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

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?

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." 

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Horror author Stephen King is #TeamKirkman.