In his recent essay "Movie Star Presidents" Thomas Doherty discusses the history of the representations of the President of the United States in mainstream cinema. Revisiting the last century of cinema and reflecting upon the films released around the times of F.D.R., J.F.K. and Jimmy Carter, he also touches upon some of the films in the 1990s that were created during Bill Clinton’s presidency. In short summaries of Dave and The American President, Doherty notes how the images of the President in these films play against the image of Bill Clinton as President. While Doherty deserves credit for bringing attention to these two films, he does not focus nearly enough on the phenomenon of Clintonesque filmmaking that occurred during Bill Clinton’s presidency. During the years of 1993 — 2000 a veritable genre of "presidential films" were produced, all of which took as their focus presidential figures created in the likeness of Bill Clinton.

While dozens of films during this period cast presidential characters, for example Independence Day, Air Force One, and even Contact which used Bill Clinton himself, there are five films which proved most intrinsically linked to the Clinton era and which most succinctly reflect the modern public image of Clinton at the time of their production and release. These five films are Ivan Reitman’s 1993 film Dave, Ron Reiner’s 1995 film The American President, Barry Levinson’s 1997 film Wag the Dog, Mike Nichols‘s 1998 film Primary Colors and Rod Lurie‘s 2000 film The Contender. Each of these films, beyond taking Clinton as their inspiration, employ his image to their own ends, making him an intertextual point of reference as well as an obvious target of political commentary.

Before exploring these films it is first important to understand where the media’s obsession with Clinton came from. As Doherty explains it, while Kennedy was the first television president and his image "was glamorous and unattainable," Clinton’s video image, broadcast across cable stations everywhere during his election campaign and beyond "was ordinary and approachable." While other presidents occupied the White House between the Kennedy and Clinton eras, Clinton was the first to fully put himself out there and redefine the image of President of the United States of America.

One of the key factors leading to this redefined image is the documentary film The War Room, which was released in 1994 by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker. In The War Room the primary campaign of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton is depicted with a focus on his two key campaign strategists, James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. While the documentary concentrates on these two figures in particular, Clinton is often seen strolling about the film, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, behaving in an unusually candid manner, especially for someone about to become president. Historically, not since J.F.K. had documentary filmmakers been given such access to a successful presidential campaign and it was D.A. Pennebaker, ironically, who also made J.F.K.’s campaign documentary. With The War Room released shortly after Clinton’s election victory and around the same time as his inauguration (in January of 1994), this film became the first true inside look at our new President Bill Clinton. This behind-the-scenes introduction contributed to the overall familiarity connected to the new president and opened the doorways to other films that aimed to overcome the "respectful distance," as Doherty calls it, of representations of presidents past.

With Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK and Tim Robbin’s 1992 Bob Roberts mock-documentary raising the flag on presidents and politics as viable commercial cinematic ventures, The War Room itself generated quite a bit of attention by winning general mainstream praise, which is always unusual for a documentary film, along with an Academy Award nomination. Hollywood was soon anxious to step on board and refocus its commercial film enterprises onto similar political figures. This combined with Clinton’s accessibility lead the way to films that took the president as protagonist in big-budget films. "Bill Clinton was the most camera-ready of all presidents," Doherty explains. We saw him as "talk show host, master of ceremonies on C-SPAN, in shades with sax on Arsenio, in boxers or briefs on MTV," and eventually "in less than that in the Starr Report."

So it was that in 1992 — 1993, the Clinton presidency was a process of transition. With the White House having been occupied by Republicans for over a decade, Clinton now moved in and was charged with not only figuring out how to run things but how to redefine the way things were run under the new Democratic party occupation. During this period Clinton and his staff, both viewed as young and inexperienced in relation to the previous White House occupants, were challenged to prove themselves.

It was at this point that, in 1993, during the earliest period of the Clinton presidency, the film Dave, directed by Ivan Reitman, was released. In Dave, the fictional President of the United States suffers a stroke and is replaced by a look-a-like everyman named Dave Kovic, played by Kevin Kline. This replacement of the professional president with the "Average Joe" very much reflected the transition in progress in the White House. The tagline to the film, which was released in May of 1993, only five months into Clinton’s presidency, was "In a country where anybody can become President, anybody just did."

