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"      We mentioned yesterday that, come this November, Daniel Day-Lewis will be donning the stovepipe, violating the 10th Amendment freedoms of slaveholders, and failing to duck, under the direction of Stephen Spielberg as the latter rolls out his Lincoln biopic which, if Amistad and Saving Private Ryan are any indications, likely will end with awestruck children gazing up at the Lincoln Memorial while flights of angels sing Columbia, The Gem Of The Ocean, and Tom Hanks flunks us all in American Mythology 101. There already have been two terrific cinema Abes \u2014 Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln and Raymond Massey&amp;#039;s haunted Abe Lincoln In Illinois, in which Ruth Gordon plays a terrifying Mary Todd Lincoln in whom you can see the beginnings of the eventual crack-up. Of course, the all-time record for portraying a president goes to Charlton Heston, who played Andy Jackson twice, including in The Buccaneer, with Yul Brynner as Jean LaFitte.  However, and in honor of Willard Romney, who has decided to run as a fictional candidate, or perhaps as a novelized version of himself \u2014 critics are divided on this point \u2014 we are more intrigued today by the presidents concocted by Hollywood for their own purposes, which brings us to today&amp;#039;s hooley down in comments, to wit: Who&amp;#039;s The Best Fictional Movie President? As we said, portrayals of actual presidents don&amp;#039;t count. (Bruce Greenwood&amp;#039;s nifty JFK in Thirteen Days is out.) As usual, my top three are here. And, dammit, only movies. No votes for Jed Bartlett. Respect mah authoritah, ya bastids, or, in the words of Andy Jackson Ben-Hur to the mewling citizens of New Orleans, &amp;quot;By the Eternal, I&amp;#039;ll declare martial law here!&amp;quot; 1) President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers; Dr. Strangelove): In whom Hollywood liberals of the day get their wish and finally find Adlai in the White House. &amp;quot;Let me finish, Dimitri. Well, how do you think I feel about it?&amp;quot; 2) President The President (Henry Fonda, Fail Safe): We never catch his name, but there&amp;#039;s more than a little Young Mr. Lincoln in Fonda here, caught in a claustrophobic catastrophe in which there is no good option. How many times do you actually see a president sweat on camera? Okay, Nixon. You got me. 3) President Beck (Morgan Freeman, Deep Impact): The better of 1998&amp;#039;s two asteroid-disaster films and, therefore, the one that made the least money. Freeman&amp;#039;s Beck has enormous dignity, and his speech from the Capitol steps in a washed-away Washington, D.C. at the end is a lovely touch. Also, the astronauts are heroes, but the asteroid hits anyway, giving Beck problems that the anonymous president in Armageddon never faced. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15210/best-movie-presidents-11512872/?src=rss>