Pacific Northwest Ball

The Pacific Northwest Ball ranks among the inaugural celebrations President Bartlet schedules after the oath, staffers bickering over its sequence in his whirlwind tour amid Capitol backstage frenzy. Attendees pack a vast hall with regional banners, brass bands blaring, and champagne flutes clinking under crystal chandeliers, but the team knows it only through tense logistics talk—Josh pushing it early, Toby quibbling, Bartlet snapping at the distraction from graver crises. Laughter echoes faintly in their minds against the day's churning anxiety.