 The presidents full name in the movie is William Harrison Mitchell;  William Henry Harrison was a real president elected in 1840 and the  first president to die in office. The vice president in the movie is  named Nance; John Nance Garner was Franklin D. Roosevelts vice  president for two terms, and once derided the job as not being  "worth a pitcher of warm piss" (bowdlerized at the time and often  misquoted as "spit").