As one of the President’s staff recovers from bullet wounds, the rest of the team pushes on to the “mid-term” congressional elections in November — but as C.J. deflects press requests on how the assassination attempt has affected the mood in the White House, she knows that nearly everyone bears psychological scars in its aftermath. In particular, Charlie is affected when he learns more about the shooting and reacts coldly both to Bartlet and Zoey. For his part, Toby surveys the President’s newfound popularity in the polls and proposes that the administration pursue a course that would turn up the heat on extremist groups while Sam convinces a friend to run for Congress after the death of a current congressman. Elsewhere, Bartlet is obsessed with an obscure school board election in New Hampshire for purely personal reasons.

From TV Guide: Things are looking up in the aftermath of the shooting: Josh is recovering nicely and the Administration is polling at 81 percent. But “those numbers are soft,” Sam cautions, and no one disagrees. Moreover, they probably won’t hold up for the midterm elections in 12 weeks. Still, Toby wants to use this “honeymoon” as leverage for a domestic-terrorism initiative. In fact, he’s obsessed with it. The President also seems obsessed — with thwarting an old foe who is running for a school-board seat in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Sam enlists an old law-school classmate to run for an open House seat.