Who is President Merkin Muffley

Overall, I like President Muffley. He is the calming voice of sanity among the loonies in the War Room. He is able to think clearly in a disastrous situation and not get swept up in irrational emotions.

What was Muffley's outlook before this crisis hit? Here's what I think. While the rest of the world was worrying about the dangers of the nuclear buildup, I think Muffley was sleeping peacefully at night. He was the only person in the entire country who had the authority to order a nuclear attack, and he knew that he was never going to do it. The only other person in the world who could start a nuclear war would be Dimitri Kisov, the Russian premier, and that wasn't likely to happen either, because he and Dimitri knew each other. They had an understanding, you know? So Muffley knew that everything was going to be OK as long as he was in office.

Except, of course, for the fact that he had supported some "contingency" plans that ended up being exploited and used to start a first-strike nuclear attack without his permission. That should have been examined more thoroughly.

Some people accuse President Muffley of being weak or wimpy, but that is not a bit true. Check him out here, standing up to General Turgidson. He makes it clear that he's not about to abandon his principles or be bullied by this loudmouth:

Yes, Muffley did take an extremely apologetic tone when he was talking to Premier Kisov. But he had a valid reason for doing that. He coddled Dimitri because Dimitri needed to be coddled.

First of all, Kisov was partying and intoxicated at the time. We all know that you have to be patient and repetitive when you talk to drunk folks.

Second, the reason Muffley was calling Kisov was to tell him that a rogue general had just ordered an unprovoked nuclear attack on his country and the planes can't be recalled! When you're bearing that kind of news, I think it makes a lot of sense to be generous with the mea culpas. That's not being a wuss. That's having people skills.