Santos war room. They're strategizing over how to pick up Hoynes delegates on the second ballot while holding on to their own. Josh assigns someone the job of making sure there's a floor whip with each delegation. Which is perhaps something he might have thought about, I don't know, before the convention started? Just a thought. Josh asks Bram for an update on something or other. I really don't care what it was -- it's just an excuse to look at pretty, pretty Bram. Oh, all right -- he's asking about efforts to turn the Georgia delegation away from Hoynes and towards Santos. Apparently, Hoynes is still telling his delegates that if they will stick with him while the convention deadlocks, the party will eventually turn to him as the most seasoned candidate. Josh wants "a pipe of whatever it is [Hoynes] is smoking." Ronna points out that they're getting requests for comment on the shuttle leak, and Josh tells them to say nothing. And then Ned asks the big question: "If Russell announces [Bundy] as his V.P., how do we prevent a stampede to Russell on the second ballot?" Has Josh gotten any smarter since the last episode? Not much -- his answer is that they will respond by getting Hoynes to throw his support to Santos. He thinks that Hoynes will hate the idea of Russell's winning more than he'll hate the idea of Santos's getting the nomination. Bram sums up the strategy as "Santos, you hate him less." Josh tells them that "it ain't over 'til it's over." But he leaves the fat lady out of it.

Josh and Ronna walk up a fire stairway. There's some guy walking down the stairs, trying to talk into his cell phone. He seems confused by his inability to get a signal in the stairwell. I have to think that was an inspired piece of business by an extra. And I can't really tell if the look Josh gives him is Josh thinking he's an idiot for trying to use his phone in the fire stairs, or Bradley Whitford wondering what the hell the extra is doing. Josh tells Ronna that they are looking for any stray Atkins delegates they can pick up on the second ballot. Atkins presumably being a candidate who dropped out early and not an interest group made up of high-protein dieters. Of course, this would have been the perfect opportunity to mention Rafferty, who must have picked up a few delegates in her brief run. But John Wells hates us, so it doesn't happen. Josh thinks the big struggle will be getting Atkins delegates to speak, because they might "be too busy stuffing canapés in their pockets." As they walk out of the stairwell into the sunny lobby of the hall, Ronna starts to ask "Can I quote you while we're trying to get them to vote for us?"