Pointless Presidential Pfacts #43 - "Popular Vote Loser Presidents"

On occasion our representative democracy has produced a president that did not receive the most popular votes in the General Election became the head of the Republic, because our Constitution says it is a majority of votes in the Electoral College that matter. The first president to enter office without having won the popular votes was John Quincy Adams in 1825.

The 1824 Presidential Election was the first where various States, not all of them that would be the next election, counted the popular vote in determining the distribution of electoral votes. JQA was facing three other opponents in the general and all from the same party since the Federalists were no longer a threat as a national party to the Democratic-Republicans. Andrew Jackson received a plurality of votes in both popular and electoral votes, with JQA in second place. Third place in the Electoral College went to William Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, and 4th place went to Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the popular vote column the two switch finishing positions, but once again it is the electoral votes that matter. Since there was no clear majority of electoral votes, the Constitution instructs that the House take the top 3 vote getters and vote on them with each State having one vote, so delegations with more than one representative would have to vote among themselves to determine whom they cast their vote for. Crawford suffers a stroke, which makes the House competition between JQA and Jackson, with Clay as presiding officer of the House. Supporters of Jackson believe a "corrupt bargain" was struck between Speaker Clay and Secretary of State Adams, the presidency for appointment to head the State Department, then a stepping stone to the presidency (James Madison and James Monroe, both incumbent secretaries of state before being elected president). Since John C. Calhoun was the vice presidential nominee for both Adams 6 and Jackson, he won a majority of electoral votes in the General Election and later in the Electoral College vote, so there was no need for the Senate to determine the vice president, but they would have had either Adams 6 or Jackson had their own vice presidential candidate. JQA won the House vote and Clay eventually became the secretary of state and Jackson literally began campaigning for 1828. His supporters took up the label Democrats and the Democratic Party was born. Adams 6 and Jackson would face each other again and Jackson would finally get the presidency with 56% of the popular vote and a clear majority in the Electoral College.

Jackson and Adams 6's first encounter in 1824.

And then again in 1828...

52 years later in 1876, the nation would experience another unusual election. Samuel Tilden, the Democratic nominee once again won the popular vote while Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, won the Electoral College votes. But it was determining the distribution of electoral votes that was the problem in 1876. Various State governments in the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War sent two sets of votes representing their State, so a commission of Democrats, Republicans and independents met to determine which candidate got which electoral votes. A deal, or rather, a compromise was made just days before the March 5, 1877 Presidential Inauguration. The Compromise of 1877 allowed Hayes to receive the electoral votes, if Federal troops are removed from the South, thus ending Reconstruction. Since March 4th landed on a Sunday, the public ceremony would be on the 5th, fearful of retaliation by Tilden supporters so closely after the Civil War Hayes was sworn in on the 3rd in the Red Room of the Executive Mansion with President Ulysses S. Grant by his side. They of course had nothing to fear as the inauguration came and went without a problem. Hayes promised to serve just one term and Tilden never faced the voters again, dying ten years after the election.

Two years after Tilden's death in 1888, the nation once again had another unusual election, but that's about it. The 1888 Presidential Election is pretty straight when compared to 1824, 1876, and 2000. President Grover Cleveland won the popular votes while his opponent from Indiana, Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William Henry Harrison, won the majority of votes in the Electoral College. The Democrat won the popular vote, but the Republican, once again, won the Electoral College. No questions asked. But like in 1828, 1892 would pit the 1888 candidates against each other again, a rematch. And just like in 1828, the candidate that won more votes in the previous election came back and won. Former President Cleveland became the first, and so far only, former president to win a General Election and thus serve two non-consecutive terms. Harrison 23, like Adams 6 and Tilden, never ran for the presidency again after their defeats the second time.

Cleveland 22 runs against Harrison 23 in their first match-up.

Four years later in a rematch, Cleveland became the first and only former president to defeat an incumbent and serve two non-consecutive terms, thus becoming Cleveland 24, as in the 24th POTUS.

It wouldn't be until the year 2000 that nation would experience an election that doesn't go just right. Vice President Al Gore was hoping to do what Vice President George Bush did after 8 years as VPOTUS, and he came pretty close. Gore won more than 500,000 popular votes but it came down to 537 votes in the State of Florida. The election was so close that Gore asked for a recount, but George W. Bush, the presumed winner of the Florida electoral votes, stakes a claim that he won the State. The Florida Supreme Court sides with Gore and the recounts in various counties goes forth, until the Federal Supreme Court sides with Bush in the ruling of Bush v. Gore. Yes, the States' Rights party, went to the central government to decide a local matter. With the Supreme Court's ruling, Gore could do nothing but concede, again. Had the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks not happened, former vice president Gore might have followed in Jackson and Cleveland's footsteps in winning a 4-years-later rematch. But instead Gore went the way of Tilden and did not seek the office where more voters liked him over the Electoral College winner.

