At the beginning of the episode the President says to Leo "George Bernard Shaw said 'you don't live longer, it just seems longer.'" They then debate if it was really Shaw who said it. The correct quote is by Sir Clement Raphael Freud who said "if you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer."
Gottfried (Ted McGinley) omits Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) from his list of people he thanks for appearing on the live State of the Union aftershow broadcast seen in the previous episode, despite her appearing on at least two segments.
Martin Sheen starred in the film The War at Home (1996), which was directed by his son Emilio Estevez.
Sam and Ainsley have a running joke about her embarrassment over her first encounter with President Bartlet in the preceding episode. When she refers to "the humiliation that I've brought upon myself and my father," he observes she's got her "own little Euripides play" going. At another point, he refers to "your family and the House of Atreus." One of the great tragedians of ancient Greek drama, Euripides (c. 480 - 406 BC) wrote a number of plays based on the mythology of the House of Atreus.
At the end of act I, as the president (Martin Sheen) plays chess outside, he makes 2 consecutive moves with the black. This appears just before he tells Leo (John Spencer) that Abbey (Stockard Channing) is mad at him.