In YouTube form! Because, that's how we demand things of our leaders these days. Basically people are making mash-ups of the West Wing opening, but with Barack and his cabinet members being featured as cast members rather than Leo, CJ, and the gang. It's such a cute little dream of a wish!

Except, sigh, it won't be that way. Because nothing will ever be like The West Wing. Never was, never will be. Bush started a White House grease fire while trying to make a bowl of cereal one night, and it's not gonna be easy to put out. The West Wing was a product of boom-time America. There was no Iraq War on the show. There was never a Katrina. Or a Prop 8. But in Obama's world — that is our world — all those things happened. And more. Much, much more.

The West Wing was such a wonderful bit of screen magic. It premiered in post-Lewinsky 1999 as a shadow government alternative to the Clinton administration. Here's how it was supposed to have gone down, creator Aaron Sorkin and his colleagues seemed to say. Sure, President Bartlett lied about having MS and had his wife pull some chicanery during the cover up and stuff. But that was like the biggest scandal of them all. (Oh, and he smoked — just like Barry!) Mostly it was just young, adorably rumpled people like Josh walking-and-talking around the office, piling word upon left-of-center word. They talked us into a belief that the dirty business of executive politics really isn't that dirty after all. Or at least it doesn't have to be.

And then Bush came along and then September 11th happened. And the whole fantasy was shattered. NBC aired a stand-alone episode in which the characters had a deep and thoughtful discussion about the nature of terrorism, and then they moved on. Back to President Bartlett and his sage wisdom, his gruff belief in the purity of some misty-eyed American ideal. Meanwhile in the real world, Bush and his Decepticons waged war with civility and diplomacy, basically ruining America forever. Eventually people stopped caring about The West Wing—the real world drama was just too horrifying and urgent to ever comfortably reenter that Washington idyll's atmosphere. Plus the show kinda started to suck.

A Sorkin-less crew of writers revitalized the show, creatively at least, in their final season with an eerily-similar-to-Obama story about Jimmy Smits running for president against old, rattly Alan Alda. The critics loved it. No one watched it. The show aired its final episode on May 14th, 2006.

And then Hope and Change happened and now everyone wants to press and hold that rewind button for even longer. Forget the terror of the last eight years, forget the way Clinton fucked up his legacy. Let's go alllll the way back to 1992. This is how it should have been. This is how it will be. With the young people! And the smarts! And the talking!

Still, we like the YouTube mash-up. Apparently someone sent a similar one to CJ herself, Allison Janney!

Our vantage point in the clip defies easy interpretation like that provided by the Early Show anchors here; we actually sense a more fraught conversation upon the president's approach:

Bush: "Ms. Streisand."
Streisand: "Mr. President."
Bush: "It's like, I'm supposed do this thing, like, where—"
Streisand: "I know, I know. Just... whatever. Quickly."
Bush:"I bet that's not the first time you told a guy that."
Streisand: *scowls*
Bush: *kiss*
Streisand: "That's enough."
Bush: "Come on, at least—"
Streisand: *touches Bush's shoulder* "That's enough."
Bush: "Cool, sorry. Hey, tell Joshie I'm pulling for him. Oscars and everything."
Streisand: "OK."
Bush: "Except—"
Streisand: *smiles, clears throat*

At which point Bush shuffled to the next honoree, George Jones, though the video ends just before the point when we imagine the country legend offered his profuse gratitude and leaned in to inquire how hot Sarah Palin really is in person. Congrats to all the winners.

• Streisand and Bush Awkward Kiss [YouTube]

Or, officially, W. — The Official Film Guide, an obsessive, somewhat addictive gathering of footnotes for amateur scholars ("14. Cheney - Unitary Executive Theory") and culture mavens ("80. W. loved Cats) alike, crammed with supporting details and citations behind some of W.'s more out-there moments. Like "W. on Non-Alcoholic Beer":

“I’ve won," said George W. Bush, one week before Election Day. A couple of reporters on the plane appeared unconvinced. But Bush was supremely confident, leaning against the bulkhead with a Buckler near-beer in his hand… [James Moore, Wayne Slater. Bush's Brain]

Or, our favorite, "W. as Paul Bunyan":

On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch [in Crawford], President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground. [...] Sometimes this activity is the only official news to come out of what aides call the Western White House. For five straight days since Monday, when Bush retreated to the ranch for his Christmas sojourn, a spokesman has announced that the president, in between intelligence briefings, calls to advisers and bicycling, has spent much of his day clearing brush. [Lisa Rein, The Washington Post

]

And all this time we thought the president spent those long, languid days kicking back with a book. Who knew?

• Debating 'W.': Getting Bush Right [Slate]

• 'W.' — The Official Film Guide [Lionsgate via MCN]

DRESSED IN a suffocating Rangers warmup jacket earlier on that scorching June day, Brolin kept running into an outfield wall, trying to make a heroic catch as part of the film's baseball-oriented fantasy framing device.

Oh boy. While this is neither the first nor certainly the last time that Stone has sprinkled a bit of his patented blend of cinematic crazy into one of his scripts, this framing device sounds like it might have been concocted during an acid flashback that ended with Stone huddled in a corner of a room watching video of Willie Mays' miracle catch on ESPN Classic. Bonus points to Stone for showing a dirty and bloody Bush (pictured above), but if the film ends with Josh Brolin making a leaping catch in centerfield (scored, of course, with John Fogerty's "Centerfield") interspersed with documentary footage of the statue of Saddam Hussein falling down in Baghdad, we'll be the ones leading the charge to petition a judge to toss Stone in Movie Jail and to throw away the key.

• Oliver Stone and 'W.,' a story of President Bush [LAT]