Fiction or real politics?

Il New York Times ha messo in evidenza come l’attacco di Chris Christie a Marco Rubio sembri ispirarsi ad una puntata di West Wing. In uno degli episodi, infatti, il presidente Josiah Bartlet ha uno scambio con il Gov. Ritchie, un repubblicano della Florida (che coincidenza!).

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey — who has mercilessly pilloried Mr. Rubio for sticking so closely to his prepared lines — actually sounded a lot like the fictional president from TV’s “The West Wing” in his now infamous exchange with the Florida senator during the Republican debate on Saturday.

Here is a word-for-word comparison of the two scenes, with emphasis on the strikingly similar language added in:

“The West Wing” Debate

GOVERNOR RITCHIE: We need to cut taxes for one reason. The American people know how to spend their money better than the federal government does

PRESIDENT BARTLET: There it is. That’s the 10-word answer my staff’s been looking for for two weeks. There it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns. They’re the tip of the sword. Here’s my question. What are the next 10 words of your answer. Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next 10 words. How are we going to do it? Give me 10 after that. I’ll drop out of the race right now

The Republican Debate on Saturday

MR. CHRISTIE: Marco, the thing is this. When you’re president of the United States, when you’re a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person…

MR. RUBIO: Here’s the bottom line. This notion that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing is just not true. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

MR. CHRISTIE: There it is. There it is. The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody.