"I'm Toby Cregg-Ziegler. I've been invited here today to talk about what it was like to work in the White House under President Bartlet. I had the honor of being Jed Bartlet's Communications Director. I was in charge of crafting our message and getting it out to the public. To put it very simply, I was a speech writer.
"I was the only original member of the Bartlet campaign when Leo McGarry hired C.J., Josh and Sam. I thought for sure that I would be fired but instead Leo fired everyone else. We spent months working to get Governor Bartlet the nomination and then the election but in the end we won."
Toby allowed himself a rare smile.
"Admittedly our time in the White House cost lots of us many things but we also gained so much. In my opinion we had very bad luck during our first eighteen months and I didn't want to tempt fate when Congress was voting about Justice Mendosa so I refused to let anyone open any champaign until we had fifty-one yay votes.
"At the end of our second year a group called West Virginia White Pride shot at our group because they hated the fact the President's daughter was dating a black man. Charlie was the target; instead President Bartlet was shot in the abdomen and Josh was shot in the chest. After that it took us two or three months to get back into our old rhythm of running the country but we did it.
"Later that year the Galileo V space probe landed on Mars and we lost contact with it. Also President Bartlet revealed that he had MS and our administration faced a Congressional hearing. After we were reelected in a landslide victory we began to tackle the things we hadn't got round to the first time.
"During are time in the White House we completed many of the things we wanted to and left some unfinished. Those 8 years, working 63 feet from the Oval Office were some of the most memorable of my life. You cannot understand what it is like to work in the West Wing, the feeling you get every morning walking into work. Walking into one of the most famous buildings in the world; and for the senior counselors being in the Oval Office once or multiple times a day. I was a Senior Domestic Policy advisor for President Bartlet.
"Jed Bartlet is a good man, a great man. He's the real thing and it was a privilege to work from him. I was running the Bartlet For America campaign in 1997 with Leo Mcgarry. It was the first campaign I won. I graduated from CCNY with a bachelors in Law and a masters in Political Science. Nearly 20 years after I graduated I was a senior member of the Bartlet For America campaign and then White House Communications Director. I worked 63 feet from the Leader of the Free World.
"Yes, Jed Bartlet lied and I was angry but he's Jed Bartlet, former Congressman, Govenor and President, he's father of three, grandfather of four, honarry grandfather of seven and a Nobel Prize winning economist who is one of the best men I have ever met who's really just a regular guy. If Jed Bartlet can be president, I can be White House Communcations Director and my ex Deputy Communications Director can now be a US Congressman, what's to say you can't do any or all of those things.
"I hope you've found this interesting and if you've got any questions I'll answer them." Toby finished and waited for any questions to come.