I’m enjoying the Saturday discussion prompts at the My Friend Amy blog, so I thought I’d respond to this week’s as well. The question: Who is your favorite and least favorite fictional politician? I’ll stick with Harry Potter on this. Feel free to answer either from Harry Potter (considering every member of the Ministry is a politician in one way or another) or from any other kind of fiction.
- My favorite: You’ll have a hard time guessing this one, won’t you? Albus Dumbledore, of course – primarily because, in good libertarian fashion, he turned down the Minister position 3 times, prefering to work in the fields of justice (Wizengamot), international cooperation, and education. Honorable mention: Arthur Weasley, who wouldn’t compromise principle to get more recognition and power.
- My least favorite: Delores Umbridge – and by least favorite, I mean that I hated her, not that she’s not a brilliant character. Honorable mention: Lucius Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge. I never liked Scrimgeour, but he died defending Harry, so you can’t get too mad at him.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I enjoyed reading your answers – definitely among the most unique for today so far. Got my answers up at Free Spirit blog-
http://tinyurl.com/72obo4
Hi,
I’m not sure that I would include Lucius Malfoy as a politician. I look at him more as a lobbyist as he gives his money to influence the politicians (such as Fudge). As for Arthur Weasley and other members of the Ministry, I would say that just because he works for the Ministry this does not make him a politician.
My favorite, Kingsly.
Just my thoughts.
Jim
Travis, both are excellent choices. Dumbledore is kind of an anti-politician, because he knows power isn’t good for him. He does hold two political offices though.
I couldn’t think of any politicians right now outside of HP. So my favorite is:
Mr. Oblansk/Obalonsk, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, because he makes a fool out of Fudge since everyone assumed he couldn’t speak English. Seems like a much cleverer man than Fudge.
I think the Board of Governors for Hogwarts deserves a mention because of how Malfoy was able to push them around in Chamber. Not very much political courage there.
Jim, good point about Lucius.
I had the same thought about Arthur, until I remembered that he was the one who introduced the Muggle Protection Act, which means he has some measure of power to introduce legislation. As we would consider all our members of Congress politicians, I think it’s fair to put Arthur in the category.
I chose a Harry Potter example. Here is my post
I I have an author visiting my blog on Monday. There’s a book giveaway involved!
Fictional Leaders
Least Favorite: The Enchanter from David and Karen Mains’ “Tales of the Kingdom” series. (A series which I don’t think I’ve ever seen discussed here, and it surprises me.) The Enchanter scared me to death when I was a kid.
Favorite: President Palmer from 24.