13 fictional presidents we'd love to see in office — and 8 we wouldn't vote for

President Jed Bartlet from "The West Wing" is the platonic ideal of a fictional president.

For seven seasons, President Bartlet commanded respect from not just his lovable staff of Toby, CJ, Josh, Leo, Donna, and more, but also from the American people. To this day, there are people who cite "The West Wing" and Martin Sheen's award-winning portrayal as the reason they got into politics — most recently, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Specifically, Bartlet's relationship with his body man, Charlie (played by Dulé Hill), is special. Just watch this moment of Bartlet giving Charlie a family heirloom and try not to tear up.

President Bartlet's successor, Matthew Santos, was proven to be more than up to the job.

With the way "The West Wing" was structured, we don't see much of President Santos' actual presidency. But the last two seasons, which added actor Jimmy Smits as a regular, focused on the campaign as Santos surrounded himself with some Bartlet faithfuls like Leo (John Spencer), Josh (Bradley Whitford), and Donna (Janel Moloney).

Viewers got to see up close how Santos was dedicated to his family, to changing the country for the better, and how seriously he took being the first Latinx president.

Would we vote for President Mitchell in "Dave"? No, but we'd vote for Dave Kovic, his body double.

In the 1993 movie "Dave," President Mitchell (played by Kevin Kline) is a grumpy, philandering, rude career politician. So, when he's incapacitated by a stroke and his slimy chief of staff Bob (played by Frank Langella), doesn't want the eccentric vice president taking over, he enlists Dave (also Kline), who looks exactly like Mitchell.

But when the kind-hearted and personable Dave begins turning things around for the Mitchell administration — and falls in love with the first lady, played by Sigourney Weaver — things get complicated.

If every politician was like Dave, we'd be living in a kinder world.

 

Your likability skyrockets when you're the lead of a romantic comedy like President Andrew Shepherd in "The American President."

Michael Douglas' President Shepherd was writer Aaron Sorkin's first attempt at a fictional president — he'd perfect the character in "The West Wing" — but he's still a pretty solid dude that we wouldn't mind voting for. He's not afraid to stand up to bullies, he defends his love interest Sydney (played by Annette Bening) and uses his very charming personality to win her over, and he is overall the most concerned with making sure his daughter, Lucy, is OK.

Even if Shepherd doesn't initially always do the right thing, his speech at the end of the film in the White House's press room would be enough to carry him to the Oval Office with ease.

President Tom Kirkman in "Designated Survivor" is an unlikely, but solid, commander in chief.

In real life and on the show "Designated Survivor," there's a person selected to stay behind and skip the State of the Union in case of a terrorist attack — they're called the designated survivor. In the world of the show, this person is President Kirkman, who goes from being the US secretary of Housing and Urban Development to the president of the United States in just a few moments after an explosion kills everyone at the speech.

While he's not experienced, Kirkman proves to be a solid president, willing to learn from his advisors and not as willing to be pushed around by foreign governments. If he was our real designated survivor, we'd be in good hands.

From what we see of President Elena Cañero-Reed in "Diary of a Future President," we'd be happy to vote for her.

In the Disney+ show, President Cañero-Reed is played, as an adult, by Gina Rodriguez, who is reminiscing on her childhood by reading her middle school diaries. Her younger self is played by Tess Romero, who we spend much more time with.

From what we see of Cañero-Reed as a kid, and how her mother Gabi (played by Selenis Leyva) inspires her and teaches her, we're confident that a Cañero-Reed presidency would be a good one.

The president in "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is down to help out with the treasure hunt, and that's all we need to support him.

The unnamed president, played by Bruce Greenwood, is indeed kidnapped by Nicolas Cages' Ben Gates, but he doesn't seem to be all that upset about it. In reality, he seems more intrigued by the mystery and down for the adventure than anything else, and that proves he'd be a good hang.

And he sets up a potential third movie that we're still waiting on. Bring back Greenwood and page 47!

President Laura Roslin does not have an easy job in "Battlestar Galactica," and she's certainly not perfect, but she redeems herself in the end.

Any sci-fi fans who have somehow missed out on "Battlestar Galactica" should pause and go watch all 76 episodes.

But for those who did, you know why the president of the 12 Colonies of Kobol should make this list. President Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell, was thrust into leadership after a nuclear attack wiped out almost every human in existence.

She wasn't perfect, but her relationship with William Adama (Edward James Olmos) helped humanize her and eventually helped set her on a path of redemption for some of the mistakes she made during her presidency.

President Allison Taylor in "24" was also a relatably imperfect person.

President Taylor, as played by Cherry Jones, had to make some difficult choices over the course of her tenure as president, including turning her daughter and chief of staff Olivia (Sprague Grayden) in to the authorities after she ordered an assassination.

Unfortunately, as she spent more time in the position, she did end up compromising her morals, but she resigned before she could do any lasting damage, regaining what we liked about her in the first place.

But the best president in "24" history will always be President David Palmer.

