Forum: scifi.stackexchange.com
Tags: <harry-potter><quidditch>
Title: "Potter for President" - President of what?
Question: Not sure, whether to ask here, or at English.SE, but at Harry's first Quidditch match his friends held up a banner saying: " Potter for President ".  What does it mean? I'm sure it must be some kind of cheer. But is it a common thing to say? Or does have it anything to do with Quidditch? Is the seeker who caught the snitch called President?

Answers:
sents: text: In the American version published by Scholastic Press in chapter eleven there is the text: Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row.
text: As a surprise for Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined.
text: It said Potter for President, and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryffindor lion underneath.
text: Then Hermione had performed a tricky little charm so that the paint flashed different colors.
text: and a few lines later:
text: Out of the corner of his eye he (i.e. Harry) saw the fluttering banner high above, flashing Potter for President over the crowd.
text: His heart skipped.
text: He felt braver.
text: Annoyingly my niece has my UK edition so I can't check that - can anyone else check to see what text it has?
text: Anyhow, I don't think there is any great significance to the phrase "Potter for President".
text: It's just meant as encouragement for Harry, and indeed it worked.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/4144/John Rennie
score: 11
sents: text: Are you referring to the movie or the book.
text: I can not quite recall reading about this poster.
text: But I think they would have written "Potter for President" because of the reoccurring "P", as opposed by "Potter for Minister", which would maybe have made more sense in the british context.
text: Generally, "Someone for President" is a common cheer to promote a special person and it jokingly refers to the person becoming the President of the United States of America.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/23802/Lars Ebert
score: 8
sents: text: It's nothing related to Quidditch or even the Harry Potter Universe
text: I imagine you read the American Version as it is basically just a chant used for popular and/or successful people.
text: Something along the lines of "We like him so much
text: he should be President" President of the United States of America.
text: Although I don't actually remember that part you're referring to in the books.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/22709/CandiedMango
score: 6
sents: text: I would echo the comments about it being meant as encouragement for Harry, and that the alliteration was snappy.
text: However I would also add that Hermione, Dean, Seamus and Harry himself all grew up having either one or two Muggle parents or guardians
text: (Ron and Neville are the odd ones out).
text: "Potter for President" may seem like something that would only make sense to a Muggle or somebody who had been exposed to a Muggle-environment, hence it looks incongruous in the book
text: (I'm not sure we are introduced to any other Wizarding presidents by this point).
text: But if you consider the backgrounds of the characters who made the banner, and the character who it was for (Harry), it explains why they would use these words that might seem more significant to a Muggle than a Wizard.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/13951/The Giant of Lannister
score: 5
sents: text: It's a generic term of support.
text: The phrase, 'x for President' is neither inherently political nor inherently American, despite what the other answers claim.
text: 'Potter for President' is not an idiom that was created for the American editions.
text: It features in the original British Bloomsbury edition.
text: As a surprise for Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined.
text: It said Potter for President and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryffindor lion underneath.
text: [...
text: ]
text: Out of the corner of his eye he saw the fluttering banner high above, flashing Potter for President over the crowd.
text: His heart skipped.
text: He felt braver.
text: (Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 11, Quidditch) .
text: Its meaning is quite clear to a British reader. '
text: X for President' is another way of saying 'x is awesome' and incidating your support for x.
text: They were not actually suggesting that he should be elected president of any particular organisation.
text: They were just giving him personal encouragement to spur him on.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/64888/The Dark Lord
score: 3

Summary of the answers:
"Someone for President" is a common cheer of encouragement and support. It is nothing related to Quidditch or the Harry Potter Universe.
Potter for President was simply intended as support and encouragement for Harry and wasn’t intended to be used to show any support for him actually becoming President.