Of all the many things that got me through the eight years of George W. Bush (rage, vitriol, a massive sense that things had gone completely wrong in the country, a belief that Cheney would figure out how to install himself as dictator, the horror of a pre-emotive war that was protested by more people than the Viet Nam conflict, and writing about all these things daily) was Martin Sheen, Aaron Sorin and The West Wing.