Dave opens with an aerial tour of Washington D.C., flying over the main historical spots then closing in to land, helicopter style, at the steps of the White House. In an instant cut, we are taken to Dave’s hometown in Maryland where we first see him dashing about on his bicycle, wearing an American flag tie and, as he races home, running past an American flag rolled up and leaning behind his front door. What we learn about Dave right away through these images is that he is a simple, patriotic man. As we are introduced to the real president in the film, Bill Mitchell, we see him from behind the scenes, reading a speech off of tele-prompters and generally behaving like a fraud. The divide between Dave and Bill is firmly established early in the film, but while the name of the real-life president being "Bill" may seem to link Clinton to this nasty image, it is Dave who truly symbolizes the hope for the new presidency.

The film’s depictions of Dave at a sponsored event and then later at the White House dressed-up and behaving like the president serve as a testament to the frequent personal appearances Bill Clinton made during his campaign. Since Clinton was often known to have been out meeting people much more than any other modern president, the film suggests that there might actually have been presidential doubles who made these guest appearances on his behalf. While Dave waves to the president’s fans we see the real president actually at home doing other less noble things, such as screwing around with his secretary. The irony of this situation would only come to be recognized much later in Clinton’s second term.

While the idea of a presidential double is mildly humorous, it is also viable as the image of Clinton seemed likewise duplicitous throughout both his campaign and his presidency. On the one side there was the version of Clinton who stood onstage claiming to "feel your pain" while on the other side there were multiple accusations of impropriety and infidelity on Clinton’s behalf. These Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personas often clashed in Clinton’s image and were literally embodied in Dave as part of the fun as well as part of the commentary. In the end, what the film aims to convey is a desire for an average-man who not only can be familiar but who can also be exceptional in his presidential duties. As Doherty says in his "Movie Star Presidents" essay, Dave as president is "great with kids, a natural on television," and "he wrangles with the federal budget like Dad balancing the family checkbook."

Dave offers both suggestions to President Bill Clinton about how the American people really want him to behave as well as foreshadows the unexpected turns in his reputation that would come as a result of his fooling around behind the scenes with White House staffers. It also serves to educate its audience on the basics of the modern political system as it shows Dave learning the legal processes, the divisions of power and who the important politicians are. Likewise, key real-life recognizable political figures pop in and out of the fictional film, both literally and verbally, to lend authenticity to the scenes. This technique, which would later become a staple of the "presidential genre," spawned cameos by Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, Tom Harkin, Christopher Dodd, Ben Stein and Alan Simpson. At one point in the film Jay Leno even appears on television to make a joke about Dave as president in what looks like an authentic clip from his late night show. As Director Ivan Reitman explained in interviews later, "having their real names and faces in the movie adds an important dimension of reality to the story. They function as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on what they see and shaping everyone else’s perceptions." At one point even JFK director Oliver Stone joins Larry King on a staged version of Larry King Live to make accusations that there is a conspiracy underway and that the president is not the same man he used to be.

Of course just playing within the dialogue of the film is not enough and occasionally the cameo appearances reflect on both the fictional Dave presidency as well as the real-life presidency of Bill Clinton. One such cameo involves Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance at an elementary school where he is teaching the kids about how to eat healthy. Schwarzenegger spins off at one point and says "what you don’t want to do is eat donuts," a sideline comment biting at Clinton’s own infamous donut breaks. Another such inter-play happens when the First Lady says to Dave, who she thinks is President Bill, "Go to hell Bill." This double-sided, ironic quip is then followed by Dave’s lament to his staffers that "she hates me," to which the staffers quickly retort, loudly and in sync, "Yes!"

The similarities do not end there either. Kevin Kline, as both Dave and particularly as President Bill Mitchell, is fashioned to look like President Bill Clinton. His hair is made gray like Clinton’s, he imitates many recognizable Clintonesque hand gestures like his thumbs-up campaign move and he generally maneuvers and behaves in ways that are emblematic of the Clinton image. As Dave embodies the presidential role he spices up the staunch, boring image of the president by telling jokes, performing magic tricks for the kids and generally behaving like an entertainer, much like Clinton did during his campaign.

