Hi all,
I just watched the last episodes of season 4 again, and I wonder why it is so frequently claimed that Walt Cummings was President Logan's Chief of Staff in Season 4? I see no evidence for that.
On the opposite, some details do not fit into that image:
1.) In episode 17, just before Logan is sworn into office, as Logan walks out the room to the ceremony before the press corps, Cummings respectfully stands back and does not follow the (designated) president directly, but instead walks out of the room after Mike Novick. If Cummings were (designated) Chief of Staff at this point he would be the second most powerful man in the US and at such an important public ceremony he would probably walk directly after the president.
2.) In episode 18 there is a conference beginning at 12:46:14. At the end of this conference Logan sends everybody out of the room by saying "Thank you, Gentlemen, that'll be all". Everybody except Novick stands up and also Walt Cummings intends to leave the room. If Cummings would be Logan's Chief of Staff it would certainly be clear to him that Logan wants him to stay.
3.) Cummings hardly plays any role in the plot around detecting the nuclear warhead, whereas Novick is continuously around either Logan or Palmer or both of them. In fact, in the four episodes between 02:00 and 06:00 Walt Cummings doesn't even appear.
4.) In episode 24, in the dialogue between Palmer and Logan which ends at 06:42 both refer to Cummings as Logan's security chief. IMO this very clearly indicates that Cummings is NOT Chief of Staff.
I am also not claiming that Novick is Logan's Chief of Staff on Season 4, most of all because of the cautious way he approaches Charles Logan in episode 17 after telling him that Airforce One was hit: "Charles, we have known each other for 15 years, if I can offer some advice?". - Which imo shows that Novick cannot have been very near to Logan recently. But on the other hand for the reasons listed above I'm quite sure that Cummings isn't Chief of Staff either.
My impression is that either the writers left it open who is CoS, or since Logan is overrun by that night's events he has not yet formally determined a CoS, since his presidency is only a couple of hours old and he's completely insecure of what to do anyway.
I'd like to hear your guys' opinion about this...? Who is CoS in Season 4?
And who in Season 5? (I remember I had some doubts about Cummings being CoS in Season 5, too, as I watched it the last time, but I can't say anything specific about it now. Going to watch this carefully next time...) B. harder 02:33, 10 December 2008 (UTC)