The West Wing s03e11 Episode Script
100,000 Airplanes
Previously on The West Wing: - What did they offer? Censure? - Yeah.
- History forgets these things.
- Presidents don't.
They never get over it.
This one won't.
I don't think it's good to be casual about the truth.
Neither do I.
Why can't you say, "Would you like to go out?" No one in government takes responsibility for anything anymore.
I'm to blame.
I was wrong.
We stand at a critical point, a time of choosing.
If we take the hard course, the right course there is no limit to what we can achieve.
There is no limit to what we will achieve.
The dials go from zero to a hundred.
They dial up if they like what he's saying.
They dial down if they don't.
- The numbers lead to a central computer.
- Like the Nielsens.
- Yeah.
- They're behind a screen somewhere.
The people with the dials, they're behind a screen somewhere? They're in Macon County, they're in Portland in Los Feliz, California.
Norman, Oklahoma.
- Joey puts together a decent snapshot.
- Which one's Joey? Kenny, can we get Joey a second? And we will leave a safer, cleaner planet for future generations.
- When did you pick that up? - I just said"thanks.
" - Could he go easy with the pictures? - You said it'd be okay.
- When did I say that? - C.
J.
Cregg said it wouldn't be a problem.
But I have the utmost confidence Joey, this is Lisa Sherborne.
She's doing a piece for Vanity Fair.
- I don't have a lot of time right now.
- What do the different lines mean? Reds for Republicans, blues for Democrats, and greens for Independents.
- When we say something liberal, like -"Death is bad.
" Right.
Blues go up and reds go down.
When we talk about values, reds and greens go up.
You're usually lucky to break 65.
I gotta get back now.
I have abiding respect for the speaker of the house and the majority leader.
They are men of fundamental decency and public servants of purpose.
- How much of this did you write? - We don't talk about that.
Is there anything you're gonna talk about, or is this gonna be an extraction? men and women of both chambers who have labored to shed the weight of partisanship and don the cloak of progress.
- The lines don't seem to be doing much.
- Hang on.
It may be said that in the last half-century America won the Cold War and modeled freedom for a waiting world.
Breaking out the greatest hits, huh? Now, in a new century when we meet and master new forms of aggression and hatred, ignorance and evil our vigilance in the face of oppression and global terror will be unequaled by any moment in human history.
- Now you're cooking.
- And to the enemies of freedom the enemies of democracy, the enemies of America the enemies of humanity itself, we say here tonight with one voice there is no corner of this Earth so remote, no cave so dark that you will not be found and brought to light and ended.
- That's a number spike.
- Hey, crank that up.
He broke 65 on all the lines.
We nearly had one almost as big.
- What? - I said, we nearly had one almost as big.
- What was it? - We almost cured cancer.
Really? - This close.
- What happened? Just one of those things.
- Can I help you, ma'am? - A glass of chardonnay, please.
Hey, Amy.
- Are you talking to me? - Yes.
- What did I say? - You said not to talk to you.
- Yet you're doing it anyway.
- Yes.
- You're doing it again.
Still doing it.
- Amy - I'm walking away now.
- Okay.
Ice and vodka.
Sam Seaborn! Thank you.
Thank you.
I am at Ha-Ha's in Cleveland on the 16th, and tip your waitresses.
Sam.
- Congratulations.
- Hey, you too.
- So far so good, huh? - The dials were what we thought.
- Lisa.
- Josh.
Still trying to get waived into Generation X? - Still a pompous jackass? - Oh, you bet.
See you later.
Congratulations, Sam.
- Tell me about the cancer thing.
- It got cut.
Jack Daniels.
You were gonna cure cancer.
We were gonna say we'd cure cancer.
Curing it is someone else's department.
- How does that work? - How does what work? - Deciding what you're gonna say.
- You mean writing the State of the Union? Yeah.
- It's a long story.
- I'm writing a long story.
Do you ever do any kind of preparation before? - I prefer to - Hang out at Moomba? The process begins six weeks beforehand with budget meetings.
- Why budget meetings? - If we introduce an idea people wanna know how we pay for it.
Memos come from everywhere.
Every agency, department, senior advisor, outside notable.
-What's an outside notable? -Former presidents, Kissinger Bill Gates, Jesse Jackson.
Mr.
Rogers wants to write us a memo, we'll read it.
We'll pass some to the president, and he'll start making notes.
Then we have the "president's first thoughts" meeting.
-That's when we all wanna kill ourselves.
-Why? That's when the president tells us we're nowhere.
-Why? -Because we're nowhere.
So we try to figure out what people wanna hear.
That's when anyone who didn 't want to die before has been converted to the cult.
-Why is it so hard? -It's a white piece of paper.
-How high are the stakes? -How high can you count? -So, what do you do? -Whatever it takes to get started.
And we read new memos, and we try new themes and we hear new slogans and test new lines.
After a few weeks of that you still got a white paper.
So it's hard.
- It's hard.
- It's hard under the best circumstances.
- It got a little harder two weeks ago.
- What happened two weeks ago? - Congress censured the president.
- Yes.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
- What's going on? - Late last night, early this morning the president reached an agreement to accept a congressional censure.
How's he feeling? How's he feeling? Fine.
It's over.
- A joint resolution? - Yeah.
A concurrent resolution, actually.
It'll take a couple of days for the lawyers to get together on the language.
- We should leak it, soften up the ground.
- Yeah.
He's all right? He's about to be censured, deliver the State of the Union and then he's gonna run for reelection.
My guess is that there are some things on his mind.
It's over.
That's all.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
This is like the Civil War.
When's the last time Congress rebuked a president? - The Civil War.
- And now, how do you? Yeah.
Should we postpone the State of the Union? What are the rules on that? He's required to give Congress information on the Union.
If he buys Congress a Wall Street Journal, he's fulfilled his constitutional - Postponing's an admission of defeat.
- He's accepting a censure.
That's defeat.
You don't ask the bully to lunch the day after he stole your lunch money.
You don't go on a starvation diet either.
We can spin the censure as a bipartisan You can't spin a formal denunciation from the legislative branch.
- I don't - It's our biggest press hit of the year.
How do you make a report to Congress when Congress just called you a liar? I say we strap a polygraph onto the TelePrompTer.
Humor to lighten the load.
I recommended he take the censure.
If any of you had been on the inside, you'd have recommended it too.
How does he deliver the State of the Union? He's the president of the United States.
When he walks in, they're gonna stand.
