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TV president you wish were real: Mackenzie Allen or Tom Kirkman? | The Tylt

Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis on "Commander In Chief") and Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland of "Designated Survivor") are TV presidents who inherit the office when the elected president dies. Allen, the former vice president, broke ground as television's first female president. Tom Kirkman, a lowly Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, takes command of the nation after the entire U.S. government is killed in a mass terror attack. Which one do you wish could be president in real life? 🇺🇸

Real-time Voting

TV president you wish were real: Mackenzie Allen or Tom Kirkman?

#Allen4President

#Kirkman4President

Who is the greatest TV president of all time? We're down to the Final Four!

In these troubled political times, debating who played the best small-screen Commander-in-Chief is a welcome exercise in escapism. These fictional characters faced scheming staff members, terrorism, assassination attempts, and Cylon attacks; they've had affairs, murdered people, and been driven from office by electoral college ties.

So who wins your vote for TV's best American president?

#Allen4President

Davis' "Commander In Chief" didn't last long, but the show made a lasting impression on people. Audiences relished the novel idea of a woman actually running the country. And Davis played a president who struggled not just with gender expectations, but with opposition from within her own party and abroad.

"I am going to run this government. If some Islamic nations can't tolerate a female president, then I promise you it will be more their problem than mine."

#Kirkman4President

The grisly premise of "Designated Survivor" lets Sutherland play an idealistic, principled Commander-in-Chief struggling to cope with a "Homeland"-esque setting of paranoia and looming disaster. Fans love his untested-outsider-thrust-into-leadership character.

#Allen4President

Watch Allen contend with her scheming vice president (played by Donald Sutherland!). It's not easy being the Commander-in-Chief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEBzYx8JAzE

#Kirkman4President

But watch the moment where Sutherland finds out the entire U.S. government has been assassinated. If it doesn't give you chills, you may be dead inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTQh3d_rx-s

#Allen4President

Fans of "Commander In Chief" still wish Geena Davis could assume command IRL.

I'm just gonna watch Commander in Chief for the next four years and pretend Geena Davis is really our president.
— Shannon. (@itsshannonnx3) February 13, 2017

#Allen4President

I'm wearing my 'Commander-in-Chief' crew jacket today because Geena Davis as President sounds pretty damn good right about now.
— Mark Spatny (@MarkSpatny) January 25, 2017

#Kirkman4President

But Kirkman has loyal fans as well. The fact that he is thrust by a violent tragedy into this position of ultimate power, one he didn't even want, makes him an even more compelling reluctant hero.