After the message of Dave had soaked in and a few years had passed since Clinton began running the White House, the original promise of the new reign of the Democratic party was overthrown by the 1994 elections which put Republicans back in charge of Congress. With this division of power and support, the Democratic party started to suffer the pains of defeat and had to start turning to the Republicans for help, only to start coming together as scandals involving Clinton and his staff started making headlines. The most prominent headlines focused on the Whitewater scandal and the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, which was filed in May of 1994.

The American President opens with a montage of images from within the White House. Unlike Dave, we are now clearly already situated inside and what we are seeing are symbols and images of patriotism at its finest. The camera strolls by the American flag, a bust of George Washington, a sculpture of an American bald eagle, portraits of previous presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Jefferson, Wilson, Taft, and Washington, a shot of the Constitution, an array of books by John Adams, a globe, another flag and then a setting shot of the White House. Ebert continues in his review to say that "among the many emotions that The American President re-awakens, one of the best is simple affection for the presidency. When I was growing up ‘thePresidentoftheUnitedStates’ was one word, said reverently, and embodied great power and virtue. Now the title is like the butt of a joke; both parties have lessened the office by their potshots at its occupants." With this opening montage and other similar devices, "Reiner suggests the moral weight of the presidency while at the same time incorporating much of the inside information we now have about the way the White House functions." (Chicago Sun-Times, ‘The American President, November 17, 1995)

The crux of The American President focuses on two narrative conflicts. The first is the President’s decision to date a political advocate named Syndey Ellen Wade, a woman who is reminiscent of Hillary Rodham Clinton but softer, kinder and who has apparently garnered her own extended name without having married the President of the United States. (At least, not yet.) The second is a crime bill that the President needs to gain support for from his divided Congress in order to maintain enough public support to ensure his pending re-election. The two issues meet when the support the President needs for his bill seems to be only possible by double-crossing his new love interest. As a sideshow to all this, the buildup of the president’s love life becomes the primary interest of the media and further complicates matters.

The Sydney Ellen Wade controversy in the film is widely based on the fact that she is clearly becoming "a woman who is able to exert a wide range of influence over issues." This reflects criticism during this period aimed at Hillary’s strong role in the White House, as well as in the Whitewater scandal. At this point in the Clinton presidency, as Hillary’s health care reform laws have made headlines, it is was common sentiment that the American public wished they could have considered the influence Hillary would play over Bill as much as the film’s American public gets to ponder Sydney’s influence over President Shepherd. Of course if Hillary had been more like the film’s First Lady, as portrayed by Annette Benning, Hollywood’s "First Lady" in so much as she is married to Warren Beatty, the uproar may have settled down as quickly and neatly as it eventually does in the film.

Like Dave, the character of President Andrew Shepherd is quite obviously based on President Bill Clinton but with all the hard-surfaces removed. However, unlike Dave which concocted the presidential stages from a conglomeration of familiar television and news reports, Rob Reiner and his crew were given explicit access to the real-life White House and to President Bill Clinton as they prepared for The American President. Reiner followed Clinton around for two days and commented that he "saw him preparing to give a radio address from the Oval Office" and was amazed "how much direct involvement this President has in every aspect of his administration, the enormity of the job and the great accessibility he gives his staff."

Reiner and The American President, beyond replicating what they witnessed on their White House tour, also makes a few revisions on their host President Clinton. President Shepherd turns down the donuts at breakfast that Clinton is so infamous for having. Shepherd’s dating forays are legitimized by his widowed nature. Even the name "Andrew Shepherd," is more presidential and more evocative of leadership than "William Jefferson Clinton." Beyond that, the film dares to take a stand in its revisions. When Douglas’s President Shepherd gives his moving State of the Union speech he declares confidently that "being president of this country is about character." While Clinton’s character always remained a been a point of contention throughout his presidency, especially as scandal after scandal erupted, The American President defiantly aligns President Shepherd with President Clinton, hoping to transfer the impeccable character of one to the other.