Anyone here not believe this president can take it from there? I still got my lunch money.
Toby, Sam, you gotta dig in.
Anything else? All right.
- Hey, Sam? - Yes? - Well-argued.
- Yeah.
- What do you want? - What kind of attitude is that? Vanity Fair's pitching a story on you.
- What's the angle? - They wanna do a profile starting the night of the State of the Union.
Why don't they just cover the speech? This is their way of doing that.
The thing is, you know the writer.
- Who? - Lisa Sherborne.
Funny, because I used to be engaged to someone named Lisa Sherborne.
- Funny? - I'm not doing it.
I'd like you to.
What happened to rule number one on staff profiles being that we don't do staff profiles.
- When did we have that rule? - We should have it.
People should think the president writes the State of the Union.
- People know about speechwriters.
- Then there's no more story to tell.
In the past, you tell me, did it help or hurt that the campaign had an energetic energy? - Not sure you can say"energetic energy.
" - Did it help or hurt? Do we need help? Do young women read Vanity Fair? - Let them cover the president.
- They want you and I wanna give you to them.
It's gotta be Lisa Sherborne? Is the reason you didn't get married because her name would have been Lisa Sherborne-Seaborn? Yeah, that's the reason.
I could do this for a living.
- Do you have anything? - No.
- I don't believe you.
- I don't have anything.
If you didn't have anything you wouldn't be at the party.
- I like parties.
- What do you have? - I have the first 20 minutes.
- Okay.
- You don't want the first 20 minutes.
- Why? - Sam Hi.
- Hi.
- I just need a minute, okay? - I can wait.
- I need you to wait over there.
- Okay.
Why don't I want the first 20 minutes? - It's what we expected it would be.
- Tell me.
- It was the censure.
People saw it - Just tell me.
Democrats, low to mid 50s.
- Republicans, high 30s.
- Independents? - Low 40s.
- You're kidding me.
- Sam - Low 40s? - We knew the first 20 - You said 10 minutes, and not this bad.
Wait for the rest of the dials.
We did Internet commerce in the first 20 minutes.
We did child asthma.
He wasn't the president in the first 20 minutes.
Wait for the rest of the dial groups.
Top line, cross tabs, whatever you get, and I got a bad feeling about tonight.
- Were those polling numbers? - No.
What was that about? It was polling numbers, but it was nothing.
- How does it look? - It's too early to tell.
- Sam, congratulations.
- You too.
Ed, Larry, this is Lisa Sherborne from Vanity Fair.
- Which one's Ed, which one's Larry? - Doesn't matter.
- Joey went back to the office.
- Thank you.
You don't have to introduce me as Lisa Sherborne from Vanity Fair.
I like to let them know they're talking to a reporter.
You really are uncomfortable with me being here? You're not just being you? I don't know what that means.
How did cancer get cut from the State of the Union? - A lot of things got cut.
- Curing cancer? We cut a section about making government manuals easier to read.
- Curing cancer can take a number.
- Why are you pissed at me? - I'm not pissed at you.
I'm working.
- You're done working.
I'm not done.
You're confused because you see Absolut cosmopolitans and famous people.
A section on government manuals.
- Donna? - Yeah? Can you get me the most recent memo on the Welfare-to-Work initiatives? Yeah.
- I'm seeing Amy again tonight.
- Second date? First date, really.
Last night was more of a, you know - Scheme.
- Yeah.
Good.
The second date is usually where the wheels come off the wagon for you.
- That is so false.
- What are you doing? - A late drink.
- Where are you going? Wilson's.
- I like that place.
- I don't.
- Why? - Well, for one thing the piano player only knows one song.
Which song? "Surrey With the Fringe on Top.
" Whatever.
It's like I'm on a hayride.
What are you doing? Figuring out if you pay for the ticket to Phoenix.
- It was official.
- That doesn't make a difference.
What does the rule say? "An employee may not use contract airline passenger service provided under the contract with the General Services Administration.
See part 301-15, sub-part B of this chapter.
" - What's the problem? - Set aside that there's no sub-part B.
The rest of it uses a sentence structure I'm not familiar with.
- Just put it on my credit card.
- No, that's what this is designed to do.
- It's designed to break a person's spirit.
- And damn it, that's my job.
- We're getting beat by the system.
- We are the system.
- We suck.
- Yes.
I need the Welfare-to-Work memo.
How many words in the Gettysburg Address? Two hundred sixty-six.
- The Ten Commandments? - Hundred seventy-three.
So you wouldn't think you'd need 6000 to discover how to reimburse a ticket.
- No.
- No.
- What's going on? - Welfare-to-Work.
I was happy when you said this morning that you recommended the censure.
- Your face didn't register much.
- Thinking about the speech.
- Don't ask how it's going.
- I wouldn't.
You can't rush these things.
It's not like putting a hammer to a nail.
I need some pie.
You should go get some.
Come with me.
Okay.
- Don't ask me about the speech.
- I wouldn't do it.
- How'd it go last night? - With Amy Gardner? - Yeah.
- Very, very well.
- Here's the memo.
- Thank you.
- You know Amy's seeing somebody.
- I do know that.
- You know who? - No, and I don't wanna know.
- Yes, now that you mention it.
Who? - John Tandy.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Really? - Yes.
Interesting.
- Yeah.
- Interesting, and I'll tell you why.
Why? Because John Tandy is a .
- I'll tell you why, seriously.
- Why? Because they started seeing each other shortly after Nan Lieberman announced she was gonna make a challenge in the 20th District.
- Really? - Yeah.
I don't think he's courting Amy Gardner, I think he's courting women.
- I don't think you're right.
- Why? - Because that's ridiculous.
- Really? No, it's not ridiculous.
Of course you're right.
Hey, who's the president having dinner with tonight? - Friends of Abbey.
- Good.
When you're in his kind of mood dinner with your wife's friends is what you hope for.
- It's molecular pathology.
- STI.
- That's"signal transduction inhibitor.
" - I'm sorry? STI stands for "signal transduction inhibitor.
" - Abbey just went to take a phone call.
- We've tested it on 12 patients.
Is it the first drug to target sphingosine kinase? - It is, yeah.
- Where are you with the FDA? - FDA ruled they can use higher doses.
- This they did.
I'm telling you, we're 10 years, $25 billion and a good-luck charm away from curing cancer.
- More than $25 billion.
- Breakthroughs in molecular targeting Which is what the signal transduction inhibitor is all about.
