17 People

Issues
(Josh) If you were in a car accident I wouldn't stop for a beer.
(Donna) If you were in a car accident I wouldn't stop for red lights.
While this is a heartfelt gesture of friendship, it may lead to a large number of further car accidents. 10 for effort, 3 for planning.

Call Backs
(Donna) Knock knock. Who’s there? It’s Sam and his prostitute friend.
This is a call back to the first season where Sam sleeps with and then forms a relationship with Laurie, a “high class call girl.”

Trivia
C.J. (Allison Janney) is not in this episode at all.

The 17 people who know about President Bartlet’s Multiple Sclerosis are:
1. The First Lady, Abigail Bartlet
2. – 4. The President’s Daughters; Elizabeth, Eleanor and Zoey
5. The President’s brother, John
6. Dr. Herman Vickram
7. The Vice President, John Hoynes
8. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Fitzwallace
9. The Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry
10. The anesthesiologist during the operation when the President was shot, Dr. David Lee
11. – 15. Other doctors
16. The Communications Director, Toby Zeigler
17. The President

A Bit of History
(Toby) Maybe, I thought, it was an Eisenhower-Nixon ...
This is referring to the problem the republican’s had to deal with at the end of Eisenhower’s first term in office. He had a heart attack and recovered again in time to run again in ’56. The common fear was that his health problems would give independent voters a reason to vote Democrat because of their dislike of the possibility that the then Vice-President Nixon would take over in the event of Eisenhower’s death. It was suggested that Eisenhower drop Nixon from the ticket and pick someone safer but he refused to.