William R. Thornton (Napoleon's World)

William Robert "Bill" Thornton (born August 4, 1955) served as the President of the United States of American from January 7, 2010 to January 20, 2013. A Democrat from Arkansas, he was the Vice President of President Jay Leno from January 20, 2005 until his predecessor's resignation in 2010 following his third major heart attack in one year. Thornton served previously from 1994 to 2005 as a United States Senator for Arkansas and as the US Representative for Arkansas's 4th District from 1991 until 1994, when he was appointed to the U.S. Senate to replace the late Jim Guy Tucker by Governor Ray Thornton (no relation).

Thornton's Presidency was defined by a series of scandals, including a major international incident in which he was rumored to have aggressively flirted with a member of the English Prime Minister's household staff bordering on harassment, an economic slowdown in late 2010 turning into recession by 2011, and a revolt by the Democratic Party's left wing after Thornton acquiesced to the bulk of the National Party's 2011 budget. His approval rating bottomed out at 32% in November of 2011, costing Democrats governorships in Mississippi, Kentucky and Louisiana they had been expected to win after his aggressive campaigning in his native south. Thornton contested the 2012 Democratic primaries, expecting to defeat a split field of liberals with his more conservative base in the South, but the random order of states in the primary front-loaded contests in the Midwest and West Coast, where he was decisively defeated in the early California and Pacifica primary, placing fourth in the latter. Thornton announced on February 9, 2012, that he would not continue to seek the Presidency.