THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - THE A-TEAM

Illustrated by Jeremy Massie

Today in POTUStory - IKE 123!

Book 'Em: Ike the Washington of 1952

"In March [1952] Eisenhower won the New Hampshire primary in a walk, without shaking a single voter's hand; he declared himself 'astonished' and 'deeply moved.'"

-excerpt from:
The Presidents Club - Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
"The News Hounds Are Trying to Drive a Wedge Between Us"
Chapter 3
"The Shadow Campaign"
Page: 75

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #37 - "You Won't Have Nixon to Kick Around Anymore"

Richard Nixon is one of two individuals that ran 5 times for federal office nationally, the only thing all the States vote on together, a presidential ticket. Just like Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for high office 5 times (once in 1920 for V.P. on the losing ticket of James Cox and Franklin Roosevelt and four times successfully as POTUS), Nixon did too, sort of.

The Democratic ticket in 1920, James Cox of Ohio and Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. They're for peace, progress and prosperity, almost like the Republicans in 1960.

Here's a picture of Cox and FDR walking at a campaign event in 1920.

Richard Nixon's "For Peace and Prosperity Vote Straight Republican" 1960 campaign button. Something familiar. For War and Failure Vote Gay Republican, an unused button from another time.

On Nixon's first attempt at high office in 1952 he won and that's because the top of the ticket was Dwight D. Eisenhower, the man that saved Europe from the Nazis. The pick of Richard Nixon as vice president is comparable to future picks. Ike represented the internationalists and right of center Republicans. At the age of 39, Nixon's youth countered Ike's grandfatherly image. Nixon was openly anti-communist but not on the level of the disgraceful Joe McCarthy. While Ike didn't really care who became vice president, the party did and balanced the ticket, or Ike, with Nixon. Ike was getting pressure to kick Nixon off the ticket after a political fund run by financial backers to Nixon came to light. Nixon had not done anything illegal, but to clear his name and reputation Nixon went on television and revealed how modestly he and his wife Pat and their two daughters lived in 1952. Nixon also revealed that a gift from Texas, "a little cocker spaniel dog" that Tricia, the 6-year old, named Checkers. The speech, the most viewed thing on television up to that point, the birth of Ricky Ricardo Junior on I Love Lucy a few months later will become the most watched thing on television up to that point. Everyone loved Dick Nixon after that. (His mother preferred Richard to Dick). Especially Eisenhower, who kept him on the ticket and the two went on to easy victory against Adlai Stevenson (that's right, the grandson to the 23rd VPOTUS, Adlai Stevenson, to the 24th POTUS Grover Cleveland's third vice presidential running mate, but second vice president, from 1893-1897) of Illinois and John Sparkman of Alabama.

A candid shot of the GOP Republican nominee for vice president, Senator Richard Nixon of California and his dog Checkers, in 1952.

Vice President Nixon had an office in the Old Executive Office Building, which would later be renamed the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Nixon would be part of cabinet meetings and because of the 1947 National Security Act, like his predecessor Alben Barkley he too would be part of the National Security Council and maintain Secret Service protection. President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in September 1955, a year before the next Presidential Election, as well as two months before Marty McFly's arrival from the year 1985. This put Nixon a heartbeat away from the presidency like never before. Ike survived and was encouraged by his doctors that a second term would help the president's health. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Ike however wasn't encouraging Nixon off the ticket, but that's what he really wanted. President Eisenhower left the decision up to Vice President Nixon whether he should remain on the ticket or not. In private Ike never told Nixon to get off the ticket or that he wants him replaced, he just hoped Nixon would get the hint so Ike's decision in 1952 to accept him as the party's vice presidential nominee wasn't a wrong decision. If Nixon stepped down as VPOTUS, it would be the first vice presidential switch since Vice President Henry A. Wallace was dumped for the less-liberal Harry Truman in 1944. In that similar situation, the party wouldn't renominate the left leaning liberal Wallace for fear he'll be president if or when FDR dies before 1949, the end year of the 4th term. Except it wasn't the party's decision or Ike's since he left it up to Nixon to decide. Nixon knew if he was replaced that vice president might be president before the Republican's convention in 1960 or would be the frontrunner for the nomination if Ike makes it to 1961. Nixon chose to remain on the ticket and Ike accepted his (both Ike and Nixon) decision.

