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Harrison_Ford.jpg

Is Bill Pullman or Harrison Ford the Best Movie President of All Time?

By Kate Hudson | Celebrity | January 27, 2019 |

By Kate Hudson | Celebrity | January 27, 2019 |


Harrison_Ford.jpg

Friends, last night I began coordinating my trip with my friend Jason to attend the 50th Anniversary MUFON Symposium, which will excitingly be held relatively near me (and before you ask, yes, of course I will be sharing what I find with you here on Pajiba, as long as Dustin allows it. Sometimes I get too close to the truth if you know what I mean….) Perhaps not coincidentally, I had just finished watching Independence Day, because 1) it was on Starz and I can’t watch Cobra at the moment because Amazon and Warner Brothers are fighting again, and 2) After acting like a degenerate for multiple Friday nights in a row it was time to stay home for once.

Anyway, I digress, in between coordinating our MUFON trip, and talking about the fact that Harry Reid not only believes in Aliens but wants more government funding to research them, I posed this to him over our chat: “You know. Obama is the closest we’ve come to the president in Independence Day.”

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You know that when push came to shove, he would have gone up in a fighter jet to knock some alien heads. You think any other president in modern history would do it? (Modern defined as the last 50 years. We all know Teddy Roosevelt would have been all about that.)

Seeing as how I was bright eyed and bushy tailed (because I wasn’t hanging out in the Star Wars bar in Hollywood, unlike last weekend) I posed the question to the Overlords on Slack: who is the best fictional president? The conversation just devolved into a Battlestar Galactica love fest, which frankly I didn’t have time for, but before it went there, a few good suggestions were thrown in, which were:

Dave…from Dave (obviously)

President Camacho from Idiocracy

Andrew Shepherd, An American President


James Dale, Mars Attacks

Ya da ya da ya da. I mean, all good choices, but we know it ultimately boils down to these two, right?

In one corner we have President James Marshall, from Air Force One:

And in the other, we have President Thomas Whitmore, from Independence Day who honestly gave one of the best movie speeches about an alien invasion and rising to the occasion in the past 30 years:

So, on the one hand, President Marshall has the benefit of not being completely destroyed in a terrible sequel like President Whitmore. However, while Marshall does fight terrorists, he doesn’t get in a fighter jet to go attack aliens. While 2016 taught me we shouldn’t elect presidents on arbitrary, fickle qualifications…I can’t tell you in all honesty that in the future I wouldn’t vote for a president solely on the fact they flew a fighter jet against aliens, so…

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In my opinion, while it is a very close call, President Thomas Whitmore is our best movie president. That’s probably why his fighter jet jumpsuit is in the Smithsonian, and my “Staycation” sweat shirt I’m currently wearing is not and has not been requested by the Smithsonian…yet.

Anyway, let’s debate the merits of movie presidents in the comments below. To warm you up here’s the best scene in Independence Day, because Randy Quaid’s character is a true American hero.



Header Image Source: Columbia Pictures