Sunday Discussion Group

May 15, 2005

There’s usually not too much going on around here on weekends, but for those who are checking in, I thought I’d start a little Sunday Discussion Group. I’ll come up with a topic that might be half-way interesting; you guys talk about what you think.

The inaugural topic: Best Fictional President.

Which president from the world of literature, television, or movies would you like to see in the White House? (Note: resist the temptation to mention Bush, who, despite our best efforts, is an actual president. He only seems fictional.)

I’ll weigh in shortly with a few picks of my own.

Dave Kovic.

  • Hmmm. I thought I could html here, but the href code failed. Anyway, I’m referring to the main character in the 1993 movie “Dave”. The idea wouldn’t work for me these days though, because even if you replaced George Bush with an intelligent and caring look-alike, sound-alike I’d still find him disgusting.

  • President Merkin Muffley:

    General “Buck” Turgidson: God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural… fluids. God bless you all” and he hung up.

    Uh, we’re, still trying to figure out the meaning of that last phrase, sir.

    Muffley: There’s nothing to figure out, General Turgidson. This man is obviously a psychotic.

    Turgidson: We-he-ell, uh, I’d like to hold off judgment on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in.

    Muffley: General Turgidson! When you instituted the human reliability tests, you *assured* me there was *no* possibility of such a thing *ever* occurring!

    Turgidson: Well, I, uh, don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.

  • Maybe this is part of our problem……a media-addicted society that doesn’t have any fake Presidents we would like to see in the WH. Not too many role models there!

  • Aren’t the real Presidents fictional too? After all, a mist of PR, myth and libel surround them all. Contemplating fictions within fictions, I give you:

    Teddy Roosevelt as played by crazy Uncle Brewster in the film “Arsenic and Old Lace.” (Cary Grant version)

    Charge!

  • The guy from Clear and Present Danger. He is Bush. The whole thing with the NSA advisor is spookily accurate.

  • Oops. Scratch Clear and Present Danger and replace with The Sum of All Fears. The book, not the movie which I didn’t see.

  • My picks would be either Andrew Shepherd played by Michael Douglas in The American President because he showed he could learn from mistakes (unlike Bush), or Martin Sheen’s President Bartlet on The West Wing. Bartlet compromises when he has to in order to get things really accomplished, and he’s smart enough to figure out what those things really are.

    Now, who would win in a fight between Krypto and Streaky?

  • West Wing’s Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. There are times, I swear, when I could believe that I have been transmuted Alice-like to the wrong side of the tv screen. I’m the one living in this horrible travesty of the America I knew, so cruel, so greedy, so stupid, and the real USA is behind the television screen and only surfaces for an hour every week.

  • Second the motion for President Bartlett. A man who knows how to get things done but still lets (liberal) principle move him. And educated too — what’s not to like?

  • Seems like everybody’s already mentioned most of my favorites (Dave Kovic, Andrew Shepherd, Merkin Muffley, Josiah Bartlet), but for humor purposes only, you’ve got to love Alan Alda in Canadian Bacon and Jack Nicholson as President James Dale in Mars Attacks.

    “I want the people to know that they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad.”

  • Nobody has mentioned the 2 Presidents from the other great cold war movies (besides Dr Strangelove), Failsafe and Seven Days in May.

    Fonda and March were outstanding.

    Fonda was more presidential but March was closer to reality.

  • holy crap, hasn’t anyone seen or read anything released before the 90s? I’ll take the president in FAIL-SAFE, played by Henry Fonda in the movie version.

  • I’d vote for the president from Independence Day. Imagine, a president who actually fought his own battles and didn’t ask people to do something he wouldn’t do himself.

  • RoseCitySally

    I thought he deserved an Honorable Mention too. You gotta love a President that climbs into a fighter jet to battle invading aliens.

  • You gotta love a President who climbs into a fighter jet to battle invading aliens.

    Uh, as opposed to a pResident who climbs into a fighter jet for a photo opportunity.

  • President Lindsay, hands down. Unfortunately my novel hasn’t been published yet, but judging from the responses of early readers he’s the guy. Hopefully you’ll all get to meet him in the not too distant future.

  • I can’t think of any that have impressed me that haven’t already been mentioned. Maybe President Robert McCallister from “Jack & Bobby”. Also, my wife asked me to list President Mackenzie (Michael Keaton) In “First Daughter”.

  • My favourite fictional presidents are both from books. I’d take either, Quinn Patrick O’Connell from A God In Ruins by Leon Uris or Kerry Kilcannon from the series of books by Richard North Patterson. The first is a governor from the Mountain West, preaching a return to social justice as espoused by the Bible and an end to the 2nd ammendment. While the second is a pro-choice, gun control Catholic whose childhood tragedy is transformed into an empathy for the vulnerable and a ruthless drive to succeed against those who he sees as their enemies. So there it is…Kilcannon-O’Connell 2008.

  • I’ve had the day to think about this, and I’ve reached a concludion. No question … we need to rally around the “common, ordinary, simple savior of America’s destiny”, Pat Paulsen.

    Pat played the president in that awesome movie “Blood Suckers from Outer Space” (1984).

    Plus, he’s already had campaign experience: see http://www.paulsen.com/I've

  • Hagbard Celine from the “Illuminatus” trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.

  • Hmm, no one’s mentioned Harrison Ford from Air Force One yet. No chicken-hawk there!

  • Walter Huston as President Hammond in ‘Gabriel Over the White House’. He’s like FDR on steriods!

  • The Atlantic Monthly had a great article a while back where four historians did just this – rate the movie presidents. Fascinating: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200211/presidents

    Although how anyone could rate Morgan Freeman as anything but an abject failure – 98% of the world’s population is gonna die and he’s just radiating defeat. On TV, yet! Would it have killed him to stand up straight and wear a tie?

    Anyway, most of the fictional presidents have been pretty silly, so they don’t really enter into it. Jordan Lyman is the movie winner for me. But nobody comes close to Bartlett – he’s had too many opportunities to shine. And – – Martin Sheen! Duh.

  • I’ve always said I’d vote for Optimus Prime for president, assuming the Constitution allowed it. How about Atticus Finch, then? A southerner should be a shoo-in.

  • Man, what about Jackson Evans played by Jeff Bridges in the Contender? Makes an absolutely stirring speech at the end. . .

  • Lancelot R. Gilligrass, from Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, if only because of his name.

    If you’re being serious, I’d add my vote to those for Lyman Jordan from Seven Days in May, either the book or the movie version.

    • Comments are closed.