TIME magazine featured the winning ticket for the 1956 Presidential Election, the reelection of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th POTUS and Richard Nixon as the 36th VPOTUS.

Like his first time on the national ticket, Nixon's second time was winner with President Eisenhower at the top of the ticket in 1956. Eisenhower ran against the Democrat's 1952 nominee Adlai Stevenson again but instead of Alabama's Sparkman the Democrat's chose Estes Kefauver of Tennessee for the second spot. Nixon's reelection as vice president was the first since John Nance Garner and Franklin Roosevelt won reelection in 1936, the difference here is Vice President Nixon was the incumbent and natural front-runner since for the first time since the passage of the 22nd Amendment, which limited the president to two terms. Ike was limited, unlike living former president Harry S. Truman, who was in office when the Amendment was written so thus he was not effected. He chose not to run in 1952 for a second term of his own which would also be a third term since he finished off FDR's fourth term. So for a third time Nixon was on a national ticket, but this time he was at the top of the ticket in 1960. This time without Ike and just like reelection in 1956 no real words of support from the POTUS.

The last time an incumbent vice president won the presidency was in 1836, when one term vice president Martin Van Buren followed two term president Andrew Jackson. Nixon will be the first two-term incumbent to try since John Adams in 1796 after two-terms as VPOTUS under George Washington. Vice President Nixon's one hundred year-ago counter-part, 14th Vice President of the United States John C. Breckinridge, was the Southern Democrat's choice for president against the Republican's Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Breckinridge came in third in the popular votes but second in the Electoral College which in the post-12th Amendment U.S. that means nothing. Although Nixon and Breckinridge had to announce their opponent's victory as presiding officer of a Joint-Session of Congress. Nixon faced a close race and some would say stolen election against Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The 2000 election was closer, but this was up there in very very very very (multiple verys means it's very important) very close terms. Vice President Nixon chose not to contest the outcome, something no candidate had done until Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election.

The two presidential candidates from the two major political parties in the United States, Democrat John F. Kennedy, senator from Massachusetts and Republican Richard Nixon, vice president of the United States and from the great State of California.

Nixon's reaction to the news that he lost the 1960 Presidential Election, but not really.

So Nixon lost in 1960. What was a young former vice president supposed to do with his future? His one hundred year-ago counterpart, Breckinridge is the youngest to be elected VPOTUS at 36. What did former vice president Breckinridge do? Well he served in the U.S. Senate in 1861 and resigned in support of the Confederate States of America. So he was labeled a traitor. Former Vice President Nixon went on to run for governor of his home State of California and lost to the incumbent governor Pat Brown. Governor Brown would be defeated in 1966 by future POTUS, number 40, Ronald Reagan. The press labeled Nixon's loss the end of his political career, while the former vice president told the press they "won't have Nixon to kick around anymore".

The next national election wouldn't be until 1964 and before the assassination of JFK Nixon knew nobody was going to defeat him in his reelection bid. Just as he was sure of Kennedy's success in 1964 had he had the chance, the same was true about President Lyndon Johnson as an opponent in '64. Johnson would win a landslide election, which would be repeated 8 years later and slightly better by Nixon. So the former vice president chose not run in 1964 and let Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Nelson Rockefeller of New York vie for the nomination, two different wings conservative and moderates. The conservatives won in 1964 and lost as well in the General Election.

A photo from July of 1968 before the Republicans nominate the former vice president, Richard Nixon talks with President Lyndon B. Johnson, in I guess, the Cabinet Room. 7 years prior in 1961, Nixon was the outgoing VPOTUS (#36) and LBJ was the incoming VPOTUS (#37), six months after this photo LBJ will be the outgoing POTUS (#36) and Nixon will be the incoming POTUS (#37).

By 1968, Nixon was ready to get back in the game of politics. The Democratic Party was torn over the Vietnam War. President Johnson chose not to seek reelection after facing challenges from the left, like Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. With LBJ out of the running, this let Vice President Hubert Humphrey run for the nomination. In the end the Democrats went with Humphrey, after Senator Kennedy's assassination during the primaries. The Republicans went with the former vice president, so the 1968 election was the first time there was an incumbent vice president running against a former vice president and the former vice president won, also a first. Nixon won his 4th national election and his second national election as the Republican Nominee. The 1968 election was just as close as Nixon's 1960 run.