In this way, one question the fictional President Shepherd asks in the film stands out. During the media blitz surrounding his decision to date Sydney Ellen Wade, President Shepherd asks his best pal (played by Martin Sheen who would later inherit the presidential throne in The West Wing)"If we had to go through a character debate three years ago, would we have won?" This question and the idea behind the character debates as represented in The American President suggest that because President Andrew Shepherd was a widower when he was up for election three years ago, he escaped the character debates that have diligently pursued Clinton. The film asks whether Shepherd might have likewise been assassinated unfairly as a result of moralistic debates if it had not been for his status as widower at the time of his campaign. Transitively, this argument attempts to rescue Clinton by striving to refocus questions of personal behavior and morality to questions of leadership and ability.

Like a Frank Capra film, and even like Dave, The American President strives to convey an idyllic image of what the presidency and modern American politics should be about. As Kenneth Turan said in his L.A. Times review, "Capra’s films on government were often fantasy riffs on how Americans would like their political system to operate, and it is interesting to see this film follow in its footsteps." (L.A. Times, ‘Boy Meets Girl, Brings Along Secret Service’ November 17, 1995)

While the idealism of The American President and its revisionist liberal politics were intended to send a message to the public on behalf of the White House and President Clinton, it seems that a few years later Clinton may have taken his own ideas away from the film. In 1995 Clinton began his own romantic relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinksy. Unlike President Shepherd, however, Clinton was still very much still married to a quite alive Hillary. As "Monicagate" began to unravel, another film, stricken with a greater aptitude for cynicism, emerged.

By the time the Monica Lewinsky scandal was officially making headlines, Barry Levinson and David Mamet’s film Wag the Dog was in production. Released at the end of December of 1997, this film’s tagline was "A comedy about truth, justice and other special effects." With the presidential reality pulling in better ratings than any soap opera could imagine, the idea of the President’s spindoctors working to create a diversionary war to quell allegations of sexual misconduct seemed frighteningly possible.

The story of Wag the Dog focuses on Robert DeNiro as a Mr. Fixit political strategist, Conrad Brean, who is called in when rumors start to fly that the President took a young Firefly girl (complete with beret and all) into the back hallways of the Oval Office for a little inappropriate playtime. Calling in Dustin Hoffman’s Stanley Motss, a bigtime eccentric Hollywood producer based on real-life producer Robert Evans, the two decide to launch a fake war in Albania to distract the public and the media from the President’s misbehavior with this young girl.

At this point in Clinton’s presidency the fictional novel, but recognizable Clinton expose, Primary Colors had been released and was climbing best-seller lists. As a result, the idea of spindoctors and image specialists was not new. One of the key characters in Primary Colors, a woman named Libby who calls herself "The Dustbuster" because she goes around cleaning up after the President’s messy personal situations, clearly influenced the storyline for Wag the Dog, which opens completely aware of its perfect, ironic timing, by following a vacuum cleaner sweeping across the rugs in the White House. The stage is set and the film then follows Conrad Brean and Anne Heche’s Winifred Ames characters down into the depths of the basement of the White House, as if descending to view the White House’s seedy underbelly, to discuss their top-secret situation.

With Wag the Dog released at the midway point in Clinton’s presidency, the film was charged with not only offering up its own commentary but also with reflecting the lessons learned over the past few years. The real players now are once again spindoctors, image manipulators and speechwriters as were originally seen in The War Room. The president is simply the guy who keeps generating the trouble. When the film introduces us to Stanley Motss, the big-time Hollywood producer and soon-to-be-spindoctor, Anne Heche’s Winifred drives up and says, looking at the Motss’ house, "This is where he lives? This is bigger than the White House!" The spindoctors have once again been called to take center stage, both in the film and in real life.

The inspiration for Wag the Dog came from Larry Beinhart’s 1992 novel American Hero which, like The War Room, told the story of the political cover-up machine. Unlike the film, however, it took as its subject George Bush and the Gulf War, daring to proposed that the war was generated in order to boost Bush’s mediocre presidency. Bigger and better than reality, Wag the Dog dares to go where we only hope real life won’t. While we watch the Albanian war play out on Hollywood sound stages in the film, we know that this is not meant to be real, but that it is about reality. Also unlike reality, the Wag the Dog filmmakers have taken the time to slow down the usual pace of modern life’s speeding information and shape it into something more meaningful. Perhaps one of the reasons why Wag the Dog is more enjoyable than the live television coverage of the Gulf War or the Monica Lewinsky story is that we know we are watching a story. In real life, Wag the Dog reminds us that we often have to wonder. In Kenneth Turan’s review of the film, Turan summarized the strange spin that Wag the Dog has taken in relation to reality. "Underneath the humor, not surprisingly, "Wag" is making serious points about what's wrong with our political system and media culture. Of course we'd like to believe we're not all that gullible, that there is a limit to what we can be manipulated into, but the evidence points elsewhere." (L.A. Times, December 24 1997)

