# Who are the least plausible fictional Presidents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858 "2013-12-08T23:48:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/61 "2013-12-10T21:27:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Bryan Ekers** : > > Lisa Simpson, the first straight female president. Wait, I thought she was Chief Justice. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/62 "2013-12-10T22:23:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, I thought she was Chief Justice. That was Bart. The early “Itchy and Scratchy Movie” episode where Homer forbid Bart to see it even if he reached the highest judicial office. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/63 "2013-12-10T23:52:29Z")
Merton Muffley-the president in “Doctor Strangelove”. A total wimp. When the Russian Ambassador gets the Russian PM on the phone he adds “be careful, Mr. President…he’s drunk!” ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/64 "2013-12-11T00:18:30Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Merton Muffley-the president in “Doctor Strangelove”. A total wimp. When the Russian Ambassador gets the Russian PM on the phone he adds “be careful, Mr. President…he’s drunk!” I think that was pretty much an Adlai Stevenson impression. Although the voters seemed to have similar opinion of Stevenson as you do of Muffley. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/65 "2013-12-11T00:33:34Z")
How about this? I’m not sure if it’s available on DVD, or even VHS, but it’s on You Tube. > **[The Man (1972 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_(1972_film))** > > The Man is a 1972 American political drama film directed by Joseph Sargent and starring James Earl Jones. Jones plays Douglass Dilman, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, who succeeds to the presidency through a series of unforeseeable events, thereby becoming both the first African-American president and the first wholly unelected one. The screenplay, written by Rod Serling, is largely based upon The Man, a novel by Irving Wallace. In addition to being the first black When the... Or this? Never saw the movie (also on You Tube) but it was a good book. > **[The President's Plane is Missing: Serling, Robert J: 9781520841052: Amazon.com:...](https://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Plane-Missing-Robert-Serling/dp/1520841051)** > > The President's Plane is Missing \[Serling, Robert J\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The President's Plane is Missing ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/66 "2013-12-11T01:49:27Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > My first thought, too, upon reading the thread. His nomination as VP, then the attack, then his becoming Prez was very convoluted and I’m not too sure how it all worked out w/o a heap of suspicion Could a white man get tapped for VP? Could something then happen to the President so your guy gets the big job? Yeah, that – isn’t that The Gerald Ford Story? Heck, a number of white guys have been tapped to play VP when a vacancy’s come up, sure as a number of white VPs have inherited the top slot. But for a black man to get there _in 1972,_ that simply won’t do; nobody’s putting _him_ a heartbeat away from the Presidency; we _ **need** _ the President and the VP and the Speaker of the House to be simultaneously incapacitated so the Senate’s president pro tempore will get the job by default, as has never happened. Now, that of course means we only get to see James Earl Jones as **THE MAN** due to the pro tempore job for some reason not being filled by the majority party’s senior Senator, because don’t fight the hypothetical. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/67 "2013-12-11T03:08:11Z")
God, how did I forget Jack Ryan? Never mind the bizarre Series of Unfortunate Events that leads to his ascending to the Presidency; he would never have been nominated VP in the first place. Even by Tom Clancy’s standards and in the universe he created, he cannot come up with a believable reason why Jack Ryan would be the guy picked to be VP. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/68 "2013-12-11T03:31:54Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Could a white man get tapped for VP? Could something then happen to the President so your guy gets the big job? Yeah, that – isn’t that The Gerald Ford Story? Heck, a number of white guys have been tapped to play VP when a vacancy’s come up, sure as a number of white VPs have inherited the top slot. > > But for a black man to get there _in 1972,_ that simply won’t do; nobody’s putting _him_ a heartbeat away from the Presidency; we _ **need** _ the President and the VP and the Speaker of the House to be simultaneously incapacitated so the Senate’s president pro tempore will get the job by default, as has never happened. > > Now, that of course means we only get to see James Earl Jones as **THE MAN** due to the pro tempore job for some reason not being filled by the majority party’s senior Senator, because don’t fight the hypothetical. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/69 "2013-12-11T03:58:22Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 😕 For Jack Ryan to get the job, the President pretty much just needs to (a) choose him as his VP, and then (b) stop being President. As has, y’know, happened. For Douglass Dilman to become the President, we need folks to choose a black man to be president pro tempore of the Senate in '72, at which point the President and the Veep and the Speaker of the House need to simultaneously get incapacitated. You know, just like that time _never_. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/70 "2013-12-11T04:45:16Z")
