In his discussion of who is the best fictional president, Jack writes:
Thomas Whitmore is a great choice. Not only did President Whitmore (played by Bill Pullman) maintain national (and global!) morale during the cataclysmic alien invasion depicted in Independence Day. He also personally flew in the combat mission that led to the aliens’ worldwide defeat. Pity the poor soul who had to go up against this man for reelection.
Clearly, Whitmore would have been unbeatable on his own merits. But he’d also have been helped on his way by the destruction of a bunch of areas that tend to vote for the Democrats. (Whitmore is a Republican, obviously.) Among the cities that were wiped out by the aliens were Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. and the Northern Virginia suburbs, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix, Houston, Detroit, and San Francisco. Really, the question isn’t whether Whitmore would have won re-election; it’s whether he’d have won all fifty states in the course of doing so.