busker

I'm increasingly worried by ABC's trailers for their forthcoming Commander-In-Chief (Tuesdays, 9/8c), starring Geena Davis as Mackenzie Allen, a leaderene I could all too easily follow.

Even her name means business.

In fact, all the names are good and so is the casting, including the great Donald Sutherland as a machiavellian "Nathan Templeton", another of those Iago-esque characterizations he's made his own as he's matured into the consummate oily bad guy over the years.

What worries me is that this is *not* a good time for TV presidents to overshadow or invite unfavorable comparison with the current un-prepossessing White House occupant.

I'm not on the voter rolls, but last time round my shrink had to break it to me extremely gently that nice Martin Sheen wasn't actually in the running.

Rather than tease us with frustratingly convincing actors in the part, it should be television's patriotic duty to doctor the comparisons so that Bush isn't left looking a total pigmy.

Why not cast closer to Dubya's moral stature and looks - David Spade or Ray Romano, say, against whom Dubya could pass as a contender?

Ms Davis' arrival on our screens can only sow unrest - how else react to the sight of a handsome woman playing president who, with one commanding flair of her nostrils, signals more presence and authority than Barbara's boy in a month of malapropisms?

If only for morale, where *are* our media watchdogs when actually needed?