We cut to the Exposition Press Room, where C.J. is doing her thing without referring to herself as The Jackal. The press wants to know whether the President is going to ask Taiwan to hold off testing the Patriot missiles. C.J. replies in the negative, adding that it is important to remember that the Patriots are defensive weapons, and that she's not in a position to say whether use of the Patriots, or anything else, is the tit that caused China's war game tat. (Damn, there goes our Net Nanny audience.) Reporter Curly Sue All Grown Up asks for confirmation that if "the Chinese attack Taiwan, [the U.S. is] obligated to defend them under the '79 Act, correct?" C.J. replies that the U.S. is only responsible for supplying Taiwan with a means to defend itself. The Act -- not referred to by name -- is the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). The main policy initiative of the TRA was to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons (or as C.J. says, ahem, "equipment") to deter China from thinking about reclaiming control of Taiwan. Just prior to the TRA, the Carter administration switched its recognition of China from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China (good old-fashioned China). The TRA provided the legal means to continue military, economic, and diplomatic relations with Taiwan while recognizing the People's Republic of China as the One, True China. Of course this "One China" policy is a buncha poppycock, since it's pretty obvious we gots ourselves two Chinas here, treated quite differently. That's politics for ya.

Back to the Exposition Press Room. Reporter Generic Face asks whether the President will be watching the situation throughout the night. C.J., smelling a segue opportunity, says, "The President will be monitoring the situation in the China Seas as well as Hartsfield's Landing. Any of the new people not know about Hartsfield's Landing?" How the hippity-hell do you work your way up to White House correspondent and not know about this quirky little piece of American democracy in action? In the non-WW world, Hartsfield's Landing is known as Hartsfield's Location, and is joined by Dixville Notch in the midnight voting. Of course, in the Exposition Press Room, there's always room for (Claudia) Jean Explaining Life's Lessons Obligingly. And if there's room in the Room, there's got to be room here at TWoP: "Hartsfield's Landing is a town in New Hampshire, population 63. While the rest of New Hampshire goes to the polls at 8 AM tomorrow, all of the forty-two registered voters of Hartsfield vote at one minute past midnight or a little over two hours from now. Hartsfield has accurately predicted the winner of every presidential election since William Howard Taft..." (1909). C.J. then starts talking about Taft's contribution to baseball. Baseball talk always makes me zone out, so I hope nothing too important happened.