Following the script: Obama, McCain and 'West Wing'

When Eli Attie, a writer for "The West Wing," prepared to plot some episodes about a young Democratic congressman's unlikely presidential bid, he
picked up the phone and called David Axelrod.

Attie, a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, and Axelrod, a political consultant, had crossed campaign trails before. "I just called him and said, 'Tell me about Barack Obama,'" Attie said.

Days after Obama, then an Illinois state senator, delivered an address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the two men held several long conversations about his refusal to be defined by his race and his aspirations to bridge the partisan divide. Axelrod was then working on Obama's campaign for the US Senate; he is now Obama's chief strategist.

Four years later, the writers of "The West Wing" are watching in amazement as the election plays out. The parallels between the final two seasons of the series (it ended its run on NBC in May 2006) and the current political season are unmistakable. Fiction has, once again, foreshadowed reality.

Watching "The West Wing" in retrospect, viewers can see allusions to Obama in Matthew Santos, the Hispanic Democratic candidate. Santos is a telegenic fortysomething with two young children, He enters the race and eventually beats established candidates in a long primary campaign.

Comparisons between Senator John McCain and the "West Wing" Republican candidate, Arnold Vinick, a white-haired Senate stalwart with an antitax message and a reputation for delivering "straight talk" to the press, also abound.