In the latest episode of “Salvation,” the TV series about government officials. media people, and capitals of industry behaving badly while an asteroid approaches to destroy the world, we finally get to meet the president of the United States. Fascinatingly the POTUS is not a brash, orange haired former businessman and reality TV star. President Mackenzie is a woman played by Tovah Feldshuh, who has already had experience playing doomed, female authority figures, having already played Deanna Moore the original leader of Alexandria in “The Walking Dead.”

Female presidents depicted on TV shows

A number of TV shows that were under development before the election portrayed a female president.

This casting decision was entirely understandable. Most pundits were pretty sure that Hillary Clinton was going to be elected as chief executive in the real world. Few people anticipated that Donald Trump was going to steal a march on Clinton and take the presidency out from under her. Many people still don’t believe it.

Women presidents in both “Homeland” and “Salvation” are not coming off very well. The one in “Homeland” is paranoid and ideologically driven, willing to violate the United States Constitution to get her way and to impose her will on the intelligence community and the military. The president in “Salvation” has a different problem altogether.

Is the POTUS in ‘Salvation’ being poisoned?

For several episodes of ‘Salvation”, the audience has been teased with lines of dialogue that indicate that the president is not a well woman. We see this first hand during the meeting with Darius and Grace when she seems engaged and decisive at first but then stops with bouts of what appears to be crushing headaches.

These headaches eventually wreck an address to the nation on television and result in her removal from office.

“Salvation” has been a fascinating show that hardly anyone is watching, that has introduced a number of technological concepts, such as the EM drive. However, the series is also using the well-worn trope of a secret government conspiracy to use the asteroid to change the balance of power on the planet.

President Mackenzie is clearly out of her depth for allowing this cabal to work its will under her nose.

Possibly the “sickness” she is suffering, that sounds like a series of mini-strokes, is the result of systematic poisoning. This scenario would mean that the president’s personal physician would have to be in on the conspiracy. In any case, one wonders why a woman who is having these attacks is not being treated at Walter Reed. Some explanation ought to be forthcoming.