The West Wing broke new ground for television, as TV networks avoided politics like the plague beforehand. Producers figured that whatever they did, they were going to lose a chunk of the audience over accusations of partisanship. But with today's highly-fragmented audience, thanks to hundreds of cable channels, a series does not have to appeal to everyone to be successful. Quite a few fictional political shows followed The West Wing in portraying fictional politicians. Right now they are all scrambling to compete with real political news for entertainment value. You might want to check out the profiles of the politicians that can't affect your lives, but will appear every week on your TV anyway, at TVOM.