LBJ: The Early Years is told under no uncertain terms that a committee spot on the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate would be his if he stayed for a crucial labor vote. This meeting proved important as time moves forward to 1959, when Kennedy is one of the candidates for nomination in the Presidential campaign for the Democratic Party. A visit by JFK's brother Robert Kennedy to Texas is arranged as father Joseph Kennedy, who along with his sons, wish to know if LBJ is running for President or not. Johnson refers to Robert Kennedy as a "Harvard man" in a derisive tone
The American President Minnesota senator Howard Stackhouse (George Coe) in the two "West Wing" episodes "The Stackhouse Filibuster" and "The Red Mass". In the same way, the French President attending a state dinner in "The American President" seems to be the same President d'Astier that is often referred to in the "West Wing". Several actors from "The American President" reappear in "The West Wing", including Martin Sheen (whose character in "The American President", A.J., is at one point accused by Shepherd of lacking the courage to run for office himself) as President Josiah Bartlet, Anna Deavere Smith as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy