It’s Simple: Logan’s My Kind of President

A recent New York Times review of new books on Abraham Lincoln began this way: “Today we look to television for our presidential ideals.” The reviewer made indirect reference to “West Wing” and “Commander-in-Chief” and described the requisite presidential traits as “fantastically wise, eloquent, decisive, patient, capable, hard-working, sympathetic and open-minded.”

If that’s the way you want your TV presidents, fine.

As for me, I’ll take President Charles Logan from “24.” You want a president with issues? This guy has issues.

I’d love to see presidential biographer David McCullough do 500 pages on the Logan presidency, the highlights of which so far include being willing to commit the first lady to a mental hospital, to contemplate a deal in which terrorists would assassinate the visiting Russian president, and to sign off on the presumed nerve-gas deaths of several hundred Americans in a shopping mall.

And in the classic “24” format, this has all happened before dinnertime.

As Logan tried to explain to his wife in describing one particularly vexing dilemma: “It’s not that simple.”

How’s that for the title of a presidential biography?

When I was a schoolboy, history books glorified presidents. Honest Abe and the Father of Our Country were the gold standard, but there wasn’t much drop-off when you got to Jefferson, the two Roosevelts and Old Hickory.

But none of them was as entertaining as Charles Logan, vice president last season when Air Force One was shot down as part of a terrorist plot to launch a nuclear missile. Unfortunately, the president was on board. He survived but was unable to continue in his duties.

Enter Mr. Logan and, for my money, one of the great TV characters in recent times.

The earliest reference I can find on the “24” program guide was last season -- at 10:58 p.m. That’s when President Keeler, knowing his plane might be targeted, tells Logan to stay the course. Seventy minutes later, at 12:08 a.m., the episode guide notes: “President Logan heads to the bunker.”

That probably doesn’t qualify as staying the course -- Logan’s advisor suggested he remain in the Oval Office as a sign of confidence -- but Logan is equipped with a survival instinct.

Gregory Itzin plays Logan and bears a resemblance to Richard Nixon. “24” fanatics can argue whether that’s a coincidence, but to me it’s beside the point. Logan is his own man.

He’s a real man. Not a real good one, but a real one. Do you prefer a president who feigns knowledge and instinct, or Logan, described by “24” creators as “paralyzed with fear in being forced to make a decision.”

Within the first hour of his presidency, Logan had called in a previous president for help. Would George W. Bush have thought of that?

When the former president’s plan originally backfires, Logan blames him for creating “the worst disaster in U.S. history.” And later, when everything turns out as well as could be expected, he says to him: “You played a role.”

That is the Logan we’ve come to love. Incapable of making his own decisions, he delegates, leaving him free to blame others when things go wrong and take credit when things work out.

In short, Everyman as president. It makes for great theater, considering that the president is the perfect counterpoint to series star Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer, a heroic, afraid-of-nothing counterterrorism agent.

Jack Bauer is who Charles Logan wants to be.

We Americans like to mythologize.

But not everyone can be George Washington.

Someone had to be Charles Logan.

Can we accept Charles Logan as president, even a TV one? A petty, fearful, calculating, smarmy president?

Why do I have the feeling that the republic has probably survived worse?