By Robert Isenberg
Special to MSN Entertainment

If you're a concerned citizen who votes in presidential every election, you've probably faced the age-old dilemma: Which potential president is the lesser of two evils? Whose State of the Union address would I rather watch for five minutes before flipping to ESPN? And why can't these aspiring statesmen be more like our favorite fictional presidents? With political TV series such as "Commander-in-Chief" and "The West Wing," studios can imagine the president of our dreams (or nightmares), where the executive branch is fully exposed, where audiences are privy to every moral debate and behind-the-scenes deal. We can jet across the nation in Air Force One, listening to the gripes and gamesmanship of the presidents' most loyal advisors, without having to leave the comfort of our couches. Whether they're actual, re-imagined presidents or they're invented from high-minded scratch, these commanders-in-chief can be just as appealing (sometimes more so) than the politicians we actually elect.

Well, this is your chance to cast your ballot for the TV president you'd like to see seated in the Oval Office. Some candidates are die-hard favorites; others are more obscure. Some have a sense of humor; others are deadly serious. A couple candidates are familiar from social studies class and at least one is an almost-forgotten dark horse. Whatever you do, vote your conscience.

Mackenzie Allen
(Geena Davis)
"Mac," as her colleagues call her, has endured a long and winding road -- and the White House has always seemed like an unlikely home for TV's most famous female president. She started out as a moderate Republican and became an Independent. She only ran for vice president. And her status as the titular "Commander-in-Chief" was sort of an accident, made possible by President Bridges' fatal (and fateful) stroke. But despite her strange and coincidental journey, President Allen has stepped up the plate -- and faced off with the powerful alpha-males who would see her downfall. She's had her shaky moments, but President Allen has out-strategized even Nathan Templeton, the leering (and bigoted) speaker of the House. This may be the world's toughest job, but Allen has the guts for it. It takes a strong prez to write a resignation speech -- and a stronger one to abandon it and forge ahead.

David Palmer
(Dennis Haysbert)
Until his untimely death this season, David Palmer was an unshakable moralist and a driving force of "24." Logical, authoritative and dedicated to the safety of the American people, President Palmer was forced to make some of the toughest calls in the history of national security: Declare war on the Middle East or wait for true evidence of wrongdoing? Sacrifice your immaculate reputation or provide a cover-up for your brother's womanizing? To torture or not to torture? Savvy and dignified, President Palmer was TV's first vision of an African-American head of state -- and he embodied both public charisma and shrewd intelligence. Real leaders could take notes.

Jed Bartlet
(Martin Sheen) 
Folksy and fiery, Jed Bartlet has been leading his administration for seven seasons -- and his supporters love him. Since "The West Wing" first aired, Bartlet has been a progressive's dream: a stately New Englander, a Nobel laureate, a passionate economist who slam-dunked the SAT's -- and a fan of covered bridges to boot. Barlet isn't perfect -- aside from sneaking a cigarette (and the hijinx of catching his tie on fire), he was also slow to stop the Kundunese genocide. But for a guy who had to rescue his daughter from kidnappers (and did so within 72 hours), Bartlet is a crafty statesman, both wise and courageous, and just eccentric enough to keep things interesting.

Henry Hayes
(William Devane)
When it comes to foreign policy, President Hayes of "Stargate SG-1" is your man -- especially when the foreigners are ancient aliens from across the galaxy. Leave it to Hayes to try to negotiate through a hologram-communicator with Goa'uld Anubis, the extraterrestrial invader, and don't expect Hayes to just back off and start evacuating the planet Earth. Oh, no -- we may not know his stance on Social Security, but when it comes to how to handle the "Stargate," "kicking ass" is the only platform this president needs.

Julia Mansfield
(Patty Duke)
Like Garfield and Polk before her, President Julia Mansfield has been largely buried beneath the sands of time. Surviving only seven episodes in 1985, President Mansfield was a goofy sitcom prelude to Mackenzie Allen -- if only because she was the first woman president on TV. "Hail to the Chief" didn't gain much of a constituency, but Mansfield's White House was host to a wealth of presidential tomfoolery: An impotent husband, impending nuclear war, her son involved in a sex scandal -- plus the coarse words of a glasnost-defying Soviet premier and a Bible-thumping reverend. If politics is a joke, Mansfield provided some delightful punch lines.

George W. Bush
(Timothy Bottoms)
The Dubya of "That's My Bush" was simple, straight-shooting and a little dim -- but with Laura nagging him about all his half-baked schemes, George would grasp the bigger, brighter picture at the end of every story arc. Living in a sitcom version of the White House, where a whimsical neighbor would often drop by and the vice president had the fumbling comic timing of George Costanza, President Bush was like a grown-up kid, picking up life lessons and finishing every episode with his unnerving catchphrase: "One of these days, Laura, I'm gonna punch you in the face!" Understandably, this series, invented by the twisted creators of "South Park," was cancelled after the fallout of Sept. 11, and is rarely brought up in pedestrian conversation.

Abraham Lincoln
(Dann Florek)
Even the real Abraham Lincoln wasn't killed as instantaneously as "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer," the 1998 sitcom that spanned only three dismal episodes. The show featured a raunchy, hoopskirt-chasing Lincoln, oblivious to the Civil War and lacking in any moral judgment, as witnessed through the eyes of Desmond Pfeiffer, his English (and African-American) butler. While we at MSN are generally opposed to smear campaigns, we can't deny that this show's version of Honest Abe -- and its concept in general -- merited swift impeachment.

Robert Isenberg is a Pittsburgh-based writer, actor and playwright. He is co-author of The Pittsburgh Monologue Project.