I'm going to Lincoln-Con this week. If you need me, I'll be at the John Wilkes booth.
But seriously.
Tired of Lincoln on film? Steven Spielberg's epic tale of the 16th President is just the latest in a long line of films about Lincoln that trace all the way back to the silent era. Got nothing against Lincoln, but there are some other Presidents who have gotten some short shrift on film whose stories might be equally illuminating.
James K. Polk
Sadly, I must admit that I would not be aware of the extraordinary accomplishments of Pres. Polk were it not for a song by They Might Be Giants. Polk increased the size of America second only to Thomas Jefferson. He created an independent treasury. With his tariff reform, Polk even managed to stimulate an economy that was already booming. And he accomplished all this in just one term! You might call him the anti-Dubya.
George H.W. Bush
If George W. Bush was, without any room for argument, the least qualified man to ever become President, then it merely increases the juxtapositioning of his father as the most qualified man to ever become President. It also proves that qualifications for the job have nothing to do with success. Bush had experience in business, was a member of Congress, ran the CIA and was Vice-President. A great movie could be made that tells how someone with such insight into the way this country works manage to be a President exhibiting such profound ignorance of how to run the country.
James Buchanan
Buchanan would make a great subject for a movie because he is the anti-Lincoln. Here is a guy who had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to become the kind of President that filmmakers from D.W. Griffith to Steven Spielberg make movies about. Had Buchanan had the guts and intellect of Lincoln, it could have been his face up there on Mt. Rushmore. Instead, Buchanan is down there with Dubya, Harding and Hoover among the examples of what not to do.
For more from Timothy Sexton, check out:
James K. Polk: The Only President to Meet All Goals in Just One Term