Besides Dennis Haysbert's instantly commanding voice, President Palmer was our favorite for one simple reason: He was always loyal to CTU Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), who time and time again proved to be the only person capable of saving the US (and sometimes the world).

Once Jack earned Palmer's trust, he never had a more staunch ally. His (spoiler!) death in season five is still one of the most tragic deaths in the show's history — he was one of the only truly moral politicians in the show.

The idea that your president should be an action hero can probably be traced back to President James Marshall in "Air Force One."

Of course Harrison Ford would be an excellent president, as shown by "Air Force One," a film in which the president's plane, Air Force One, is taken over by Russian terrorists and President Marshall is forced to beat them back using his skills as a highly decorated helicopter-rescue pilot, Vietnam veteran, and Medal of Honor recipient.

Ford will once again play the commander in chief in Marvel's upcoming "Captain America: New World Order." We'll see if he gets the chance to tell anyone to get off his plane.

President Thomas J. Whitmore in "Independence Day" was ready to fight with the public to defend Earth.

Just watch this speech President Whitmore gives before getting ready to defend Earth from hostile alien invaders. Chills, every time.

In "Deep Impact," President Tom Beck is able to reassure the world even as catastrophe strikes.

President Beck has the good fortune of being played by an actor with perhaps the most gravitas of all time: Morgan Freeman. Even as Beck is telling the world that two meteors are on their way to demolish the planet in an extinction-level event, you somehow believe that things might be OK.

By the film's end, Beck is seen helping rebuild the world, proving that his leadership skills were up to the task.

And now, time for the presidents we'd rather not be in office. First up, President Fitzgerald Grant III in "Scandal," who starts a war to get his mistress back.

Not that Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) isn't worth it, but do you really want POTUS to be someone who can be so easily manipulated like that?

Plus, President Grant (Tony Goldwyn) won his first term through cheating, and his re-election came after the tragic death of his son Jerry. Did he even deserve to be in the Oval Office at all? We blame Goldwyn and Washington's chemistry for making us root for Grant so much.

For every President Palmer on "24," you have a President Charles Logan.

Perhaps one of the most spineless presidents in TV and movie history, President Logan, as played by the late, great Gregory Itzin, made the wrong decision at almost every turn during his tenure on "24." He was willing to negotiate with terrorists, he was corrupt, he took the credit for successes he had no part in and blamed others for his failures, and was an all-around slime-ball.

President Janie Orlean in "Don't Look Up" is hilarious ... but not who you want in charge.

"Don't Look Up" satirizes almost every part of being an American these days, from the news to celebrities to, of course, politicians. President Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, and her son/chief of staff Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill) have many of the film's best lines and laugh-out-loud moments due to their unabashed corporate greed, disregard for their constituents, and apathy.

"Primary Colors" follows the presidential campaign — and many indiscretions — of Governor Jack Stanton.

John Travolta stars as Stanton in "Primary Colors," which is based on a novel that, in turn, is very clearly inspired by the campaign and presidency of Bill Clinton, down to Stanton and Clinton hailing from the same state and having their careers rocked by similar scandals.

While Stanton is, on the surface, a great guy, new campaign staffer Henry (Adrian Lester) soon sees the dark underbelly of Stanton, including his temper tantrums, his infidelity, and his inability to say no to anything.

But, just in like in the real world, it all comes down to image handling, and Stanton is elected president.

The unnamed president in "Love Actually" is basically a caricature of an evil politician.

"Love Actually" is a quintessential British film — obviously, there had to be a cartoonishly evil American, and there's no better place to put one than the presidency. Played by Billy Bob Thornton, this president thinks he can push Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) around and sexually harass David's aide Natalie (Martine McCutcheon).

It makes you wonder how he got elected in the first place.

Organizing a competition where young teens fight each other to the death earns you a spot on the worst presidents list, even if President Coriolanus Snow might disagree.

Throughout all four "Hunger Games" movies, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) never loses sight of the fact that the real enemy is Panem's totalitarian government, led by the sickly sweet President Snow, played by Donald Sutherland.

Snow had no qualms about watching kids murder each other for sport, playing the separate districts against each other, and other heinous things. The only thing he cared about was power and order.

We'll see more of President Snow in "The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes," a prequel to "The Hunger Games," this time played by Tom Blyth. Maybe we'll find a shred of sympathy for him soon.

President Merkin Muffley in "Doctor Strangelove" is a laughably horrible president.

President Muffley, played by Peter Sellers, is known for one line above all others: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room."

He lets himself be manipulated by friends and enemies alike, has no real plan in case of nuclear emergency, and is basically a buffoon.

This is hard to admit, but there's just no way we'd recommend voting for Selina Meyer from "Veep."

Would we want to hang out with Meyer, iconically played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus? Of course. Getting a Meyer insult hurled at us would be fun, but would we want her running the country every single day? Not even the Americans in "Veep" were that fond of her. She was president the first time after the death of the president, then lost her re-election campaign, and then had to alienate her daughter to finally win again.

Meyer gets her ultimate comeuppance in the end though, when she and Tom Hanks die on the same day.