Jonathan McKenna

PHASE 1

President Jonathan McKenna
Portrayed by Cotter Smith
Known Aliases:	None
Affiliations:	President of the United States of America

Socked By:
Introduction:	X2

President Jonathan McKenna - 43rd President of the United States of America.

John McKenna was a trial lawyer and District Attorney from Illinois that went on to a spectacular coup in seizing the governorship from his political rival in 1995. After four years as the 'law and order' governor, he moved to run for the presidency. Coming out as a moderate candidate, he won his party's nomination and in a tightly-contested election, the office of the 43rd President of the United States. After winning the close election, McKenna has emerged as a strong voice for voting controls, and one of his first initiatives has been to call for federal guidelines on voting systems.

The terrorist attacks by the Brotherhood of Mutants during the international conference on Liberty Island shocked the country, and ignited the dreams of many of McKenna's neo-con advisors. He had supported Senator Robert Kelly's 'Mutant Registration Act' in Congress, and was surprised when his old friend suddenly flip-flopped on the issue.

After an attempted assassination by Nightcrawler, the President was ready to push the Mutant Registration Act through via Executive Order, but when the X-Men revealed the actions that William Stryker had taken, McKenna shifted the focus of his presidency to a less reactionary stance.

McKenna has ordered a ban on all non-government sanctioned research into the manipulation of mutant genes, fearing a new genetic side to terrorism and war in the wake of discovering Stryker's projects such as Weapon X. When the Mistra program came to government attention after the incident at Columbia University, he established a special joint task force that successfully shut Mistra down, with the cooperation of the X-Men. McKenna endorsed the new UN mandate banning the use of mutants in a military fashion, and has terminated all of the United States' research and programs involving weaponizing mutant powers for national defense. His encounters with the X-Men have made him question the validity of mutant registration, although he still feels that the greater good of the public requires protection. In that vein, he's worked to build strong ties with Charles Xavier, seeing him as a leading voice in the mutant community.

McKenna handily won his 2004 re-election, although both candidates wisely kept the government's role in the Stryker incident out of the media. Approaching the last two years of his term, McKenna's skill in bipartisan compromise and canny political sense has given him a strong approval rating, despite his unpopular stance against his party on the mutant issue.

In the wake of the San Diego earthquake, President McKenna has made personal visits to the devastated areas, and has spoken publicly about the threat Magneto represents to American interests at home and abroad.

He was replaced as President in January 2009 by Barack Obama.