"Nixon's the One" was his 1968 campaign slogan.

Nixon's 5th an last run for national office would be his reelection as president in 1972. He would run simply as "the President". Nixon was again, like Ike, limited to two terms. Nixon and Spiro Agnew would easily win reelection against Democrat George McGovern. While Nixon's reelection would be one of the nation's largest, the events that would bring Nixon's presidency to an end long before January 20, 1977. The cover-up of the Watergate break-in was taking place and Nixon's order of cover-up his downfall. Once evidence surfaced, or the smoking gun, Nixon faced impeachment by the House of Representatives. The Articles of Impeachment, two of them, were written and voted on by the House Judiciary Committee. Republican National Committee Chair George H.W. Bush, the future POTUS, wrote to Nixon telling him to resign. Republicans in the Senate led by Senator Goldwater, warned the President that if the impeachment made it to trial in the Senate, that he would not survive. Nixon chose to resign the office in August 1974, the first and only president to resign. The presidential ticket elected in 1972 would resign before 1977, as Vice President Agnew resigned in 1973 for reasons not associated with Watergate but from his time as Governor of Maryland. The 25th Amendment was passed in 1967 and did not allow for there to be a vacancy in the vice presidency, so for the first time Nixon appointed a vice president in 1973. Gerald Ford was the Republican Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, known as a guy loved by everyone on Capitol Hill. Ford was also someone with no connection to Watergate. With Nixon's resignation, Ford became the 38th POTUS and the first never to have run for either the vice presidency or presidency.

TIME magazine's post-1972 Presidential Election issue with a mention of the landslide.

Nixon would return to his home State of California. President Ford would pardon Nixon a month later, leading some to believe a deal was made between the two. But no such deal has ever been discovered or proven. Ford believed nation needed to move on and that pardoning Nixon would stop the press from constantly asking questions related to the break-in and cover-up. Nixon would rehabilitate his political image until his death in 1994. Nixon could never run again for national office, and since Nixon, Bush 41 has run on a national ticket four times, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992. Bush won 3 of the 4. Just like FDR, Nixon won 4 of the 5, but one big difference outside of term-limits on the presidency, Nixon won his home State of California in all 5 of his national run.

President Nixon, with the First Family, gives a farewell speech to the White House staff in the East Room on August 9, 1974, his last day in office.

POTUS QUOTUS - DDE34 SECOND INAUGURAL 1957 - "I Like No Filter"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #24 - "SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!"

Only 6 Inauguration Days have fallen on a Sunday since 1789, Barack Obama's next and last as a president-elect will be the 7th. Only 2 were first terms, Zachary Taylor and Rutherford B. Hayes, while the other 5 were being sworn in for a second term. The first Inauguration Day to land on a Sunday was March 4, 1821, the start of James Monroe's 2nd term. After consulting the Supreme Court, Monroe waited until Monday, March 5, to be sworn in. Taylor continued the practice in 1849.

James Monroe was the first president to have Inauguration Day land on a Sunday in 1821.

James K. Polk left office at noon on March THIRD 1849 and since Taylor followed the precedent established by Monroe, the country did not have a chief executive or vice president since the Polk-George M. Dallas administration came to an official end Sunday the 4th at noon. Taylor wouldn't be administered the oath until Monday the 5th. It is believed that David Atchison, a senator and president pro tempore and thus next in line of succession after the vice president as it was back in the day, was acting president. It of course can't be true since technically his term as president pro tempore of the Senate would've expired the same as Polk's and Dallas and the rest of the government and wouldn't be sworn-in again as president pro tempore until minutes before Taylor and his vice president Millard Fillmore. Whereas Monroe was simply succeeding himself, in 1849 one president was leaving office while the other was entering all on a Sunday. That has only happened one other time, so far.

Zachary Taylor's one and only swearing-in ceremony was on Monday, March 5, 1849.