What'd you just say? Bobby, what'd you just say? We're talking about a new drug which is a signal transduction inhibitor.
Sphingosine kinase was identified recently as the enzyme believed to control all signal pathways to cancer growth.
This new drug can act as a kind of guided missile.
- Smart bomb.
- That destroys cancerous cells without killing healthy ones.
The part I understood was Bobby saying we could cure cancer in 10 years.
Not cure it, but make it chronic.
In other words, make it so that people could live with it? - Yeah.
- What is standing between us and that? - I don't know.
- Who at this table knows? - Nobody knows.
- How much money would it cost? Nobody knows that either.
It's cancer.
Nobody knows anything.
He just said 10 years.
I wanna hear about this from the beginning.
Talk to me like I'm not an oncologist.
I'm not messing around.
This isn't a barbecue.
I'm the commander in chief.
Put your asses in the chairs.
I'm out of pie.
We'll get some more.
So how's it going on the? What are you doing? The economy.
I'm getting somewhere.
- I can look at it when you're ready.
- About another two hours.
Lisa's gonna do a piece? - It wasn't my idea.
- I wouldn't think so.
C.
J.
asked if the reason we didn't get married was because her name would be Sherborne-Seaborn.
That's funny.
Yeah.
So why didn't you get married? Why didn't you? She didn't like me very much.
- Good evening, Mr.
President.
- Evening.
Call everybody in.
I just had dinner with Abbey's friends.
They're all oncologists.
In the State of the Union, I can announce I'm directing our researchers to have a cure for cancer in 10 years.
Call everyone in.
This is about the censure.
- What did you just say? - I said it for your own good.
- Did you? - I did.
I like you.
I hate you.
- Let's look at the facts.
- Okay.
He was polling at 69% among Democrats.
And that's all Tandy's got in his district.
Congressman Tandy.
All right.
He had a 69% favorability rating with women.
You'd need 93% favorability among men to beat that and Gandhi doesn't get that in Florida.
- Somebody's been studying.
- Nan Lieberman announces that she might challenge him.
His favorability goes down to 52º%º.
Why? - Because you're an idiot? - Women started going over to Lieberman.
- Look - Women's groups started saying there aren't enough women in Congress.
Tandy needs women.
- NOW hasn't endorsed him yet.
- It's January.
Yes.
Still, when did he start going out with you? A week after Lieberman announced.
- How do you know that? - I know everything.
And you are the door to women.
WLC put $9 million in the hands of pro-choice candidates.
You narrowed the gap in the House from 14 to 9 in one election.
- You bring home the bacon.
- John's worried about losing women? He runs, and Emily's List practically makes a wire transfer.
He crushed his last opponent in Lauderhill.
I don't remember his name.
He was a moderate, pro-choice Republican.
There was a 29% gender differential.
You think he's with me because he's afraid of Nan Lieberman.
I do.
Well, I've never been so flattered.
I don't think I'm getting enough credit for this.
Don't talk to me.
- Look - Don't talk to me.
- We'll change the sub - You're talking to me.
- Perhaps - Don't talk to me.
- I should just sit here? - Yes.
- And? - Not talk to me.
Amy .
I have wit.
I have charm.
I have brains.
I have legs that go all the way down to the floor, my friend.
- You don't have to - Don't talk to me.
- Hello? - Josh? - Yeah.
- You gotta come back.
- Why? - The president thinks he can cure cancer.
- Well, that's some good news, I guess.
- Yeah, I'll see you in a few minutes.
Did he find a cure for cancer? Because if he found a cure for cancer I think that would be interesting.
That's something we should share.
- Yeah.
- But he didn't.
He wants to find a cure for cancer and say that in the State of the Union.
You know what my response would be? Me too.
- Is this the first time he had that thought? - Sign"union" again.
That was cool.
No, it must have been a different word.
- Is he serious about this? - Not my department.
- I get you to the meeting.
- Right.
- Joey? - Yeah.
How high are the stakes for the speech? They're high, but a magic trick isn't gonna help.
- How high? - High.
- How high? - Well, you don't win anything in January.
You only lose.
If he doesn't park the State of the Union, and I mean deep it'll be his last one.
All right, you're in the Oval Office.
- Hey, did I hear Toby right on the phone? - It could be worse, you know.
- How? - He could have cancer.
- Do you two go anywhere separately? - It's weird, isn't it? It's a little weird, yeah.
What's going on? What was that phone call? We're gonna meet and talk.
How'd it go? Not at all well.
You know whose fault that is? - John Tandy's.
- No.
- Hers.
- Yours.
Let's go.
- Leo, is he serious about this? - He's on his way down.
Totally your fault.
I'm just, you know I'm just the guy who does the thing.
- What? - They've run out of pie.
- Evening.
Thanks for being here so late.
- Good evening, Mr.
President.
A president stood up.
He said, "We will land a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
" You know what we knew when he said that? Nothing.
We didn't know anything.
We didn't know the lunar surface.
We didn't know how to land.
All we'd ever done is crash it into the ocean, and God knows if we could land, we didn't know how to blast off again.
But a president said, "We're gonna do it," and we did it.
So I ask you, why shouldn't I stand up and say,"We are going to cure cancer in 10 years"? I'm really asking.
How close are we to being able to do this? Nobody knows.
Toby? - It'll be seen as a political ploy.
- Why? It can be seen Excuse me.
- It can be seen as self-serving.
- How? Using cancer to deflect attention from MS.
You think people with cancer care what my motives are? Their families? - I'm saying - Joey.
I agree with everything that's been said.
Except I don't think they'll see it as deflecting the MS.
They'll see it as deflecting the censure.
- Once again, why would? - Everybody cares about motive.
- I didn't - Everybody cares about motives.
- Sam? - Yes, sir? - Why shouldn't I do it? - I think you should.
I think ambition is good.
I think overreaching is good.
Giving people a vision of government that's more than Social Security checks and debt reduction is good.
I think government should be optimistic.
I know it's late, but I wanna start seeing drafts of a section in the next few hours.
C.
J.
, I want a sense of a media overview too.
- Now.
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
- Yes, sir.
I just wanna look at some drafts.
- I don't have an hour to spend on this.
- I can do it.
You don't have an hour to spend on it either.
- Why are you opposed to this? - Stopping to write about curing cancer? - Yeah.
- Because it's never gonna be in.
- How do you know? - What resources do we have to devote? - I don't know.
- How much money is it gonna cost? - I don't know.
