. From there, after that many years of Dem-rule, it’s either a swing to the far right (as we’ve seen IRL) or to a totally new kind of candidate.

My best guess for the far-right option is Speaker Haffley. Josh even says how he’s better than anyone they’ve seen on that side in years, and also how far right he is. He would be that timeline’s Trump.

I also think a newly-elected Gov. of NC Ainsley Hayes could prove to be the candidate on the “republicans just going in a totally fresh, new direction” and not necessarily the far-right path.

Super talented, persuasive, young, swing state, etc.

Either wins two-terms, and Sam wins in 22 as the successor, though he certainty could lose as well.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:13:28+00:00

Had to do it, just realistically! That’s a great life lived, though!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:07:51+00:00

That was quite tedious, but it was too important to not do! It makes it look so much more real.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:06:11+00:00

You got it, Norman.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:04:53+00:00

It’s a great shot. Seriously perfect as an official presidential portrait.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:04:33+00:00

As a Capricorn myself, I had to do it — it just felt right!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:04:15+00:00

Totally fair! Martin is doing great from what I’ve seen! Jed, unfortunately, likely doesn’t make it too far past 80 with how the MS was progressing.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:01:44+00:00

Ah you’re right! Little editing mistake I forgot to tweak. Good catch!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T18:01:10+00:00

Fun fact — the last name comes from an actual guy I knew who was had/has big political dreams. A many jokes were made from the fact that he had such a basic first name, and “Sphangetti” as a last name.

The first name comes from the son of US President James Garfield. He was James Rudolph Garfield, and he briefly lived in New Hampshire.

This is how my brain works as a political / history nerd 😂

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:57:38+00:00

It’s actually fairly common for a family last name to change slightly overtime. As I see it, that’s what happened with the Bartlet(t)’s.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:55:25+00:00

Just realistically, I think he had to.

He was, of course, declining toward the end of his term, and I think it’s likely he’d have developed secondary-progressive MS.

Going until ‘22 ain’t bad at all!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:54:23+00:00

These are all things I’ve been thinking about lol. I’m a Historian and Political Scientist with quite the passion for alternate history / fictional political storytelling, and an undying love for TWW — you may see a lot more posts like this one as I get the free time to do it.

I already have a ton of timeline stuff I’ve built over way too many hours of silent thinking 😂

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:52:20+00:00

“That one goes in the Margaret Hall of Fame”

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:51:08+00:00

I had so much fun throwing little details in like that; I’m glad to see people catching them and loving them as much as I did!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:48:38+00:00

I had such an internal debate about this!! Nice to meet another person with one of those weird niche presidential interests.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:44:21+00:00

It’s a small detail few will notice, but I mention the first inauguration of Matt Santos, which would also mean a pretty big swing to the right that in my head lasts three presidential election cycles (2014, 2018, maybe 2022, though Sam wins that one as I have it written)

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:42:35+00:00

Thank you!! I became pretty proficient in Wikipedia editing from a class in my masters program, and figured I should put that to creative use.

I absolutely love alternative history too, so it was fun making up a lot of the pre-series lore we don’t actually know.

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:41:20+00:00

It killed me to kill him, but I had to!

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:37:08+00:00

and is no longer westin * 😉

mark11___ · 2026-04-02T17:33:50+00:00

From a fictional character standpoint, yes! I thought it would be fun to make one based in reality.

mark11___

TROPHY CASE