The episode, which satirizes American political culture, was written by Adam Countee, directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, and features the second appearance of beloved tertiary character Magnitude.
Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen), Vicki (Danielle Kaplowitz), Leonard (Richard Erdman), Annie, Jeff, Starburns (Dino Stamatopoulos), Magnitude (Luke Youngblood), and Pierce (Chevy Chase) are nominated, but Britta (Gillian Jacobs) fails miserably to get crowd support for her outright anti-government platform.
Abed and Troy (Donald Glover) also host a political commentary program on Greendale Campus TV (GCTV) to cover the election.
Annie screens an embarrassing video of Jeff auditioning for MTV's The Real World, causing him to quit when the crowd bursts into laughter.
This leads to Vohlers receiving word that Greendale is at "elevated threat level", forcing Biden to cancel his visit.
Vohlers returns to Greendale under the pretense of investigating the "threat", and spends the night watching a movie with Abed in an unusual date.
[2] The final round of the student president debate consisted of two similar candidates, repeating the same phrases and arguing over the same issues over and over again until the audience wonders if it really matters who wins.
[1] His talk about how "beer should be cold, boots should be dusty, 9/11 was bad and I think freedom is a little better" was a reference to President George W. Bush's speeches.
In its original American broadcast on February 24, 2011, the episode was viewed by an estimated 3.79 million people with a Nielsen rating of 1.8 in the 18–49 demographic.
[4] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix said there were "some funny moments here and there, and a wonderful Abed subplot, but not one of the season's strongest overall" and the main plot "seemed a bit flat.
Club called it "a very funny episode that didn't quite stick the landing in the third act," blaming it on the weak Jeff-Annie arc.