- That's how I know.
The man's about to get a censure.
He's trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
- What are you doing humoring him? - I'm not.
I don't want you spending more than an hour and a half.
- You're a pollster.
- Yes.
You don't think this would poll well.
Do I think people are in favor of curing cancer? Yes, I do.
So? The federal government shouldn't be directing scientific research.
- Why? - Because you stink at it.
If it was up to the NIH, to cure polio through a centrally-directed program instead of an independent investigator-driven discovery you'd have the best iron lung in the world, but not a polio vaccine.
When did you get an MD? - I was just quoting Samuel Broder.
- Who's he? The former director of the National Cancer Institute.
The speech is gonna work fine.
Don't overreact to the censure.
- There is no speech yet.
- There will be.
I have to work now.
The president's asked me to try this.
I'll be in my office.
Listen.
When the hell are we getting numbers? - You're a pleasure to work for.
- When are we getting numbers? When I say so.
So many women, so little charm.
What in God's name could you possibly want right now? Let me tell you something.
Making government manuals easier to read would have been a winner.
Come with me.
Excuse me.
He happens to be more feminist than the White House.
I have no idea what you said.
I said, he happens to be more feminist than the White House.
- Feminine? - Feminist.
He wrote the amendment making violence near abortion clinics a federal crime while you guys sought legal commentary.
Forgive us for talking to lawyers about the law.
He single-handedly beat back three parental-consent bills and ran his own whip operation because they weren't leadership priority.
The minority whip doesn't work for us.
He ties the Violence Against Women Act to the crime bill over White House objection.
I'm not quarreling with his credentials as a lover of women.
He excels in that area.
- Look who's talking.
- I'm just saying - That he's using me.
- I was saying that.
I was saying it two weeks ago.
Now I'm not saying anything.
- Amy.
- Hey.
- Congressman.
- Josh.
Great night for us.
We'll see.
We're doing some pictures with the president in the Mural Room.
- You don't want to do them yourself? - No, come on.
Go ahead.
Photo-op.
- Amy? - Yeah.
Congratulations.
Yeah, we'll see.
Yeah.
Come on in.
Good evening, Mr.
President.
- You got it? - Yeah.
This is good.
You know we can't do it.
Yeah.
We'd need to line up experts who can face the press in just two weeks.
- Yeah.
- Sloan-Kettering Dana-Farber, Cleveland Clinic, UCLA.
We'd want to include the Society of Clinical Oncology.
- And the NCI.
- The OMB would have to score it.
We haven't identified the offsets to pay for it.
We can barely tell them what the"it" is.
Clinical trials under Medicare and Medicaid science and technology Democrats, the pharmaceutical companies.
It was a good idea though.
We have other good ideas.
So we don't get water from a rock.
We just do our thing and take our chances.
We think so.
We're gonna have to do it awfully well this time.
We've done that before.
Anything else? Thank you, Mr.
President.
C.
J.
Would you excuse me? Well, something happened at the half-hour mark.
What? They remembered why they liked him in the first place.
The breakdowns are being handed around but the really good news are the panel backs.
Sixteen Democrats, 16 Republicans and 12 Independents were asked identical questions two days ago and one hour ago.
Two days ago, 48% said he was able to handle his job effectively.
Tonight that number's 59.
Trustworthy: 60%, up from 41.
Give us the real one.
Strong leader: 69º%º.
We're back! Yes! Yes! Congratulations.
Somebody get these guys some pie.
Is there an extra copy of the panel backs? I got one.
Thanks.
- C.
J.
? - Hang on.
- Dance with me.
- I'm just gonna toss this in my office.
- Congratulations, boss.
- Nice job.
Take the rest of the night off.
- It's 1 in the morning.
- Well, you earned it.
Sam, Sam, the sunshine man.
Get on the couch.
I'm gonna do you right now.
- Okay.
- Sorry, I was talking to Carol.
- What is wrong with you? - We really don't know.
Lisa mentioned that it wasn't going that well.
- You still got a couple weeks with her.
- I wish we hadn't started tonight.
- Why? It was a shining moment.
- It got the job done.
But it's ironic that a sort of a thing between us is I'm supposed to know the difference between flash and substance.
Sometimes a little flash is what's required.
You said that to me.
I say that when I don't have anything to say.
It wasn't a Vegas act, it was stirring.
Don't hang your head when you say it got the job done.
There aren't 10 guys in the country who could write that speech.
I'll bet the cancer community can't wait to buy me a beer.
- Hey - I'm just You know.
Anyway, congratulations.
If you're serious about that thing with Carol Get out.
Sorry, I was just getting some numbers.
- Can you tell me what they were? - They're internal numbers.
CNN/USA Today will have something in a little while.
Anyway, this is my office over here.
I'm gonna give my notes from tonight to someone else and let them finish the reporting over the next weeks.
- You're obviously not comfortable.
- They're internal numbers.
I can't Yeah, whatever.
I'm gonna give my notes to someone else.
Anyway.
This is my office.
It's nice.
C.
J.
asked if the reason we didn't get married was because your name would be Sherborne-Seaborn.
That's exactly why we didn't get married.
- Why didn't we get married? - Why do you think? Because I don't know what the cool restaurant is and I don't care.
When I get hungry I want to eat.
I don't know where the Tommy Hilfiger party is.
- And I wouldn't know what to do there.
- You're full of crap.
- I was never cool enough for you.
- You think too little of me.
And I didn't leave you, you left me.
And you did it to do this.
The reason you're pissy is because I'm looking at you and you're wondering if I'm gonna think you've been doing anything at all.
It's not clear to me whether or not I have.
- You have.
- How would you know? I don't know.
Here's something interesting.
In 1940, our armed forces weren't among the 12 most formidable in the world but, obviously, we were gonna fight a big war.
And Roosevelt said the U.
S.
would produce 50,000 planes in the next four years.
Everyone thought it was a joke.
And it was, because it turned out we produced 100,000 planes.
Gave the Air Force an armada that would block the sun.
Do you still have what you wrote that night? - About curing cancer? - Yeah.
Read it to me.
"Over the past half-century, we've split the atom we've spliced the gene and we've roamed Tranquility Base.
We've reached for the stars and never have we been closer to having them.
New science, new technology is making the difference between life and death, so we need a national commitment equal to this unparalleled moment of possibility.
So I announce to you tonight that I will bring the full resources of the federal government and the full reach of my office to this goal: We will cure cancer by the end of this decade.
" That was nice.
I'll pass the notes along.
- History forgets these things.
- Presidents don't.
They never get over it.
This one won't.
I don't think it's good to be casual about the truth.
Neither do I.
Why can't you say, "Would you like to go out?" No one in government takes responsibility for anything anymore.
I'm to blame.
I was wrong.
We stand at a critical point, a time of choosing.
If we take the hard course, the right course there is no limit to what we can achieve.
There is no limit to what we will achieve.
The dials go from zero to a hundred.
They dial up if they like what he's saying.
They dial down if they don't.
- The numbers lead to a central computer.
- Like the Nielsens.
- Yeah.
- They're behind a screen somewhere.
The people with the dials, they're behind a screen somewhere? They're in Macon County, they're in Portland in Los Feliz, California.
Norman, Oklahoma.
- Joey puts together a decent snapshot.
- Which one's Joey? Kenny, can we get Joey a second? And we will leave a safer, cleaner planet for future generations.
- When did you pick that up? - I just said"thanks.
" - Could he go easy with the pictures? - You said it'd be okay.
- When did I say that? - C.
J.
Cregg said it wouldn't be a problem.
But I have the utmost confidence Joey, this is Lisa Sherborne.
She's doing a piece for Vanity Fair.
- I don't have a lot of time right now.
- What do the different lines mean? Reds for Republicans, blues for Democrats, and greens for Independents.
- When we say something liberal, like -"Death is bad.
" Right.
Blues go up and reds go down.
When we talk about values, reds and greens go up.
You're usually lucky to break 65.
I gotta get back now.
I have abiding respect for the speaker of the house and the majority leader.
They are men of fundamental decency and public servants of purpose.
- How much of this did you write? - We don't talk about that.
Is there anything you're gonna talk about, or is this gonna be an extraction? men and women of both chambers who have labored to shed the weight of partisanship and don the cloak of progress.
- The lines don't seem to be doing much.
- Hang on.
It may be said that in the last half-century America won the Cold War and modeled freedom for a waiting world.
Breaking out the greatest hits, huh? Now, in a new century when we meet and master new forms of aggression and hatred, ignorance and evil our vigilance in the face of oppression and global terror will be unequaled by any moment in human history.
- Now you're cooking.
- And to the enemies of freedom the enemies of democracy, the enemies of America the enemies of humanity itself, we say here tonight with one voice there is no corner of this Earth so remote, no cave so dark that you will not be found and brought to light and ended.
- That's a number spike.
- Hey, crank that up.
He broke 65 on all the lines.
We nearly had one almost as big.
- What? - I said, we nearly had one almost as big.
- What was it? - We almost cured cancer.
Really? - This close.
- What happened? Just one of those things.
- Can I help you, ma'am? - A glass of chardonnay, please.
Hey, Amy.
- Are you talking to me? - Yes.
- What did I say? - You said not to talk to you.
- Yet you're doing it anyway.
- Yes.
- You're doing it again.
Still doing it.
- Amy - I'm walking away now.
- Okay.
Ice and vodka.
Sam Seaborn! Thank you.
Thank you.
I am at Ha-Ha's in Cleveland on the 16th, and tip your waitresses.
Sam.
- Congratulations.
- Hey, you too.
- So far so good, huh? - The dials were what we thought.
- Lisa.
- Josh.
Still trying to get waived into Generation X? - Still a pompous jackass? - Oh, you bet.
See you later.
Congratulations, Sam.
- Tell me about the cancer thing.
- It got cut.
Jack Daniels.
You were gonna cure cancer.
We were gonna say we'd cure cancer.
Curing it is someone else's department.
- How does that work? - How does what work? - Deciding what you're gonna say.
- You mean writing the State of the Union? Yeah.
- It's a long story.
- I'm writing a long story.
Do you ever do any kind of preparation before? - I prefer to - Hang out at Moomba? The process begins six weeks beforehand with budget meetings.
- Why budget meetings? - If we introduce an idea people wanna know how we pay for it.
Memos come from everywhere.
Every agency, department, senior advisor, outside notable.
-What's an outside notable? -Former presidents, Kissinger Bill Gates, Jesse Jackson.
Mr.
Rogers wants to write us a memo, we'll read it.
We'll pass some to the president, and he'll start making notes.
Then we have the "president's first thoughts" meeting.
-That's when we all wanna kill ourselves.
-Why? That's when the president tells us we're nowhere.
-Why? -Because we're nowhere.
So we try to figure out what people wanna hear.
That's when anyone who didn 't want to die before has been converted to the cult.
-Why is it so hard? -It's a white piece of paper.
-How high are the stakes? -How high can you count? -So, what do you do? -Whatever it takes to get started.
And we read new memos, and we try new themes and we hear new slogans and test new lines.
After a few weeks of that you still got a white paper.
So it's hard.
- It's hard.
- It's hard under the best circumstances.
- It got a little harder two weeks ago.
- What happened two weeks ago? - Congress censured the president.
- Yes.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
- What's going on? - Late last night, early this morning the president reached an agreement to accept a congressional censure.
How's he feeling? How's he feeling? Fine.
It's over.
- A joint resolution? - Yeah.
A concurrent resolution, actually.
It'll take a couple of days for the lawyers to get together on the language.
- We should leak it, soften up the ground.
- Yeah.
He's all right? He's about to be censured, deliver the State of the Union and then he's gonna run for reelection.
My guess is that there are some things on his mind.
It's over.
That's all.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
This is like the Civil War.
When's the last time Congress rebuked a president? - The Civil War.
- And now, how do you? Yeah.
Should we postpone the State of the Union? What are the rules on that? He's required to give Congress information on the Union.
If he buys Congress a Wall Street Journal, he's fulfilled his constitutional - Postponing's an admission of defeat.
- He's accepting a censure.
That's defeat.
You don't ask the bully to lunch the day after he stole your lunch money.
You don't go on a starvation diet either.
We can spin the censure as a bipartisan You can't spin a formal denunciation from the legislative branch.
- I don't - It's our biggest press hit of the year.
How do you make a report to Congress when Congress just called you a liar? I say we strap a polygraph onto the TelePrompTer.
Humor to lighten the load.
I recommended he take the censure.
If any of you had been on the inside, you'd have recommended it too.
How does he deliver the State of the Union? He's the president of the United States.
When he walks in, they're gonna stand.
Anyone here not believe this president can take it from there? I still got my lunch money.