What Wag the Dog gets across more than anything is how images are manipulated on television and in the media. Images and the representation of the President and the images and representations of real-life wars are now so mixed up in the blitz of information that is constantly directed at audiences that what is real and what is not real can easily be interchanged. Within Wag the Dog there is a bit of dialogue that alludes to television and the media as the true corrupters of modern politics. Motss asks Winifred at one point "What did television ever do to you?" and she replies, in an haunting moment of foreshadowing for the 2000 Presidential Campaign, "It destroyed the electoral process."

When Wag the Dog was released, the premise began actively contributing to the ever-evolving situation of modern politics as it highlighted potential similarities. On August 21, 1998 President Clinton announced military strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan. It was then reported that "coverage of the military action drew attention away from Monica Lewinsky’s latest appearance before the Starr grand jury." Later, Defense Secretary William Cohen met with reporters who asked him if he had seen Wag the Dog. Cohen responded that "protecting American people from terrorists was ‘the sole motivation. No other consideration has been involved.’" In his review of the film Mike Clark of USA Today asked, "Do you somehow get the feeling that this movie wouldn’t even exist were Calvin Coolidge now in office?" (USA Today, "Wag the Dog: More playful than fierce", December 26, 1997) Critics of President Clinton’s invoked the term time and again to criticize or whitewash his actions.

Regardless of the film’s intentions, the timing of Wag the Dog will forever be linked to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. (The replayed media footage in Wag the Dog of the President hugging the Firefly girl is striking similar to the infamous footage of Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky, beret and all.) After Wag the Dog started production and before its release, President Bill Clinton became involved in the Monica scandal and simultaneously threatened military action against Iraq. Shortly after the film’s release, the President also began bombing Albania, the exact same country the theoretical war in Wag the Dog is staged against. Many questioned around this time whether the events of the Monica Lewinsky saga made Wag the Dog come true.

Despite all this, Barry Levinson continues to claim in interviews that the film is "not about Clinton." He explains that he never shows the President’s face "so to defer from a specific president focus." The similarities would attest otherwise, however. Even the premise, that the President has these allegations coming at him 14 days before re-election, resembles strongly Clinton’s own saga with Gennifer Flowers when her accusations came to light only 10 days before the Democratic Primary. Even the general idea that the current Democratic President will win re-election if only he can out-maneuver the scandals and allegations, which is posited in The American President as well as in Wag the Dog, recites Clinton’s own presidential circumstances. President Clinton was the only Democratic President to win re-election in the 20^th century other than F.D.R.

Primary Colors was released in the spring of 1998 as the calls for impeachment were growing louder and louder for President Clinton. The Monica scandal was in full effect and the "Comeback Kid" was looking for any way to come back from this one. Part of this hopeful comeback was staged by Mike Nichols in his casting of Hollywood’s own "Comeback Kid," John Travolta, in the roll of the very Clintonesque Jack Stanton. "John Travolta’s look and manner," says Mike LaSalle in his review, "the graying hair, the gravelly Southern voice, the swagger, are not meant merely to suggest President Clinton but flatly to imitate him." (SF Chronicle, Shades of Clinton, March 20, 1998) So with his hair dyed gray, his accent and verbal twitches refined to an exact replication of Bill Clinton’s, Travolta’s Jack Stanton reminds us that we knew Clinton’s troubled character when we elected him but we, not improperly, decided to elect him and everything good that he stood for anyway. By revisiting the past and reminding us of the other earlier scandals Clinton has overcome, the film aims to assure the public that the newest Clinton scandals could dissolve as nicely. Even more, Primary Colors reminds us of the honorable good guy version of Clinton that we’ve always loved (and wanted to believe in). The film’s tagline, "How much spin does it take to win?" echoes our knowledge that it’s just a matter of time before something else is spun to help us move past, and hopefully forget, our president’s inadequacies.

