"The American President" is a romantic comedy about a widowed American President (Michael Douglas) trying to pursue a "normal" relationship with his lobbyist love interest (Annette Benning). It is also a story about the President's quest for re-election, and the political trade-offs he and his party are willing to accept in order to secure votes. Would the American public want a President that is willing to forsake his own principles, his own political platform, in order to be voted back into office for another term?