Toby, Sam, you gotta dig in.
Anything else? All right.
- Hey, Sam? - Yes? - Well-argued.
- Yeah.
- What do you want? - What kind of attitude is that? Vanity Fair's pitching a story on you.
- What's the angle? - They wanna do a profile starting the night of the State of the Union.
Why don't they just cover the speech? This is their way of doing that.
The thing is, you know the writer.
- Who? - Lisa Sherborne.
Funny, because I used to be engaged to someone named Lisa Sherborne.
- Funny? - I'm not doing it.
I'd like you to.
What happened to rule number one on staff profiles being that we don't do staff profiles.
- When did we have that rule? - We should have it.
People should think the president writes the State of the Union.
- People know about speechwriters.
- Then there's no more story to tell.
In the past, you tell me, did it help or hurt that the campaign had an energetic energy? - Not sure you can say"energetic energy.
" - Did it help or hurt? Do we need help? Do young women read Vanity Fair? - Let them cover the president.
- They want you and I wanna give you to them.
It's gotta be Lisa Sherborne? Is the reason you didn't get married because her name would have been Lisa Sherborne-Seaborn? Yeah, that's the reason.
I could do this for a living.
- Do you have anything? - No.
- I don't believe you.
- I don't have anything.
If you didn't have anything you wouldn't be at the party.
- I like parties.
- What do you have? - I have the first 20 minutes.
- Okay.
- You don't want the first 20 minutes.
- Why? - Sam Hi.
- Hi.
- I just need a minute, okay? - I can wait.
- I need you to wait over there.
- Okay.
Why don't I want the first 20 minutes? - It's what we expected it would be.
- Tell me.
- It was the censure.
People saw it - Just tell me.
Democrats, low to mid 50s.
- Republicans, high 30s.
- Independents? - Low 40s.
- You're kidding me.
- Sam - Low 40s? - We knew the first 20 - You said 10 minutes, and not this bad.
Wait for the rest of the dials.
We did Internet commerce in the first 20 minutes.
We did child asthma.
He wasn't the president in the first 20 minutes.
Wait for the rest of the dial groups.
Top line, cross tabs, whatever you get, and I got a bad feeling about tonight.
- Were those polling numbers? - No.
What was that about? It was polling numbers, but it was nothing.
- How does it look? - It's too early to tell.
- Sam, congratulations.
- You too.
Ed, Larry, this is Lisa Sherborne from Vanity Fair.
- Which one's Ed, which one's Larry? - Doesn't matter.
- Joey went back to the office.
- Thank you.
You don't have to introduce me as Lisa Sherborne from Vanity Fair.
I like to let them know they're talking to a reporter.
You really are uncomfortable with me being here? You're not just being you? I don't know what that means.
How did cancer get cut from the State of the Union? - A lot of things got cut.
- Curing cancer? We cut a section about making government manuals easier to read.
- Curing cancer can take a number.
- Why are you pissed at me? - I'm not pissed at you.
I'm working.
- You're done working.
I'm not done.
You're confused because you see Absolut cosmopolitans and famous people.
A section on government manuals.
- Donna? - Yeah? Can you get me the most recent memo on the Welfare-to-Work initiatives? Yeah.
- I'm seeing Amy again tonight.
- Second date? First date, really.
Last night was more of a, you know - Scheme.
- Yeah.
Good.
The second date is usually where the wheels come off the wagon for you.
- That is so false.
- What are you doing? - A late drink.
- Where are you going? Wilson's.
- I like that place.
- I don't.
- Why? - Well, for one thing the piano player only knows one song.
Which song? "Surrey With the Fringe on Top.
" Whatever.
It's like I'm on a hayride.
What are you doing? Figuring out if you pay for the ticket to Phoenix.
- It was official.
- That doesn't make a difference.
What does the rule say? "An employee may not use contract airline passenger service provided under the contract with the General Services Administration.
See part 301-15, sub-part B of this chapter.
" - What's the problem? - Set aside that there's no sub-part B.
The rest of it uses a sentence structure I'm not familiar with.
- Just put it on my credit card.
- No, that's what this is designed to do.
- It's designed to break a person's spirit.
- And damn it, that's my job.
- We're getting beat by the system.
- We are the system.
- We suck.
- Yes.
I need the Welfare-to-Work memo.
How many words in the Gettysburg Address? Two hundred sixty-six.
- The Ten Commandments? - Hundred seventy-three.
So you wouldn't think you'd need 6000 to discover how to reimburse a ticket.
- No.
- No.
- What's going on? - Welfare-to-Work.
I was happy when you said this morning that you recommended the censure.
- Your face didn't register much.
- Thinking about the speech.
- Don't ask how it's going.
- I wouldn't.
You can't rush these things.
It's not like putting a hammer to a nail.
I need some pie.
You should go get some.
Come with me.
Okay.
- Don't ask me about the speech.
- I wouldn't do it.
- How'd it go last night? - With Amy Gardner? - Yeah.
- Very, very well.
- Here's the memo.
- Thank you.
- You know Amy's seeing somebody.
- I do know that.
- You know who? - No, and I don't wanna know.
- Yes, now that you mention it.
Who? - John Tandy.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Really? - Yes.
Interesting.
- Yeah.
- Interesting, and I'll tell you why.
Why? Because John Tandy is a .
- I'll tell you why, seriously.
- Why? Because they started seeing each other shortly after Nan Lieberman announced she was gonna make a challenge in the 20th District.
- Really? - Yeah.
I don't think he's courting Amy Gardner, I think he's courting women.
- I don't think you're right.
- Why? - Because that's ridiculous.
- Really? No, it's not ridiculous.
Of course you're right.
Hey, who's the president having dinner with tonight? - Friends of Abbey.
- Good.
When you're in his kind of mood dinner with your wife's friends is what you hope for.
- It's molecular pathology.
- STI.
- That's"signal transduction inhibitor.
" - I'm sorry? STI stands for "signal transduction inhibitor.
" - Abbey just went to take a phone call.
- We've tested it on 12 patients.
Is it the first drug to target sphingosine kinase? - It is, yeah.
- Where are you with the FDA? - FDA ruled they can use higher doses.
- This they did.
I'm telling you, we're 10 years, $25 billion and a good-luck charm away from curing cancer.
- More than $25 billion.
- Breakthroughs in molecular targeting Which is what the signal transduction inhibitor is all about.
What'd you just say? Bobby, what'd you just say? We're talking about a new drug which is a signal transduction inhibitor.