Underlying the story of Primary Colors is the transformation of an innocent everyman into a master politician (ringing the Dave bell yet again, or vice-versa). While within the film you’re never completely sure whether it totally approves or disapproves of Jack Stanton or not, a sweet omnipotent light shines down on him. Likewise, Emma Thompson, as Susan Stanton, another Hillary replica, also goes on-again and off-again from being a sweet woman to an absolute monster. Roger Ebert, in his review of the film, explains that "by not going behind their (the President and First Lady’s) bedroom door, by not eavesdropping on their private moments, the movie avoids having to explain what perhaps can never be understood." (Chicago Sun-Times, Primary Colors, March 20, 1998) Likewise, Primary Colors stays close enough to breed familiarity while staying far enough away to remain subjective and optimistic.

Once again, however, the core message of the film is captured by some key dialogue spoken by Henry, the lead character and our narrator. When Henry and Susan first meet, Henry says to her "it couldn’t always have been the way it is now. I’ve never heard a president use the words destiny and sacrifice without thinking ‘bullshit.’ Maybe it was bullshit with Kennedy too, but the people believed it and I guess that’s what I want. I want to believe it." This conveys the exact sentiment of the film adaptation of Primary Colors. It isn’t a matter of how things look now or whether what we see is real or not. It only matters that we continue to believe. As Jack Garner of USA Today said in his review, ultimately Primary Colors is "a film about picking your issues and your moments, and letting the rest go by. It’s about flawed people in a flawed system." (USA Today, "Colors’ a brilliant take on today’s news", December 17, 1999)

When Henry’s Black Advocate girlfriend appears midway into the film with allegations against Jack Stanton, Henry listens to her for a while and then finally stops and says "Why are you making this guy into the devil? Why don’t you at least get to know him? Spend a few days with us here." Reinvigorating hope in Stanton, and likewise Clinton, and at the same time questioning the intentions of the attack media is what Primary Colors hopes to convey. Garner’s review goes on to say "Primary Colors is also about the role of the media and the lowering of standards of the electorate." (USA Today, "Colors’ a brilliant take on today’s news", December 17, 1999)

As always, however, what the film aims to convey and what its audience takes away are not always the same things. Roger Ebert reviewed the film by saying, "Primary Colors would seem just as good, as tough and as smart, if there had never been a president named Bill Clinton." He then continues to say, "this is a grown-up film about real issues in the real world." Meanwhile Mike LaSalle of the SF Chronicle sees things a little differently. He says, "Primary Colors is a movie about Bill Clinton, pure and simple. It’s not a study of the American system or the American soul." (SF Chronicle, "Shades of Clinton. Primary Colors comes across as a good-natured prequel to current scandal", March 20, 1998) Barbara Shulgasser of the SF Examiner, angered by the film, adds, "You could easily argue that this movie is unabashedly pro-Clinton. But it also presents Stanton as a hedonist with bottomless appetites for donuts and women, a firecracker temper and a world view that is as often mind-bendingly selfish as it is munificent and generous." (SF Examiner, Seeing Red Over Primary Colors, March 20, 1998) Kenneth Turan of the L.A. Times explains that "as risqué as its speculations seemed when (Joe) Klein was still anonymous, the rush of history, epitomized by the tale of Monica Lewinsky, has overtaken and surpassed what’s been put on the screen." (L.A. Times, Primary Colors: Inspired Insinuation, March 20, 1998)

After Primary Colors, Monicagate and the impeachment hearings, there was little else for Clinton’s legacy to do besides sort itself out and see where it could stand tall and proud and still genuinely make a difference in history. After the Senate’s acquittal, Clinton began making attempts to reenergize his domestic agenda. He also started playing a supporting role to his wife Hillary as campaigner, supporter, and fundraiser.

