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Because of abysmal ratings, ABC has got to be glad that Monday nights aren't for football at the time being, instead freeing up time for Monday night movies, like tonight's broadcast of Air Force One. I don't know if ABC had made a decision to provide some crucial support to President Bush before tomorrow night's Presidential address, but as NBC was probably showing some Queer Eye special and CBS was almost certainly doing some seditious CSI: Gitmo episode, I'm still glad there's one network still willing to call itself the American Broadcast Company.

Anyway, what's interesting now about the movie are the startling similarities between its plot and President Bush's War on Terror. Leaving aside minor details, like the fact that Harrison Ford's President Marshall actually attacks the right guys, it's actually kind of remarkable how similar the characters are.

1) Like President Bush, the fictional President Marshall was a highly decorated Vietnam-era pilot who won the Medal of Honor, though to be honest I can't remember if President Bush was actually in Vietnam or not. And I think that he didn't win the Medal of Honor, but in a highly creative use of the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court decided to give it to him anyway.

2) Like President Mitchell, President Bush speaks a foreign language, though President Mitchell spoke Russian fluently in the film, and President Bush's Spanish is so proficient that when he speaks in English, it actually sounds like he thought of it first in Spanish and than had to translate it on the fly.

3) Like President Mitchell, President Bush does an outstanding cha-cha, though I think that at this point in the film, a combination of summer heat/humidity and single-malt had made me fall asleep, so I woke up in the middle of a commercial for Dancing with the Stars. To be honest, although I have dreamt often and longingly of it, I have never actually seen President Bush dance. And it wouldn't make sense for President Mitchell to dance in the movie. I mean, there were Russian terrorists on the plane!

This was a clever if ultimately unsuccessful way for ABC to protect its operating license from the FCC. Tomorrow night, just after President Bush addresses the nation, ABC will begin its summer miniseries Empire, which has "Homeland Security," "interrupted broadcast," and "summary executions of cast and crew" written all over it. Remind me to take it easy on the single malt tomorrow night. I don't want to miss any of the carnage!

Late update: Oops! The President's name in the movie is Marshall, not Mitchell. My apologies to the screenwriters and to whichever historical figures they based the guy on.