[Vote for Doom](http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/8/84077/2131406-3doom2099_28.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/71 "2013-12-11T04:47:11Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For Jack Ryan to get the job, the President pretty much just needs to (a) choose him as his VP, and then (b) stop being President. As has, y’know, happened. > > For Douglass Dilman to become the President, we need folks to choose a black man to be president pro tempore of the Senate in '72, at which point the President and the Veep and the Speaker of the House need to simultaneously get incapacitated. You know, just like that time _never_. [Gotcha.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_(1972_film)) I did not know that “The Man” was an actual movie - I must check it out. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/72 "2013-12-11T05:11:35Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Could a white man get tapped for VP? Could something then happen to the President so your guy gets the big job? Yeah, that – isn’t that The Gerald Ford Story? Heck, a number of white guys have been tapped to play VP when a vacancy’s come up, sure as a number of white VPs have inherited the top slot. > > But for a black man to get there _in 1972,_ that simply won’t do; nobody’s putting _him_ a heartbeat away from the Presidency; we _ **need** _ the President and the VP and the Speaker of the House to be simultaneously incapacitated so the Senate’s president pro tempore will get the job by default, as has never happened. > > Now, that of course means we only get to see James Earl Jones as **THE MAN** due to the pro tempore job for some reason not being filled by the majority party’s senior Senator, because don’t fight the hypothetical. The book itself was published in 1964. > **[The Man (Wallace novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_(1964_novel))** > > The Man is a 1964 novel by Irving Wallace that speculatively explores the socio-political consequences in U.S. society when a black man becomes President of the United States. The novel's title derives from the contemporary—fifties, sixties, seventies—American slang English, "The Man". > The Man was written before the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It depicts a political situation in which the office of Vice Presidency is vacant due to the incumbent's death. While overse... BTW, 1972 saw the first serious black AND female candidate for POTUS, and they were the same person: Shirley Chisholm. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/73 "2013-12-11T15:40:36Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > The book itself was published in 1964. > > [The Man (Wallace novel) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_(1964_novel)) > > BTW, 1972 saw the first serious black AND female candidate for POTUS, and they were the same person: Shirley Chisholm. Seruious by her own standards, I’m sure. But by anyone else’s? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/74 "2013-12-11T15:47:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Seruious by her own standards, I’m sure. But by anyone else’s? Shirley Chisholm was definitely a longshot in 1972, but 1. She WAS a veteran member of Congress 2. She was seeking the nomination of a major political party, the Democrats. 3. She won 3 state primaries (New Jersey, Louisiana and Mississippi) That makes her a “serious” candidate in my book, as opposed to, say, Harold Stassen or Gus Hall or Dick Gregory or Kinky Friedman. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/75 "2013-12-11T16:32:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, of course. That’s why, in real life, the fake POTUS is always a clone. :smack::smack::smack: I should’ve known that! Thanks for the correction. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/76 "2013-12-11T17:16:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Didn’t Lex Luthor end up elected President in some DC continuity or another? It seems to me it’d be pretty hard to get elected with Superman campaigning for your opponent. Superman _didn’t_ campaign for either of Luthor’s opponents (Lex was running as an independent, and I think it was almost explicit that he was running against Bush & Gore). He had a long-standing policy against interfering in politics, and obviously it came backto bite him. I seem to recall him angsting to his fellow Justice Leaguers about it. (And “wrestling” with Wonder Woman in the Antarctic during her session.) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/77 "2013-12-11T18:34:33Z")
If you don’t count comedies, then I can’t mention Chris Rock. His run at the presidency was so awful that most people have forgotten it ever happened. I didn’t. I was permanently scarred because I was working for a mystery shopping company that made me count audience members in movies and I had to go to _every single screening for an entire weekend._ It was horrible. The flashbacks . . . _shudder._ ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/78 "2013-12-11T18:51:46Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Shirley Chisholm was definitely a longshot in 1972, but > > 1. She WAS a veteran member of Congress > 2. She was seeking the nomination of a major political party, the Democrats. > 3. She won 3 state primaries (New Jersey, Louisiana and Mississippi) > > That makes her a “serious” candidate in my book, as opposed to, say, Harold Stassen or Gus Hall or Dick Gregory or Kinky Friedman. I didn’t know she won any primaries. Thanks for the info. Jeez, how does Herman Cain fit in as a “serious” candidate? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/79 "2013-12-11T19:01:23Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > If you don’t count comedies, then I can’t mention Chris Rock. His run at the presidency was so awful that most people have forgotten it ever happened. I didn’t. I was permanently scarred because I was working for a mystery shopping company that made me count audience members in movies and I had to go to _every single screening for an entire weekend._ It was horrible. The flashbacks . . . _shudder._ The Rock presidency in **Head of State** , if it were real, would still be less damaging to world peace, the world economy, and world sanity than if every person had to watch the Chris Rock-produced **Pootie Tang** for a weekend and still knew it was fictional. Mass murders and suicides, I’ll bet. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858/80 "2013-12-11T20:19:43Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Jack Nicholson in _Mars Attacks!_ HEY HEY HEY! Can’t we all just get along?! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-plausible-fictional-presidents/675858.md?page=5)