Without adopting the gray hair and recognizable southern accent, Bridge’s President Evans loafs around the White House, generally abusing the kitchen staff for anything that might fill his stomach’s desires, while only occasionally standing firm to fight for what he believes in. As Peter Travers says "this president is a Clintonesque chowhound; he’ll shamelessly interrupt a White House meeting to call the kitchen." (Rolling Stone, October 13, 2000) Behaving as if he is only days from retirement, President Evans meanders about counseling younger politicians, lounging in the Oval Office and all the while only truly contemplating his legacy. The crux of the film this time involves the President watching his nominee, Senator Laine Hanson, as she struggles with character debates that could only truly be rivaled by those of Clinton himself.

Stepping back from the verbal warfare of the previous Clintonesque films, The Contender represents the politicians symbolically as game-players. The politics involved and the strategies of each character are reflected in the sports that occupy their spare time. Laine Hanson prefers a straight, long, dedicated run around Arlington Cemetery. Her father, the Republican who banters back and forth with her now that she has switched sides to the Democratic Party, suitably plays tennis. Shelly Runyon, the vicious Republican evildoer, prefers the more aggressive game of basketball. Meanwhile, the calm, cool and goofy President Evans prefers to bowl, lining up his pins and then only striking when he can knock them all down at once.

This time the Hillary-replica is Laine Hanson. As played by Joan Allen, Hanson is a smaller, more conservative and sophisticated version of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hanson’s nomination for Vice-President stirs controversy when Republican Speaker of House Shelly Runyon, played by Gary Oldman, decides to launch a smear campaign against her in an effort to get his own choice, Governor Jack Hathaway, in as Vice-President. Digging up old photographs that seem to show Hanson participating in an orgy while in college, Runyon releases the photos and then proceeds to interrogate and assassinate her with questions of character for the remainder of the film. Her decision to take the 5^th Amendment when asked about her supposed participation in this orgy only seems to make matters worse.

The Clintonesque president is not under attack in this situation but his "First Lady" is. In this scenario, a parallel is drawn between Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign in New York as Senator and fictional Laine Hanson’s quest for the vice-presidency. In both cases it is President Clinton or the Clintonesque President who stands by, supporting the leading lady into victory. "Because the lusty Laine is identified with liberalism, abortion, and affirmative action, she becomes the object of a vast right-wing conspiracy. She will be hillary’d" explains J. Hoberman in his Village Voice review of the film. (J. Hoberman, Village Voice, "A Conspiracy So Vast", October 11, 2000)

President Jackson Evans says at one point that "filling this slot may very well be [his] swan song." Likewise the campaign and successful election of Hillary Rodham Clinton may likewise be Bill Clinton’s presidential swan song. However what The Contender aims to do is reflect on the Clinton presidency and pose a new spin on what are now old battles. Rather than defending oneself against character accusations, The Contender urges the end of these types of investigations into a person’s character, morality and past once and for it. What is interesting is the way it does this.

Even more, the posed solution to the character debate question in The Contender reflects a policy put into place early in Clinton’s career in relation to gays in the military. The policy of "Don’t ask, don’t tell" is essentially the final resolution proposed by The Contender. As Roger Ebert explains in his review, "whether you are in sympathy with the movie may depend on which you found more disturbing. The questions of the Starr commission, or Clinton’s attempts to avoid answering them." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, "The Contender", October 13, 2000)

Mike Clark in his USA Today review said "Bill Clinton’s remarkable political survival makes it a little easier to accept that this president would continue to stick with his choice even after she refuses on principle to comment on the revelation." (USA Today, "Contender lacks power to persuade", October 12, 2000) As a gender switching response to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, The Contender asks potent questions with an impassioned plea for integrity in public service. "Cheesy as the movie is, it allows the actress (Joan Allen) to play Bill to her own Monica and emerge from the Washington cesspool satisfyingly unbesmirched." (J. Hoberman, Village Voice, "A Conspiracy So Vast", October 11, 2000)

While asking, however, The Contender also attempts to assert it’s own preference. In one scene a young Congressman Webster, as played by Christian Slater, chats with President Evans while looking around the White House at some of its more famous presidential paintings. While standing under the portrait of JFK with his arms crossed and his head bowed, President Evans proposes that Webster may one day be President himself and that perhaps he is "destined to make the kind of changes that only great men can make when given the chance." Alluding to the greatness of all presidents past, The Contender, aware his pending seat in history, aims to redeem Clinton in this likeness.