100,000 Airplanes

"100,000 Airplanes" is the 55th episode of The West Wing. While the White House staff works intensely on President Bartlet's crucial State of the Union speech, Bartlet and the First Lady have dinner with a group of her scientist friends. The scientists (fictitiously) describe sphingosine kinase as "the enzyme believed to control all pathways to cancer growth," and speculate that it could lead to a cure for cancer. As a result, Bartlet suddenly demands that a passage ambitiously promising a crusade to cure cancer within 10 years be included. Sam is the point person for this speech, which is billed as the most important one of the President's career and one whose failure will end his hopes for re-election. As Sam is very reluctantly...