Why Frank Underwood from "House of Cards" is actually an idiot

So what, exactly, does Frank Underwood want? Honestly, we’re not sure he knows. In the first episode, President Walker pisses him off by making someone else secretary of state, sending Frank on a destructive rampage to get revenge on Walker and eventually become president himself. At the end of the second season, he finally schemes his way into the oval office, and … then what? He’s on track to have the least effective and most hated presidency in history, and not just because he’s the president that literally no one voted for.

Underwood is already unpopular with the public; when he’s made vice president, the media talks about what a lame pick he is. He’s not popular with politicians, either — he’s constantly pissing people off and irrevocably burning bridges to get what he wants, but in politics, you still need people to be willing to take your side when you want to push your agenda through. The fact that he manages to get anything done despite being the biggest pariah on Capitol Hill has been called the most unrealistic part of the show, and this is taking into consideration the scene wherein he murders a woman in public.

So, is Frank just Skeletor, then, in that he became president just because he wants the power? That doesn’t make any sense. Frank has been in politics for decades; he has to know by now that the president really isn’t as powerful as everyone thinks. Sure, he has influence over a very wide spectrum of issues, but his control over any particular thing is not very significant; often, a group of judges nobody has ever heard of will have more sway over an individual law than he will. Basically, his job is to try to convince other politicians to do the things he wants, which means he needs to be well-respected, and we’ve already established that this is the one thing that Frank Underwood is not and has no interest in being.