Did West Wing Predict the Future?

I learned of this intresting video post from Ezra Klein on his blog. The final season of the West Wing had an intresting parallel. Did they anticipate that Obama would seek the election so soon? Or, did they have Bill Richardson in mind? It is quite simple in fact. The fictional character was conceived by Obama himself. Perhaps, everything else seemed obvious and the rest is history. There is McCain and a Clinton in the Election process and it goes down to the wire on the show. Did writer's truly entertain this idea . . . we shall never know. We do know how the season ends. Time will only tell if the West Wing writers were correct.