It turns out that Matthew Santos, the 'next' president in The West Wing, was in fact modelled on Barack Obama - way back in 2004. As the article states, "the result is a bizarre case of art imitating life - only for life to imitate art back again."
In the TV show, Santos begins as the rank outsider up against a national figure famous for standing at the side of a popular Democratic president. There are doubts about Santos's inexperience, having served just a few years in Congress, and about his ability to persuade voters to back an ethnic minority candidate - even as his own ethnic group harbour suspicions that he might not identify with them sufficiently.
But the soaring power of his rhetoric, his declaration that the old divisions belong in the past and his sheer magnetism, ensure that he comes from behind in a fiercely close primary campaign and draws level with his once all-commanding opponent. Every aspect of that storyline has come true for Barack Obama. Axelrod, now chief strategist for the Obama campaign, recently joked in an email to Attie: "We're living your scripts!"
The Telegraph also found a list of 'delicious parallels' between The West Wing and the US Presidential Election.
Could this be how it ends? :-)
Matthew Santos' stirring convention speech (from 'The West Wing'):
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