The Politician (TV Series)

October Surprise (2019)

Ben Platt: Payton Hobart

Photos 

Quotes 

• Payton Hobart : [after walking in on him and Alice]  What's more important, the train, the conductor, or the tracks?

  James Sullivan : Uh, I don't know, the train?

  Payton Hobart : Well, the train is what you see. It's beautiful, and powerful. The conductor drives the train, makes sure it gets where it needs to go. But the train and the conductor are just helpless steel and flesh without tracks to ride on.

  Payton Hobart : Now I'm the train, you and McAfee are the conductors, but there is a plan, James. The plan is the tracks, right? The plan is going to get us to the White House, and that plan includes winning this election. It includes me getting into Harvard, and it includes my high school sweetheart being my first lady, and what you've been doing is endangering our plans. How are we supposed to work together for the next 30 years if I have to worry you're screwing my wife?

  James Sullivan : I'm in love with your girl friend.

  Payton Hobart : I understand, okay. I understand what it means to be a planet in my solar system, okay. I'm the candidate, right? I'm the one out front with the pulpit and the money and the girl, and you're not that guy. You're the one with the ideas, behind me. Because that is where you belong, by your own admission. You can't be me, so don't try. Because we need you to keep being you.