In God We Trust (The West Wing) - Plot

Plot

Senator Vinick wins the Republican nomination for the Presidency and begins working on his campaign and senior Republicans are knocking on his door to vie for the VP slot on the ticket. He gets political advice from Bruno about choosing a vice president and how to deal with the latest controversy of Vinick's church attendance, or lack thereof. Meanwhile the Democrats are stuck in a three-way race in the New Jersey primary for enough delegates to win the Democratic nominations; Russell barely leads Santos and Hoynes is a distant third. Bartlet tries to show unity in the party by wrangling the candidates: until there is a nominee, he remains the head of the party and therefore forbids Santos or Russell from attacking each other during the convention so as to keep an image of unity on the party's figure, saying if he hears any attacks he'll immediately condemn them to the press and might just endorse the other guy while he's doing so. Vinick notices that neither Santos nor Russell had Bartlet's political instincts; if they had, he'd be twenty points behind. On the VP front, conservative Sen. (and Reverend) Butler congratulates Vinick on his nomination but simply says he will not be the VP because he cannot abide Vinick's general pro-choice views. But West Virginia Gov. Roy Sullivan, while also pro-life and a regular churchgoer, says he can abide Vinick's views and that "I'll go to church enough for both of us", and Vinick adds him to the ticket.

At the same time, Bartlet struggles with getting a minimum wage hike passed by attaching it as a “rider” on a bill necessary to raise the debt ceiling. This gets Vinick's attention, and he ends up going to meet with Bartlet personally in the Oval Office at the request of the Majority Leader. They talk very briefly, quickly agreeing on a solution which would allow Vinick to announce the minimum wage deal and would not give credit to the President or Democrats. However, Vinick mentions to Bartlet that he would like it to appear as if they debated the matter for a long time. Bartlet and Vinick sneak out together to the White House kitchen and eat a great deal of free ice cream, where they discuss whether or not a candidate's religious beliefs should be a matter for public consumption. Vinick in particular notes that Abraham Lincoln was at a bare minimum very skeptical about religion, and also notes that he stopped going to services when he read the Bible and was horrified by much of what it embraced. Eventually, when Vinick goes outside to talk to the press, he emphasizes that he will not put up a “phony” religious façade to win the presidency, preferring honesty instead.