A Natural Leader, Josiah Bartlet of the West Wing has been voted Best Movie President at Blockbuster.co.uk

(PRWEB) November 6, 2008 -- Feeling excluded from America's thrilling Presidential race, members of online DVD rental site Blockbuster.co.uk held their own presidential election (http://www.blockbuster.co.uk/bbsitecontent/editorial/promotions/october08/presidentialsurvey.aspx) - to find their favourite movie President. After a furious campaign pitting the greatest film and TV Presidents against one another, and after several re-counts (although the Supreme Court was not involved), Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, as featured in The West Wing, won the popular vote.

Powerfully portrayed by screen legend Martin Sheen for seven years, Josiah Bartlet represents the perfect American President: clever, honest, articulate and compassionate but tough when needed. Bartlet has inspired movie lovers at Blockbuster.co.uk so much that many enthusiastic voters recorded they "would follow him to the end of the world" as he is a "natural leader".

A liberal, well educated Commander-in-Chief able to converse in English, German and, less usefully, Latin; President Bartlet's key accomplishments include negotiating a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine, creating millions of jobs and tackling global warming, all issues close to the hearts of Blockbuster voters.

The West Wing's Josiah Bartlet was followed closely by fellow Democrat David Palmer, of 24 fame. A President with real honesty and integrity, brilliantly played by Dennis Haysbert, David Palmer had to contend with his own war on terror, but never once wavered from his belief in civil rights and treating people fairly. In an interview earlier this year with the Associated Press, Haysbert claimed his role as a black US President may have benefited Barack Obama as it "helped open the eyes of the American People".

In third place, and the first Republican in the race for Blockbuster.co.uk's White House, was President Arnold Schwarzenegger, as voiced by Harry Shearer in The Simpsons Movie. Although the US Constitution currently prevents the real Schwarzenegger from running for President, in the animated world of The Simpsons, he finds a way. Key reasons given by the voters who chose him included "He's cool" and "I could have a beer with him".

In a Sam Adams / Roper Starch poll held just before the 2000 election, the majority of voters said they'd rather sit down to drink a beer with George Bush than Al Gore, and we all know how that election turned out. So action legend Arnie shouldn't feel too bad about coming in third, if things were different he'd surely be in with the best of chances.

Female President Mackenzie Allen, as played by Geena Davis in Commander in Chief, came last, below all the other Presidential finalists. But Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin shouldn't lose too much sleep as the vote was more a reflection of how few voters have seen the show rather than any particular gender bias.

Other candidates in the poll included President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) from Air Force One, President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) from Independence Day, President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) from The American President, and President Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman) from Deep Impact.

Blockbuster.co.uk members were invited to place their votes to elect their favourite movie President. As with the real Presidential election, early voting was allowed and over a third of all votes were placed in the opening week, with a resurgence of support at the end of the campaign for the final choice.

All top DVD rentals (http://www.blockbuster.co.uk/bbsitecontent/editorial/promotions/charts/charts.aspx) and new DVD releases (http://www.blockbuster.co.uk/searchandbrowse/new.aspx) are available from Blockbuster.co.uk for past and present movies featuring U.S. presidents. Many movies are also available on Blu-ray disc.

Blockbuster (http://www.blockbuster.co.uk) Inc. (NYSE: BBI and BBI.B) was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1985 and is a leading global provider of in-home rental, retail movie and game entertainment.

In 20 years, Blockbuster has grown from a single video rental store to nearly 9000 company-operated and franchised stores throughout the United States, its territories and 23 other countries.

The first Blockbuster store in the UK opened in March 1989 (Walworth Road, London) and the UK is now the largest Blockbuster business outside the US, with over 700 stores and about 4.2 million member accounts. Blockbuster.co.uk has around 1 million registered members and about 750,000 newsletter subscribers.

Blockbuster's goal is to be a complete source for movies and games, and the company is continually looking for ways to offer its customers more value, choice and convenience. To this end, in September 2002, Blockbuster UK introduced its online DVD rental service. This service has grown and now allows customers to have access to almost every DVD available in the UK.

Blockbuster.co.uk provides the latest releases and also gives its customers much more choice from classic titles, foreign films, music DVDs, interactive game DVDs, language DVDs and popular TV series.

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