After the election of 1876 produced an unclear victor in various States, the Compromise of 1877 decided which candidate would receive the contested electoral votes needed to win, and just by one vote and just days before the Inauguration. While the popular vote winner, Democrat Samuel Tilden, governor of New York, didn't become president, Reconstruction of the South ended. Federal troops were removed. Just 12 years after the end of the Civil War, fear of a disrupted inaugural in light of the popular vote winner not becoming president. So Republican Governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, the president-elect, had a private swearing-in ceremony in the Red Room at the Executive Mansion with outgoing president, Ulysses S. Grant by his side. Since March 4th was on a Sunday, a private ceremony was held on the 3rd and the public one on Monday the 5th. Hayes promised to serve one term.

Rutherford B. Hayes' second swearing-in for his first and only term as POTUS.

It would be 40 years until the next Inauguration Day fell on a Sunday, which was the start of Woodrow Wilson's second term in 1917. It would be the last March 4th Sunday and the first time a president had a private swearing-in ceremony on the Sunday, instead of simply waiting until Monday the 5th. Wilson was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol in the President's Room by Chief Justice Edward White and then again in a public ceremony on the 5th on the East Portico of the Capitol.

Woodrow Wilson's second second inaugural.

Another 40 years would pass for a Sunday inaugural, it's usually 28 to 40 years between Sunday inaugurals, until 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower's second inaugural. He was the first to have a January 20th Sunday, but continued the precedent established by Wilson and had a private ceremony. But instead of having it at the Capitol, Eisenhower had the Sunday swearing-in in the White House and the public ceremony on January 21st, a Monday.

Dwight D. Eisenhower being sworn-in for a 2nd term in the White House East Room on Sunday, January 20, 1957. The first January 20th Sunday inaugural.

Ike's public swearing-in ceremony the next day in 1957.

28 years after Ike, Ronald Reagan and the 50th Inauguration of a President would land on a Sunday. So Reagan the same as Ike, private Sunday ceremony at the White House and the usual public event on Monday. January 21, 1985 would be the coldest Inauguration Day on record, so cold that public ceremony was held in the Capitol Rotunda instead of outdoors.

Ronald Reagan being sworn-in on Sunday, January 20th, in a private White House ceremony.

The indoor public ceremony on the coldest recorded inaugural day, January 21, 1985. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administers the oath both times.

Unless January 21, 2013 is less than 7 degrees. Barack Obama will follow in the footsteps of the other Sunday inaugural presidents, but will probably follow the precedent established by Wilson and Ike. There will be a private swearing-in at the White House on Sunday and a public event the following day. Obama will have taken the oath of office four times by January 21, 2013. In 2009, Chief Justice John Roberts, due to nerves, his first swearing-in, stumbled the oath of office which then made Obama stumble through it. Later that night, back at the White House, the two redid the oath of office. But it will be Obama's last time to say the oath.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts readministers the oath of office to President Barack Obama at the White House in the Map Room on January 20, 2009.

Three more times this century, an inauguration day will fall on a Sunday, each 28 years apart...and then after that last one in the 21st Century it will be another 40 years until the next Sunday inaugural. USA! USA! USA!

POTUS Photus - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower commanded the liberation force of Western Europe as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied powers during the World War II. He helped end the War in Europe and go on to be speculated as a potential presidential candidate. Nobody knew whether Eisenhower, aka Ike, was a Democrat or a Republican. President Harry Truman offered to be Ike's vice president if he wanted the Democratic nomination. Fear of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party from resurfacing and the understanding that the United States needed to play a role on the post-World War II stage, which after hostilities ended a cold war began. Also Ike had grown disdain of the Democratic Party, which had been in power (executive and legislative) since 1932 (with the exception of the 80th Congress from 1947-1949) and revealed he was a Republican.

He won the nomination in 1952 after defeating the non-interventionist wing of the party represented in a presidential grandson, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. To appease the conservative wing of the party, Ike selected Richard Nixon of California. Nixon brought 39 years to the ticket (he'd be 40 by inauguration) to Ike's 62, and anti-communist fighting spirit that was popular in the early days of the Cold War. Nixon fought commies!

Ike chose to run for reelection and kept Nixon on the ticket in 1956. Just as in 1952, the Democrats put Governor Adlai Stevenson from Illinois up against Ike in '56 and he lost. Ike would leave the presidency a popular president, but his popularity didn't help his vice president win the 1960 election...although it was a close one. Ike would go on to see Nixon sworn in as the 37th POTUS the same year he passed away.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th POTUS
January 20, 1953-January 20, 1953
New York
Republican

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #17 - "Back-to-Back 50 Percenters (R)"

There have only been four Republican presidents that have been elected back-to-back with 50% or more of the popular vote. Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 an 1872. William McKinley in 1896 and 1900. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. The last Republican to win 50% or more of the popular vote was George W. Bush in 2004, which was the first time since his father's run in 1988. In 2000, Bush 43 had less popular votes than Al Gore but more importantly had a majority of electoral votes.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #9 - "4 Out of 5 Elections Recommend These Candidates"

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon both ran on a national ticket 5 times and won 4 out of the 5 elections. FDR ran (pre-Polio days) as the vice presidential candidate in 1920 with James Cox (yeah he was a presidential candidate), but Americans wanted a return to normalcy and voted the GOP ticket of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge into office. In 1932, 12 years after that election, FDR would begin his 4 term winning streak in 1932, then winning again in 1936, 1940 and 1944. Dominance in 4 presidential elections by one individual led to the creation of the 22nd Amendment, limiting a president to 2 terms.

RN ran on a national ticket 8 years after FDR's last run for office. Nixon ran as Dwight Eisenhower's running mate in 1952 and 1956 and they defeated Adlai Stevenson, both times. In 1960, Nixon became the first incumbent vice president to run for president since John Breckenridge ran as a Southern Democrat 100 years before. Nixon was also the first two term incumbent VP to run since John Adams in 1796. Nixon lost a close election to John F. Kennedy in 1960, but 8 years later the former vice president ran again and in another close election defeated the incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey. In 1968, it was Vice President vs. Former Vice President. The former vice president won and then won reelection in a landslide in 1972. Nixon was also the only former vice president to win a presidential election. So two people won 4 out of 5 national contests, one for president, the other for both president and vice president. FDR was one and Nixon's the other one. (see what I did there? No? NERDALERT!)

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #1 – “The Rematches of the Centuries!!!”

Rematches are an American thing, from the United States and Germany in two world wars to Rocky versus Apollo in the first two Rocky films. Presidential candidates have also had rematches going as far back as the fourth election in 1800 and continuing into the mid-20th Century. But before you can have the rematch you have to have the first match.In 1796 John Adams became the first of only four incumbent vice presidents to be elected president. He defeated Thomas Jefferson. But seeing that it was a pre-12th Amendment election, the loser became the vice president. Vice President Jefferson would make President Adams’ term a difficult one building to a rematch and the only time the sitting president and vice president competed for the Executive Mansion.

Vice President John Adams vs. former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson in 1796.

The election of 1800 was not going to have the same results as four years prior. President Adams and Vice President Jefferson each ran with a “running-mate” so as to avoid being stuck with an ideological opponent disrupting the administration. Good idea, but it was still a pre-12th Amendment America. The plan sort of worked. Jefferson and his running-mate, Aaron Burr, got the same number of Electoral votes, but without distinguishing between the desired offices, throwing the election to the House of Representatives for the first time.

The 1800 rematch between, now incumbent President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, quickly became a match-up between Jefferson and his desired pick for the vice presidency, Aaron Burr.

The House couldn’t stand Burr and by the 36th ballot Jefferson won the election. To make sure the election of 1800 wasn’t repeated, the 12th Amendment was amended to the Constitution before the 1804 election. For the first and only time the vice president defeated the president for the presidency, but a House elected president would just be the first of two.

Twenty-four years after that election came the first match-up between the son of the 2nd president, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and Tennessean and former war hero Andrew Jackson. But these were not the only two running in an era of good feelings. After the Federalist Party ceased existence post-War of 1812, the Democratic-Republicans were the party of the United States and in the election of 1824 produced four candidates. Speaker of the House Henry Clay and Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford were the other two contenders. In the end Jackson had the most number of popular and Electoral votes in the first election where a number of the States counted the popular vote. Adams was in second with Crawford and Clay in third and fourth, respectively.

Andrew Jackson ran against John Quincy Adams twice, once in 1824 and the rematch in 1828. In the year 2000, a Democrat from Tennessee will get more votes but not the presidency, when he runs against another presidential son.