Sphingosine kinase was identified recently as the enzyme believed to control all signal pathways to cancer growth.
This new drug can act as a kind of guided missile.
- Smart bomb.
- That destroys cancerous cells without killing healthy ones.
The part I understood was Bobby saying we could cure cancer in 10 years.
Not cure it, but make it chronic.
In other words, make it so that people could live with it? - Yeah.
- What is standing between us and that? - I don't know.
- Who at this table knows? - Nobody knows.
- How much money would it cost? Nobody knows that either.
It's cancer.
Nobody knows anything.
He just said 10 years.
I wanna hear about this from the beginning.
Talk to me like I'm not an oncologist.
I'm not messing around.
This isn't a barbecue.
I'm the commander in chief.
Put your asses in the chairs.
I'm out of pie.
We'll get some more.
So how's it going on the? What are you doing? The economy.
I'm getting somewhere.
- I can look at it when you're ready.
- About another two hours.
Lisa's gonna do a piece? - It wasn't my idea.
- I wouldn't think so.
C.
J.
asked if the reason we didn't get married was because her name would be Sherborne-Seaborn.
That's funny.
Yeah.
So why didn't you get married? Why didn't you? She didn't like me very much.
- Good evening, Mr.
President.
- Evening.
Call everybody in.
I just had dinner with Abbey's friends.
They're all oncologists.
In the State of the Union, I can announce I'm directing our researchers to have a cure for cancer in 10 years.
Call everyone in.
This is about the censure.
- What did you just say? - I said it for your own good.
- Did you? - I did.
I like you.
I hate you.
- Let's look at the facts.
- Okay.
He was polling at 69% among Democrats.
And that's all Tandy's got in his district.
Congressman Tandy.
All right.
He had a 69% favorability rating with women.
You'd need 93% favorability among men to beat that and Gandhi doesn't get that in Florida.
- Somebody's been studying.
- Nan Lieberman announces that she might challenge him.
His favorability goes down to 52º%º.
Why? - Because you're an idiot? - Women started going over to Lieberman.
- Look - Women's groups started saying there aren't enough women in Congress.
Tandy needs women.
- NOW hasn't endorsed him yet.
- It's January.
Yes.
Still, when did he start going out with you? A week after Lieberman announced.
- How do you know that? - I know everything.
And you are the door to women.
WLC put $9 million in the hands of pro-choice candidates.
You narrowed the gap in the House from 14 to 9 in one election.
- You bring home the bacon.
- John's worried about losing women? He runs, and Emily's List practically makes a wire transfer.
He crushed his last opponent in Lauderhill.
I don't remember his name.
He was a moderate, pro-choice Republican.
There was a 29% gender differential.
You think he's with me because he's afraid of Nan Lieberman.
I do.
Well, I've never been so flattered.
I don't think I'm getting enough credit for this.
Don't talk to me.
- Look - Don't talk to me.
- We'll change the sub - You're talking to me.
- Perhaps - Don't talk to me.
- I should just sit here? - Yes.
- And? - Not talk to me.
Amy .
I have wit.
I have charm.
I have brains.
I have legs that go all the way down to the floor, my friend.
- You don't have to - Don't talk to me.
- Hello? - Josh? - Yeah.
- You gotta come back.
- Why? - The president thinks he can cure cancer.
- Well, that's some good news, I guess.
- Yeah, I'll see you in a few minutes.
Did he find a cure for cancer? Because if he found a cure for cancer I think that would be interesting.
That's something we should share.
- Yeah.
- But he didn't.
He wants to find a cure for cancer and say that in the State of the Union.
You know what my response would be? Me too.
- Is this the first time he had that thought? - Sign"union" again.
That was cool.
No, it must have been a different word.
- Is he serious about this? - Not my department.
- I get you to the meeting.
- Right.
- Joey? - Yeah.
How high are the stakes for the speech? They're high, but a magic trick isn't gonna help.
- How high? - High.
- How high? - Well, you don't win anything in January.
You only lose.
If he doesn't park the State of the Union, and I mean deep it'll be his last one.
All right, you're in the Oval Office.
- Hey, did I hear Toby right on the phone? - It could be worse, you know.
- How? - He could have cancer.
- Do you two go anywhere separately? - It's weird, isn't it? It's a little weird, yeah.
What's going on? What was that phone call? We're gonna meet and talk.
How'd it go? Not at all well.
You know whose fault that is? - John Tandy's.
- No.
- Hers.
- Yours.
Let's go.
- Leo, is he serious about this? - He's on his way down.
Totally your fault.
I'm just, you know I'm just the guy who does the thing.
- What? - They've run out of pie.
- Evening.
Thanks for being here so late.
- Good evening, Mr.
President.
A president stood up.
He said, "We will land a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
" You know what we knew when he said that? Nothing.
We didn't know anything.
We didn't know the lunar surface.
We didn't know how to land.
All we'd ever done is crash it into the ocean, and God knows if we could land, we didn't know how to blast off again.
But a president said, "We're gonna do it," and we did it.
So I ask you, why shouldn't I stand up and say,"We are going to cure cancer in 10 years"? I'm really asking.
How close are we to being able to do this? Nobody knows.
Toby? - It'll be seen as a political ploy.
- Why? It can be seen Excuse me.
- It can be seen as self-serving.
- How? Using cancer to deflect attention from MS.
You think people with cancer care what my motives are? Their families? - I'm saying - Joey.
I agree with everything that's been said.
Except I don't think they'll see it as deflecting the MS.
They'll see it as deflecting the censure.
- Once again, why would? - Everybody cares about motive.
- I didn't - Everybody cares about motives.
- Sam? - Yes, sir? - Why shouldn't I do it? - I think you should.
I think ambition is good.
I think overreaching is good.
Giving people a vision of government that's more than Social Security checks and debt reduction is good.
I think government should be optimistic.
I know it's late, but I wanna start seeing drafts of a section in the next few hours.
C.
J.
, I want a sense of a media overview too.
- Now.
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
- Yes, sir.
I just wanna look at some drafts.
- I don't have an hour to spend on this.
- I can do it.
You don't have an hour to spend on it either.
- Why are you opposed to this? - Stopping to write about curing cancer? - Yeah.
- Because it's never gonna be in.
- How do you know? - What resources do we have to devote? - I don't know.
- How much money is it gonna cost? - I don't know.
- That's how I know.
The man's about to get a censure.
