Now She's Really Not My President

Back in aught-five, Gene Healy noticed something not-unusual about the president of the USA played by Geena Davis in the ABC stinker Commander In Chief: She was relentlessly bloodthirsty, invading two countries in two days, menacing tinpots all over the world, and fully supporting a militarized drug war. Following the principle that all military tactics developed overseas will eventually be re-imported for use against the citizens, Davis wound up her term by invading Prince George's County to quell an outbreak of blackness in the area.

But on television at any rate, no president is above the law. ABC has removed Geena Davis from office, awarding a presidential medal of freedom to Commander In Chief. America may still have to endure three already-filmed episodes, but Donald Sutherland, the show's not-so-secret hero, says the cancellation is almost definite.

Meanwhile, Geena Davis has received a special honor at the United Nations for her role in the show.

In the darkest days of the Davis presidency, Nick Gillespie reminded us all of a better time, when the perpetually underrated Patty Duke played America's first double-X prez in Hail To the Chief, a show that boasted the greatest White House cast since Kevin McCarthy performed Give 'Em Hell, Harry alone.

Comments

[SR]

What, no link to the "Alan Alda is My President" H&R entry?

[bubba]

So, Hollywood advocates foreign intervention, but only if it's done by Hillary?

[kmw]

I'm pretty sure that show was a proxy for building Hillary support. Fortunately, it may have backfired.

Today's Rasmussen poll shows the continuing trend of anti Hillary support. So many people are definitely opposed to her compared to for her, if she wins the nomination, she'll hand the presidency to her opponent on a silver platter. I hope to god it's not rudy.

[Stephen Macklin]

I don't think it's a case of Hollywood supporting foreign intervention. I think it's more a case of planting a cultural seed that a woman president would be just as willing to make use of the military as every one of her male predecessors.

Unnecessary really. All they had to do was run a miniseries on Margaret Thatcher in the Falkland Island War.

[Evan]

"I hope to god it's not rudy."

I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that tragedy-milkin', cocksuckin', sonofamotherfuckinbitch doesn't get the nomination. Whatever. It. Takes. If I had to choose between a Giuliani ticket and a Hillary/Marx ticket...I'd be hard-pressed to find a clear winner.

There is no limit to my disgust and contempt for that dirtbag.

[thoreau]

David Palmer is the greatest TV President ever. And Charles Logan deserves whatever happens to him when Jack Bauer finally gets him.

Jack's gonna need that hacksaw again, I think.

[SR]

"sonofamotherfuckinbitch"

Parsing that out, does that mean his mother had sex with his grandmother?

[bubba]

"big lady balls, I call them 'Thatchers.'"

[David Rollins]

Vote Bob Roberts.

Just saw this again recently, boy does it remind me of W. Although I think putting in the day-tradin' hijinks was a little too gratuitous anti-yuppie bashing.

[jp]

"In the darkest days of the Davis presidency, Nick Gillespie reminded us all of a better time, when the perpetually underrated Patty Duke played America's first double-X prez in Hail To the Chief, a show that boasted the greatest White House cast since Kevin McCarthy performed Give 'Em Hell, Harry alone."

That is fucking brilliant.

[JeffL]

Don't be so paranoid, guys.

Everyone makes truck about how Commander in Chief was some plot by the Hollywood Illuminati to make Hillary more "palatable" to voters via subliminal messages hidden inside the commercials (aided by the mind-control drugs they put in tap water) which was heroically foiled by the misogyny of the viewing audience, but the real reason it failed was simple; it sucked. It was a whirling, churning, vortex of suck. It sucked like a sucky thing. The characterization, the acting, the scripts; all sucked. There never was any plot hatched by the dreaded "Hollywood Elite" to brainwash the masses into voting, zombie-like, for Hillary (though there are distressing paralells between zombies and the 32% who remain loyal to Bush); some moron pitched "West Wing, but with a female president!" to the executives and got a green-light.

Also, if Hollywood really wanted to control the outcome of the presidency, why Hillary? They can get local guys. Palmer/Bartlett will win in a landslide.

[Adriana]

I would like to see a handyman go to the White House basemente, find a coffin wrapped in chains, and open it, releasing a vampire.

