"He Shall, from Time to Time…" is the twelfth episode of The West Wing.
Plot
During the preparations for President Bartlet's second State of the Union address, crises abound as the President is found unconscious, the situation in India and Pakistan intensifies, and Leo faces scrutiny from the press about his previous drug and alcohol problems. The First Lady tells Leo that the President has relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and Leo has a hard time reconciling the way his best friend never told him this news, but by the time of the address the two men are each in a better place, with the President having recovered from a severe case of the flu and Leo feeling good about their direction. Lord John Marbury continues to serve as a special advisor during the Kashmir crisis, and tells Leo that the US can broker a solution: if they provide the funding and knowledge for India to have a cutting-edge computing industry, they will pull back all their forces and lock in the UN-brokered ceasefire, and with Leo adding some harsh anti-India terms that the President will pursue if they don't do that, the crisis passes. Toby is upset because a line about reducing the size of government is present in the otherwise glowingly positive fact-based State of the Union speech, and wins over both the President and Josh with a line in the speech saying the government should be a place "where no one gets left behind." When Secretary of Agriculture Roger Tribbey is picked as the Cabinet member who won't attend the speech, often referred to as the designated survivor, he meets President Bartlet in the Oval Office. As he explains to Tribbey what to do in the event he becomes President, President Bartlet asks him if he has a best friend, if the best friend is smarter than he is, and if he would trust his best friend with his life. Tribbey says "yes" to all three questions. The President responds, "that's your Chief of Staff." Leo hears this and joins the President on their way to Capitol Hill as the episode ends.
Title
The title of the episode is taken from the beginning of Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution, which continues, "He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
