I like "The West Wing." I liked it better when Aaron Sorkin was writing it, but it's one of the more intelligent shows on TV. But something nags at me. It's not the hopelessly liberal politics or the associated moral-superiority schtick, or even the mangling of what Republicans are all about.
It's 9/11, or rather the lack of it.
While the show did do a special post-9/11 show, it was carefully put outside the plotline of the regular sequence. This is understandable -- having President Bartlett grapple with 9/11 would have made each episode hostage to current events, dating the show in a matter of weeks. Comparisons between Bartlett and Bush would be inevitable, and Bartlett would either start acting a lot like Bush or be seen as a terminal wimp. So they had to ignore it. Even Tom Clancy hasn't been able to face 9/11 head-on.
But that's not it either. What I think it is, is that not only does Bartlett appeal to Democrat political preferences, the 9/10 world that persists on West Wing is increasingly the world that the Democrat Party sees as the real one. Life imitates art, and the Democrats worldview increasingly mimics the fictional world of a TV show. For much the same reason.