Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, graduated from Notre Dame, presumably with a degree in Economics, though he chose to attend Notre Dame because he wanted to be a priest. This plan was foiled when he met Abigail, his future wife, with whom he apparently has an active sex life, even after 32 years of marriage. After college he went to the London School of Economics, got his PhD, became an economics professor and won the Nobel Prize for Economics. He served three terms as a representative to the House from the great state of New Hampshire (which makes maple syrup) and then served as Governor. He has never lost an election, though apparently that wasn't too difficult because the Bartlet family basically founded the state.
The Bartlet's have a house in Manchester, and 3 daughters (Elizabeth-'Liz', Eleanor-'Ellie', and Zoey) as well as one known granddaughter (Annie). His mother is still alive, and he has a brother named Jonathan (John) who used to lock him in steam trunks. Leo, his friend of over forty years, persuaded him to run for president because he was the real thing. He was a complete asshole on the campaign because he didn't think he was ready to run, and was consequently scared out of his mind. Elected with 48% of the vote, he lost Texas in the primary and the national election.
He has three assistants: Charlie Young, his "body man", Nancy, Mrs. Landingham's assistant, and Mrs. Landingham, who was recently MURDERED at the hands of Mr. Aaron Sorkin this past year in the episode "18th and Potomac". Bartlet had known Mrs. Landingham since his days in high school, and she served as an older sister figure for him. He's Roman Catholic, speaks fluent Latin and when he's angry at God, he choses to swear at him in Latin. He's a bit of a showoff, and a tad bit of a nerd. His secret service code name was initially Eagle, was changed to Liberty, and then went back to Eagle. (Sounds like someone took a lesson in continutity from a certain Mr. Chris Carter.)
He has never served in the armed forces, which causes some turmoil with ranking generals. He often acts like an economics professor with a big stick up his butt, quotes the Bible like he wrote it, and possesses an incredible mind for random trivia. He thinks of CJ as a daughter and calls Josh his son and gave the Bartlet family Thanksgiving carving knife, made by an old family called "Revere" to Charlie. He is a bibliophile, has a childlike sense of wonder about things like Mars, has read the bible from cover to cover (probably multiple times), doesn't play golf, tends to cheat blatantly, often plays chess to relieve stress, drinks, and smokes. He was thinking about getting a dog, is extremely grumpy in the morning, and doesn't enjoy eating healthily. He claims to not know what a salad is. He has visited all 54 of the National Parks, has a hard time remembering people's names, doesn't understand cricket, and is a die-hard Catholic. He has had a discussion with a ghost, and should pay better attention to the weather reports, because when bad things are about to happen, there tends to be lot's of rain.
Oh yeah, and he has had this little disease called MS (specifically relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis) for seven years and sort of forgot to tell everyone about.