Presidents on Film: A Bleg

I haven't done a bleg in ages; I hope this one works as well as the last one did.

This summer I'll be conducting a teachers workshop on "The Presidency and Presidential Elections." Friends University does dozens of these every summer, to help elementary and secondary school teachers pick up credit hours towards an eventual degree, and also just to help them develop or upgrade lesson plans for the coming year. This is the first time I'll be teaching one, and I'm not too worried; though it'll be a different kind of audience than I've ever had before, the subject matter shouldn't be a problem, especially given that we've already had more than enough drama this election cycle to fill up discussions about political primaries, the electoral college, frontloading, fundraising, and all the rest. But I'm thinking about how I'm going to present these discussions, since I want to do it in such a way that will provide some resources which those in the workshop can then take into their classrooms (they'll all be middle school and high school teachers, if that matters). I'm putting together some interactive stuff that may work, but I also want to make use of the medium which most of their students are going to be more familiar with: movies. And so, I ask you, my Internet Friends--what are some of the best films, or short bits of films, that I could recommend or show in the workshop as part of a discussion of presidents, presidential elections, and the presidency?

I'm completely open insofar as "historical" vs. "contemporary" presentations are concerned; just so long as the film itself or some excerpt from it can be use to demonstrate a point. There are, of course, the big guns I could haul out: Seven Days in May, Primary Colors, Fail-Safe, and I could do so...except all of those films feature pretty outlandish or historically-specific characters and scenarios, and thus trying to use them as a way of talking about the sort of people who run for president, the sort of people who surround a president, and the sort of decisions presidents and the people around them have to make, may be difficult. But then again, maybe not. What I'm hoping for is some scene out there, some plot point or storyline (even a minor one) that I could use to exemplify the reality (or the perception) of presidential requirements, power, responsibilities, limitations, and agendas. I've never seen Oliver Stone's Nixon; anyone know if there's anything there? How about The Best Man? (Like my class on politics and the movies back in Arkansas, this may be a fun opportunity for me to check out a bunch of films that have been on my to-see list for ages.) Or how about any of the romantic comedies featuring presidents? Dave and The American President are, if I remember correctly, fun but basically worthless (though Martin Sheen's A.J. MacInerney kills me in the latter film), but maybe there's something in State of the Union?

Hey, speaking of Sheen, there is of course The West Wing. No doubt there's tons of stuff there, assuming the workshop attenders don't run screaming from the room at the sound of Aaron Sorkin's dialogue. My wife and I watched the show pretty faithfully for the first three or so seasons, then got burned out. Any particular episodes come to mind as a likely prospect? I'm remembering lots of angsty drama and clever executive maneuvering but nothing particularly, well, real.