But a plurality of votes doesn’t get you the highest office in the land. Without a majority of Electoral votes, the presidency, for a second time, was decided by the House. This meant that the top three vote getters would be decided on, but Clay was the leader of the body to decide the presidency. The Senate did not have to perform its Constitutional duty of selecting a vice president since John C. Calhoun received a majority of Electoral votes both thanks to the 12th Amendment which separates the voting for both president and vice president, but also because he was on two tickets, Adams and Jackson. Crawford had a stroke and the contest in the House ends up being between Jackson and Adams. Adams wins and Jackson believes that a corrupt bargain was struck between Adams and Clay, who would go on to be the secretary of state, the stepping stone office to the presidency. Over the next four years Jackson would essentially run for the presidency, with the support of a new grassroots party calling themselves Democrats, and in a rematch in 1828 Jackson would again get more votes than Adams, but this time with the needed majority to become the 7th president.

President Jackson's handpicked successor, Martin Van Buren, became the last incumbent vice president to win the presidency until 1988. But in the 1836 election Vice President Van Buren easily won election against William Henry Harrison...this time. Four years later, a united Whig Party mimicked the president they despised by running on Harrison's war record just as Jackson had. The 1840 election is the first to have a campaign tune: "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!" Just as Jackson was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, Harrison was the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 against a confederacy of native peoples led by Tecumseh in the Territory of Indiana. "Tyler" referenced John Tyler of Virginia, and a former Democrat nominated by the Whigs. Four years prior, Harrison obviously had problems with the campaign slogan: "Tippecanoe and Granger Too!"

Harrison-9's victory in 1840 was short lived once he took office on March 4, 1841 and died thirty days later. Forty-eight years later, President Grover Cleveland, the 22nd president, goes up against Harrison-9's grandson, Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland wins the popular vote, but not the Electoral vote and Harrison becomes the 23rd president. Upon leaving the Executive Mansion in March of 1889, outgoing First Lady Frances Cleveland wanted the staff to keep things in order because the Clevelands would be returning in four years. Four years later the former president was re-nominated and defeated Harrison in both the popular and Electoral votes going on to become the 24th president and the only former president to win an election.

Unlike the 1824, 1876 and 2000 Presidential Elections, the 1888 established a popular vote winner, President Grover Cleveland and the Electoral College winner, Benjamin Harrison. No House of Representatives, no commission, and no Supreme Court. But there like in 1828 to 1824, there was a rematch between President Harrison and former President Cleveland. Cleveland would become the first former president to be reelected non-consecutively, of course, in 1892.

Following the Cleveland-Harrison-23 rematch in 1892 would be the first round for the next match-up, but gone were the match-ups of the popular vote winner returning to reclaim the people’s wish as Jackson and Cleveland did. The next match-up pitted Republican Ohio Governor William McKinley and the Democratic former member of the House William Jennings Bryan, at 36 years old the youngest man to run for president. The winner of the 1896 election would be McKinley and four years later the rematch. In 1896 Bryan became the first presidential candidate to actively campaign for the election traveling the country speaking directly to the people, while McKinley continued the tradition of not actively seeking the sacred office. However in their rematch in 1900, McKinley’s young vice presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, would emulate Bryan’s campaign style. 1900 would be McKinley’s win over Bryan, again.

Fifty-two years after that rematch came the last match-up in presidential General Elections, so far. The 1952 and 1956 elections mirrored the 1896 and 1900 elections in that the two presidential candidates were the same and so were the victors and losers, and coincidentally the same political parties. The Democratic Governor from Illinois, Adlai Stevenson went up against the commander of D-Day and Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, twice. And lost both times.

While not a rematch it is somewhat of a proxy rematch between President Ronald Reagan and the previous administration, this time former Vice President Walter F. Mondale in for the 1980 Democratic candidate President Jimmy Carter.

It has been over fifty years since there was a presidential rematch. There have been proxy rematches like Ronald Reagan versus former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984 instead of Mondale’s running-mate four years earlier, President Jimmy Carter and then there’s George W. Bush versus Al Gore in 2000 essentially George H.W. Bush versus Bill Clinton but with their political heirs instead. Since there probably won’t be a Barack Obama-John McCain rematch in 2012, we’ll probably be waiting a long time before we experience another presidential rematch or we may get a proxy rematch with Obama versus Sarah Palin in 2012.