Josiah Bartlett Was Real

This certainly isn't "news", but it was recently brought to my attention that among the signers of the Declaration Of Independence was a member of the New Hampshire delegation named Josiah Bartlett.  In fact, Bartlett was the first person to sign after John Hancock.

My love for all things Aaron Sorkin is vast and well documented, and I really believe The West Wing may be the best television show of the last decade.  Even in its leaner, Sorkin-less years it was still better than the majority of shows on the air at the time.  It goes without saying that I have high hopes for his Jeff Daniels-starring HBO pilot about a Keith Olbermann-type news show.

The Obama administration has been (rightly) compared to the fictional Bartlett administration on more than one occasion, particularly as it has been largely populated with folks like Leon Panetta and Rahm Emmanuel, who served as the inspirations for West Wing characters like Leo McGarry and Josh Lyman, respectively.  Seeing as I spent the entire Bush administration dreaming of living under the benevolent leadership of Josiah Bartlett, suffice it to say I relish the comparison and it warms my heart to know that my favorite fictional president had a not-so-fictional fore bearer.