After Rewatching The American President For The First Time In Years, There’s Something I Can’t Stop Thinking About

by

After the passing of director Rob Reiner in December 2025, I started revisiting his films. I recently rewatched The American President, a captivating political drama that’s also a fantastic romantic comedy. I hadn’t seen it in years, so much of it was new to me again. Interestingly, this movie was a major inspiration for Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing.

Even after the movie ended, I kept focusing on one thing. It wasn’t the fast-paced dialogue, or even how much I disliked a particular character who wanted to be president. What really stood out was the complete absence of a key government position – it was a noticeable oversight.

For Some Reason, There’s No Vice President In The Movie

Many films feature the President of the United States, and it’s common for the Vice President—next in line to become president—to also appear in the story. You see VPs in everything from action movies like Air Force One to comedies like Dave. However, the film The American President is different – the Vice President isn’t included at all.

The Vice President isn’t traveling abroad or working secretly at the White House, and they’re certainly not incapacitated. It’s simpler than that – they’re just absent. They aren’t being discussed or acknowledged at all, as if they don’t even exist.

I’ve been trying to figure out this puzzle, but all my online searches just turned up tons of information about past Vice Presidents. I even checked my DVD copy of The American President – it’s a double feature with Dave, which is an awesome pairing, by the way – but there wasn’t any director’s commentary or anything to help. Honestly, I still can’t shake the feeling that something’s missing, and it’s really bugging me.

I Totally Misremembered This Aspect, Which Has Me Questioning My Memory

I’ve seen The American President a few times since my parents first rented it on pay-per-view back in 1996, but it’s been a while since I really paid attention to Michael Douglas’s performance as President Shepherd. I completely remembered the plot wrong regarding the Vice President. I always thought Martin Sheen played Shepherd’s Vice President, A.J. MacInerney, and Michael J. Fox was his Chief of Staff, Lewis Rothschild.

I think I was simply misremembering things, as Martin Sheen later became famous for playing President Bartlet in The West Wing, and Michael Fox played New York Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty on Spin City a few years later. This whole experience has made me wonder about the accuracy of my memories, not just of TV shows, but of all sorts of things I remember from my life, and I think I need to take a closer look at them.

I realized I’d forgotten a lot about the movie The American President, but it still holds up incredibly well after 30 years. Luckily, you don’t need to buy a physical copy to watch it – it’s currently available to stream on HBO Max.

Read More

2026-01-05 17:08