Geena Davis is 'Commander' of the Tuesday night schedule (UPDATE)

I watched 'Commander in Chief' on Tuesday night, because ABC is one of the two stations that actually come in over the air at my apartment. Also, it was on right after 'According to Jim,' a sitcom my wife and I enjoy, so it was easy to just keep sitting there for the next show.

In general, I liked the pilot of the new show. I found the premise incredibly interesting, though I didn't quite enjoy the politics it embodied. Her first act as President is to completely overrule the established traditions of a foreign country? I think that's a bit over-pompous. I agree that, from a humanitarian perspective, it was the decent thing to do. However, her title as newly sworn in President is not 'Humanitarian in Chief.' She is supposed to be the political leader of the world's most powerful nation, and her little feminist ideals have no place behind a desk in the Oval Office.

But I found it interesting primarily as a political thought experiment. I'll probably keep watching it to see where the writers take story, but I don't know that the political stances taken by one Mackenzie Allen will appeal to me. (Of course, I once dated a girl named McKenzie, so the name itself inspired a small bit of loathing right from the start.)

One of the more clever things the creators of the show did was to create a fake political blog on the ABC website to track the events of the show in the newest style of political reporting. The greatest part is the "reader comments" at the bottom, that include slang and slight grammatical errors to make it seem more like the communities inspired around real poliblogs. Its formatting and grammar is still much more correct than an actual Web community, though.

UPDATE 9/30/05: The other really interesting thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that this show's premise would really be the only way to have a president who is not beholden to either of the parties in our political system. I really like the idea of having an Independent president (or governor, or anything powerful for that matter) who does not stiffly bow to the wishes of either group. I feel that the Republicans and the Democrats, as political units, have lost touch with the people they purport to govern. California has come close with our Governator, but the Democrat legislators (not to mention the unions and special interests) are keeping his hands tied and dampening his efficiency.