‘Shockingly Dumb’: Aaron Sorkin Pens Wildly Idealistic Op-Ed Calling for Dems to Replace Biden With Mitt Romney — Promptly Gets Roasted

Joe DePaoloJul 21st, 2024, 10:07 am
 

(Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

Aaron Sorkin came up with some far-fetched, idealistic fantasies of how government should operate on The West Wing — the NBC drama he created back in the late 1990s. But the famed screenwriter just might have topped himself with a brand new whopper that’s utterly impossible to fathom.

In a Sunday op-ed for The New York Times — which is almost hard to believe isn’t parody — Sorkin called for Democrats to replace President Joe Biden on the 2024 ballot with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). Yes, Mitt Romney.

Sorkin’s argument is based on electability — as well as the premise that Democrats basically need to show how serious they are about not wanting former President Donald Trump back in office.

“Nominating Mr. Romney would be putting our money where our mouth is: a clear and powerful demonstration that this election isn’t about what our elections are usually about it, but about stopping a deranged man from taking power,” Sorkin wrote. He added, “Does Mr. Romney support abortion rights? No. Does he want to aggressively raise the minimum wage, bolster public education, strengthen unions, expand transgender rights and enact progressive tax reform? Probably not. But is he a cartoon thug who did nothing but watch TV while the mob he assembled beat and used Tasers on police officers? No. The choice is between Donald Trump and not-Trump, and the not-Trump candidate needs only one qualification: to win enough votes from a cross section of Americans to close off the former president’s Electoral College path back to power.”

And who does Sorkin believe can sell this idea to the Democratic party, and the country at large? Former President Barack Obama — who ran against Romney in 2012.

“Part of the wish fulfillment of ‘The West Wing’ was that oratory can be persuasive,” Sorkin wrote. “So Barack Obama could come forth at the Democratic convention next month in Chicago and remind us, once again, that we’re not red states and blue states but the United States by full-throatedly endorsing his old rival.”

Sorkin seemed to acknowledge his flight of fancy in the column’s closing paragraphs, but kept genuinely pushing it nonetheless.

“The writing staff would tell me I was about to jump the shark, that this is a ‘West Wing’ fantasy that would never, ever happen,” Sorkin wrote. “But as [West Wing actor] Bradley Whitford used to say, ‘Isn’t the biggest fantasy on television a mafia boss in therapy?’ The Democrats need to break the glass and this is a break-glass plan, but it’s more than that. It’s a grand gesture. A sacrifice. It would put a lump in our throats.”

Suffice it to say, Sorkin’s proposal did not go over well — particularly with the online left. Here’s a small sampling of the reaction on social media from political observers of all stripes:

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Joe DePaolo - Senior Editor

Joe DePaolo is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: joed@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @joe_depaolo