As it's summer and movies are a national pastime . . . who is your pick for the Best American President on film, either TV or Movie?

Here are some nominees, in alphabetical order, feel free to add your write in candidates:

James Cromwell, as Robert Fowler in "Sum of All Fears"
Michael Douglas as Andrew Sheppard in "American President"
Henry Fonda in "Fail Safe"
Harrison Ford as James Marshall in "Air Force One"
Morgan Freeman as Tom Beck in "Deep Impact"
Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer in "24"
Bill Pullham as Thomas J. Whitmore in "Independence Day"
Peter Sellers as Merkin Muffley in "Dr. Strangelove, etc."
Martin Sheen as Josiah Bartlett in "West Wing"

My vote, although not pres of the U.S., but rather President of the Federated Territories in 5th Element, is Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.
as President Lindberg.

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Muffley:

Sam, is everybody here?

Stains:

Mr. President, the Secretary of State is in Vietnam, the Secretary of Defense is in Laos, and the Vice President is in Mexico City. We can establish contact with them at any time if it's necessary. The undersecretaries are all here, of course.

Muffley:

Right. Now, General Turgidson, what's going on here?

Turgidson:

Mr. President, about thirty-five minutes ago, General Jack Ripper, the commanding General of Burpleson Air Force Base, issued an order to the 34 B-52's of his wing which were airborne at the time as part of a special exercise we were holding called Operation Dropkick. Now, it appears that the order called for the planes to attack their targets inside Russia. The planes are fully armed with nuclear weapons with an average load of 40 megatons each. Now the central display of Russia will indicate the position of the planes. The triangles are their primary targets, the squares are their secondary targets. The aircraft will begin penetrating Russian radar cover within 25 minutes.

Muffley:

General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.

Turgidson:

That's right sir. You are the only person authorized to do so. And although I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority.

Muffley:

It certainly does. Far beyond the point I would have imagined possible.

Turgidson:

Well perhaps you're forgetting the provisions of plan R, sir.

Muffley:

Plan R?

Turgidson:

Plan R is an emergency war plan in which a lower echelon commander may order nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack if the normal chain of command is disrupted. You approved it, sir. You must remember. Surely you must recall, sir, when Senator Buford made that big hassle about our deterrent lacking credibility. The idea was for plan R to be a sort of retaliatory safeguard.

Muffley:

A safeguard.

Turgidson:

I admit the human element seems to have failed us here. But the idea was to discourage the Russkies from any hope that they could knock out Washington, and yourself, sir, as part of a general sneak attack, and escape retaliation because of lack of proper command and control.

Muffley:

Well I assume then, that the planes will return automatically once they reach their failsafe points.

Turgidson:

Well, sir, I'm afraid not. You see the planes were holding at their failsafe points when the go code was issued. Now, once they fly beyond failsafe they do not require a second order to proceed. They will fly until they reach their targets.

Muffley:

Then why haven't you radioed the planes countermanding the go code?

Turgidson:

Well, I'm afraid we're unable to communicate with any of the aircraft.

Muffley:

Why?

Turgidson:

As you may recall, sir, one of the provisions of plan R provides that once the go code is received the normal SSB radios in the aircraft are switched into a special coded device, which I believe is designated as CRM114. Now, in order to prevent the enemy from issuing fake or confusing orders, CRM114 is designed not to receive at all, unless the message is preceded by the correct three letter code group prefix.

Muffley:

Then do you mean to tell me, General Turgidson, that you will be unable to recall the aircraft?

Turgidson:

That's about the size of it. However, we are plowing through every possible three letter combination of the code. But since there are seventeen thousand permutations it's going to take us about two and a half days to transmit them all.

Muffley:

How soon did you say the planes would penetrate Russian radar cover?

Turgidson:

About eighteen minutes from now, sir.

MuMuffley:

Are you in contact with General Ripper?

Turgidson:

Ah.. No sir, no, General Ripper sealed off the base and cut off all communications.

Muffley:

Where did you get all this information?

Turgidson:

General Ripper called Strategic Air Command headquarters shortly after he issued the go code. I have a partial transcript of that conversation if you'd like me to read it.

Muffley:

Read it.

Turgidson:

The duty officer asked General Ripper to confirm the fact the he had issued the go code and he said, "Yes gentlemen, they are on their way in and no one can bring them back. For the sake of our country and our way of life, I suggest you get the rest of SAC in after them, otherwise we will be totally destroyed by red retaliation. My boys will give you the best kind of start, fourteen hundred megatons worth, and you sure as hell won't stop them now. So let's get going. There's no other choice. 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." Then he hung up. 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:

Well, I'd like to hold off judgment on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in.

Muffley:

anger rising 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 don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip up sir.

can we get Pullman removed from the list? ID4 was a monstrosity. box-3.

I rather liked Kevin Kline in "Dave" but whoever played the presidents in Forrest Gump was very convincing...

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Lol Kirk! I LOVE that movie. My vote goes to Peter Sellers.

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http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...oD/bioclip.jpg

Jack Lemmon and James Garner in my fellow americans

Look at the parallel to WMD's in that dialogue! Is Bush and his WMD "mistake" rationale the essence of Turgidson's "one little slip up" (leading to the end of the world) or what? We are all symbolically Prez Merkin, while Bush plays Turgidson to us. Strangelove rules the world we live in. Kubrick caught the essence of our world then, and it still applies today, the true definition of a classic.

Gene Hackman (he's always good) as Monroe "Eagle" Cole in "Welcome to Mooseport"


and as Alan Richmond in "Absolute Power"

Cromwell is the most presidential looking and the name has a little history to it.



Long live Gen Turgidson!

David Palmer!!!

(ok, from a TV show, but it sorta counts)

Kirk, you need to get out more.:p You are a bit obsessed. Go golfing, or something, to relax your brain. This is a thread about movie presidents, and you've already put a sermon in here.

__________________
past MB rides:
'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
'67 230
'84 SD
Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
2011 Polaris Assault
'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)

Some of us appreciate artistic symbolism. The ludicrous world portrayed by Strangelove, is the world we now live in. We now massacre people, and then say, hey - whats one little slip up? and vote the guy another term. Nothing portrays our own current insanity better than the dialogue I posted. But all politics aside, I was merely trying to point out that Strangelove is a true classic work, no matter what time we are in, we can find parallels in the insane world we live in, in the situations and dialogue presented in the movie. Like Greek sculpture or the works of Shakepeare, it is eternal art.


Karl Rove, relaxing at home

rickg, remember . . . he has to want to get help before he can be helped.