He's trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
- What are you doing humoring him? - I'm not.
I don't want you spending more than an hour and a half.
- You're a pollster.
- Yes.
You don't think this would poll well.
Do I think people are in favor of curing cancer? Yes, I do.
So? The federal government shouldn't be directing scientific research.
- Why? - Because you stink at it.
If it was up to the NIH, to cure polio through a centrally-directed program instead of an independent investigator-driven discovery you'd have the best iron lung in the world, but not a polio vaccine.
When did you get an MD? - I was just quoting Samuel Broder.
- Who's he? The former director of the National Cancer Institute.
The speech is gonna work fine.
Don't overreact to the censure.
- There is no speech yet.
- There will be.
I have to work now.
The president's asked me to try this.
I'll be in my office.
Listen.
When the hell are we getting numbers? - You're a pleasure to work for.
- When are we getting numbers? When I say so.
So many women, so little charm.
What in God's name could you possibly want right now? Let me tell you something.
Making government manuals easier to read would have been a winner.
Come with me.
Excuse me.
He happens to be more feminist than the White House.
I have no idea what you said.
I said, he happens to be more feminist than the White House.
- Feminine? - Feminist.
He wrote the amendment making violence near abortion clinics a federal crime while you guys sought legal commentary.
Forgive us for talking to lawyers about the law.
He single-handedly beat back three parental-consent bills and ran his own whip operation because they weren't leadership priority.
The minority whip doesn't work for us.
He ties the Violence Against Women Act to the crime bill over White House objection.
I'm not quarreling with his credentials as a lover of women.
He excels in that area.
- Look who's talking.
- I'm just saying - That he's using me.
- I was saying that.
I was saying it two weeks ago.
Now I'm not saying anything.
- Amy.
- Hey.
- Congressman.
- Josh.
Great night for us.
We'll see.
We're doing some pictures with the president in the Mural Room.
- You don't want to do them yourself? - No, come on.
Go ahead.
Photo-op.
- Amy? - Yeah.
Congratulations.
Yeah, we'll see.
Yeah.
Come on in.
Good evening, Mr.
President.
- You got it? - Yeah.
This is good.
You know we can't do it.
Yeah.
We'd need to line up experts who can face the press in just two weeks.
- Yeah.
- Sloan-Kettering Dana-Farber, Cleveland Clinic, UCLA.
We'd want to include the Society of Clinical Oncology.
- And the NCI.
- The OMB would have to score it.
We haven't identified the offsets to pay for it.
We can barely tell them what the"it" is.
Clinical trials under Medicare and Medicaid science and technology Democrats, the pharmaceutical companies.
It was a good idea though.
We have other good ideas.
So we don't get water from a rock.
We just do our thing and take our chances.
We think so.
We're gonna have to do it awfully well this time.
We've done that before.
Anything else? Thank you, Mr.
President.
C.
J.
Would you excuse me? Well, something happened at the half-hour mark.
What? They remembered why they liked him in the first place.
The breakdowns are being handed around but the really good news are the panel backs.
Sixteen Democrats, 16 Republicans and 12 Independents were asked identical questions two days ago and one hour ago.
Two days ago, 48% said he was able to handle his job effectively.
Tonight that number's 59.
Trustworthy: 60%, up from 41.
Give us the real one.
Strong leader: 69º%º.
We're back! Yes! Yes! Congratulations.
Somebody get these guys some pie.
Is there an extra copy of the panel backs? I got one.
Thanks.
- C.
J.
? - Hang on.
- Dance with me.
- I'm just gonna toss this in my office.
- Congratulations, boss.
- Nice job.
Take the rest of the night off.
- It's 1 in the morning.
- Well, you earned it.
Sam, Sam, the sunshine man.
Get on the couch.
I'm gonna do you right now.
- Okay.
- Sorry, I was talking to Carol.
- What is wrong with you? - We really don't know.
Lisa mentioned that it wasn't going that well.
- You still got a couple weeks with her.
- I wish we hadn't started tonight.
- Why? It was a shining moment.
- It got the job done.
But it's ironic that a sort of a thing between us is I'm supposed to know the difference between flash and substance.
Sometimes a little flash is what's required.
You said that to me.
I say that when I don't have anything to say.
It wasn't a Vegas act, it was stirring.
Don't hang your head when you say it got the job done.
There aren't 10 guys in the country who could write that speech.
I'll bet the cancer community can't wait to buy me a beer.
- Hey - I'm just You know.
Anyway, congratulations.
If you're serious about that thing with Carol Get out.
Sorry, I was just getting some numbers.
- Can you tell me what they were? - They're internal numbers.
CNN/USA Today will have something in a little while.
Anyway, this is my office over here.
I'm gonna give my notes from tonight to someone else and let them finish the reporting over the next weeks.
- You're obviously not comfortable.
- They're internal numbers.
I can't Yeah, whatever.
I'm gonna give my notes to someone else.
Anyway.
This is my office.
It's nice.
C.
J.
asked if the reason we didn't get married was because your name would be Sherborne-Seaborn.
That's exactly why we didn't get married.
- Why didn't we get married? - Why do you think? Because I don't know what the cool restaurant is and I don't care.
When I get hungry I want to eat.
I don't know where the Tommy Hilfiger party is.
- And I wouldn't know what to do there.
- You're full of crap.
- I was never cool enough for you.
- You think too little of me.
And I didn't leave you, you left me.
And you did it to do this.
The reason you're pissy is because I'm looking at you and you're wondering if I'm gonna think you've been doing anything at all.
It's not clear to me whether or not I have.
- You have.
- How would you know? I don't know.
Here's something interesting.
In 1940, our armed forces weren't among the 12 most formidable in the world but, obviously, we were gonna fight a big war.
And Roosevelt said the U.
S.
would produce 50,000 planes in the next four years.
Everyone thought it was a joke.
And it was, because it turned out we produced 100,000 planes.
Gave the Air Force an armada that would block the sun.
Do you still have what you wrote that night? - About curing cancer? - Yeah.
Read it to me.
"Over the past half-century, we've split the atom we've spliced the gene and we've roamed Tranquility Base.
We've reached for the stars and never have we been closer to having them.
New science, new technology is making the difference between life and death, so we need a national commitment equal to this unparalleled moment of possibility.
So I announce to you tonight that I will bring the full resources of the federal government and the full reach of my office to this goal: We will cure cancer by the end of this decade.
" That was nice.
I'll pass the notes along.