Hey, it worked for "Dark Shadows" didn't it?

[PapayaSF]

There was also a deservedly-forgotten film called Kisses for My President back in '64, with Polly Bergen as the Prez and Fred MacMurray as "First Gentleman."

[Jim Walsh]

...not to mention that state-worshipping piece of crap with Blair Brown a few years back...

[Douglas Fletcher]

These 'Presidential' shows all suck -- I don't know why, but they do. Maybe it's just the casting. I have to think that something like Don Adams or Bob Denver as President would work better. All those other actors have way too much dignity for a role like that.

[kmw]

Alas, neither Don Adams nor Bob Denver are with us any more.

As of last September. Kind of freaky, when you think about it.

[agentalbert]

The UN awards Davis for portraying a female prez on tv. Nice to see them doing serious work. They should do this more often. Anytime something happens on TV that they approve of, they should give an award.

The president on West Wing speaks out against torture? Give Jimmy Smits an award.

President Laura Roslin on Battlestar Galactica reverses her abortion ban? Give Mary McDonnell an award.

Earl gives "reparations" to a black man he cheated in poker? Give Jason Lee an award.

[PapayaSF]

Drifting off-topic: recently I was startled to learn that Don Adams once said that Maxwell Smart's distinctive clipped, emphatic speaking style was actually Adams' impersonation of William Powell. Both voices have been familiar to me for decades, but I'd never made the connection. Now it seems obvious.

[metalgrid]

I hope to god it's not rudy.

It could be worse - McCain/Romney

[Andrew Ian Dodge]

They are heavily flogging that show on the tubes here in the UK. Wonder if we will get the rest of the episodes not used in the US.

That UN award is just like most of the rest of their awards...total and utter bollocks.

[SR]

Gentlemen, gentlemen! Can't we all just agree that no matter who wins the presidential nomination for either party in 2008, it's going to be bad for individual liberty in this country?

[mk]

Andrew,
I can't believe they would bother to air that show in the country that brought us the genius that was Yes, Prime Minister

[Mr. F. Le Mur]

The UN awards Davis for portraying a female prez on tv. Nice to see them doing serious work.
Maybe the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will invade Darfur.

[Isaac Bartram]

I notice that ABC has pulled CinC from the Thursday night lineup. They're not even going to show the in the can episodes.

I watched it out of curiosity (and Geena Davis, ok!) but it got more and more like watching a trainwreck; riveting but only satisfing in a really morbid sense.

[James Anderson Merritt]

Don't diss "Kisses for my President." In its day (the decade before "I am woman, hear me roar"), it was a wild, unbelievable fantasy that at least made people "think the unthinkable" via inoccuous entertainment. In my opinion, it stands head and shoulders over any "female president" show produced since -- and that's even after admitting that it was typical Hollywood fluff of the period. Polly Bergen did seem credible as the first woman President, who, by the way, was duly ELECTED after women flexed their muscles at the ballot box en masse, concepts that were not easily sold to audiences at that time. Fred MacMurray was especially good as the hapless "First Gentleman" -- he was an honorable, capable man of dignity whose befuddlement came not from the soft noggin we saw later in so many TV Dads and consorts, but from having to deal with and get used to an unprecedented and basically overwhelming situation. I suspect that, had a big-budget movie adaptation of "Atlas Shrugged" been attempted in that era, MacMurray's performance in "Kisses" would have made him a front-runner for the role of Eddie Willers.

[Eric the .5b]

Gentlemen, gentlemen! Can't we all just agree that no matter who wins the presidential nomination for either party in 2008, it's going to be bad for individual liberty in this country?

Sure, but the party faithful will come out and deny that their guy or girl will be bad (or as bad).

[neil]

In case anyone else didn't notice, Geena Davis in CIC is an Indira Gandhi clone except that she has at her disposal an $11 trillion economy, the U.S. Armed Forces, and the presidency--as opposed to the much weaker prime ministership.

[keith]

I for one can't wait for a return to traditional values when it comes to movies/TV shows about the President, meaning they should all be about a sassy chimpanzee or John Goodman assuming the office.

[b-psycho]

"I watched it out of curiosity (and Geena Davis, ok!)"

So I see I'm not the only one that thought she made a rather ravishing president...