With George W. Bush's reelection to the presidency in 2004, another close and controversial election, Bush 43 breaks away from these other popular-vote-loser-presidents. Unlike Adams 6 (another member of the POTUS Father/Son pair) and Harrison 23 (another member of a POTUS dynasty, but grandfather/grandson), Bush 43 would not be defeated in an election. Another difference of course is those two faced a rematch. Bush 43 didn't run against Gore in '04, but Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry. While the votes in Ohio are questionable, and determined the presidency in 2004, just like Florida was in 2000, but this time Bush 43 won both the popular and electoral votes. His victory in '04, finally getting the presidency with the popular vote, broke the whole popular-vote-loser-president never winning the popular vote. This is very similar to what vice-presidents-turned-presidents through death and assassination and their turn at the top of the ticket and winning an election in their own right. Whereas John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester A. Arthur never won the presidency at the top of a presidential ticket, Bush 43's break from tradition like Theodore Roosevelt, the first vice-president-turned-president that went on to be renominated and win the presidency in his own right. Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon Johnson would follow in those footsteps. Gerald Ford would come close, but lose to Jimmy Carter.

Read My Lips - "Happy 89th Birthday!"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #41 - "Moving On Up"

What happened to the first vice president of the United States after his second term ended in 1797? Oh, that's right, he became the president of the United States.

John Adams. Massachusetts. 2nd POTUS. 1797-1800. Federalist. 1st VPOTUS. 1789-1797. President Washington.

What happened to the second VPOTUS? Well he, too, became the POTUS four years later in 1801 after the only Presidential Election pitting the sitting VPOTUS versus the sitting POTUS.

Okay, now there's a little break in the vice presidents going right to the top job. The Secretary of States get the attention for awhile, while the 12th Amendment, separate votes for president and vice president, diminished the quality of men for the poorly created second-in-command of the United States Government. USA! USA! USA! The 3rd VPOTUS, Aaron Burr, after nearly becoming the 3rd POTUS when the 1800 election didn't produce a majority in the Electoral College, but rather a tie. Burr went on to murder Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804 which helped to ruin his reputation as well as some treasonous actions in the West.

Burr's successors in the vice presidency, George Clinton, Jefferson's second VPOTUS and Madison's first VPOTUS, and Elbridge Gerry, Madison's second vice president, died in office. The 6th VPOTUS, Daniel D. Tompkins, was only the second vice president to be elected to two terms and serve the full 8 years after John Adams, the 1st VPOTUS. It wouldn't be until 1912, when Thomas R. Marshall was elected the 28th VPOTUS and served two terms and eight years. However, unlike Vice President Adams or even Vice President Jefferson, Vice President Tompkins would not run for the presidency and would end up dying just months after leaving office in 1825.

John C. Calhoun would be safely elected vice president in the crazy, but interesting, 1824 Presidential Election. Calhoun was the vice presidential nominee for both Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. While the presidential race was chaos with four candidates from the same party, since the Federalists were finished as a national political party after the success of the War of 1812. The factions that made up the Democratic-Republicans, had four candidates for the top of the ticket and three for the bottom. While Jackson would win a plurality of both popular votes (not all States votes were counted at this point, but those that were Jackson had the most) and the Electoral College, but not a majority. Calhoun however did receive a majority of Electoral Votes and became the 7th VPOTUS and had to wait to see who his president would be. Vice President Calhoun would be the second and, so far, last vice president to serve two different presidents.

John C. Calhoun. South Carolina. 7th VPOTUS. 1825-1832. Presidents Adams 6 and Jackson. Democratic-Republican (1825-1829). Democratic (1829-1832).

When the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams the 6th POTUS, Jackson essentially campaigned against Adams 6 for the next four years. Jackson's supporters, calling themselves Democrats, helped put Jackson in the Executive Mansion in 1829 with Calhoun reelected to a second term, but with a new president. Calhoun would be the last reelected vice president until Vice President Marshall wins with Woodrow Wilson in 1916 for a second term. However, Calhoun would not finish his second term. He would resign the vice presidency in the Presidential Election year of 1832, so he could be elected Senator from South Carolina. He was a thorn in President Jackson's side, probably just as ruckus as the Adams 2/Jefferson administration from 1797-1801.

It is with Vice President Calhoun's successor and President Jackson's second vice president, Martin Van Buren, where the sitting vice president has a chance for the top job. The one term vice president would be elected to one term and kicked out of office thanks to bad economic times.

Martin Van Buren. New York. 8th POTUS. 1837-1841. 8th VPOTUS. 1833-1837. Democratic.

After Van Buren's jump right from the vice presidency to the presidency, it would be some time before anyone attempted it or do what Adams 2, Jefferson and Van Buren had accomplished. Van Buren's own vice president, Richard M. Johnson, who needed the Senate to be elected vice president since he was a few votes shy of a majority in the Electoral College thanks to his relations with a slave, did not run for the presidency and is part of that great pantheon of unknown 19th Century vice presidents. From 1841 to 1965, there would be vice presidents that become president through death, natural or assassinated, like John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Of that group, Tyler through Arthur never faced the People at the top of the ballot, Fillmore did as a third party candidate in 1856 for the Know-Nothing Party and won Electoral Votes. Not that late 20th Century/early 21st Century third party placing $#!t. The remainder of that list won reelection to the presidency in their own right after serving out the term of the fallen president. The 1860 Presidential Election had the incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge, the youngest VPOTUS to serve at 36 in 1857 with President James Buchanan, ran against the GOP's second presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln and the Democratic Party's Stephen Douglas. While Lincoln came in first in both popular and Electoral Votes, Breckinridge came in second in the Electoral College and third in popular votes after Douglas. Breckinridge of course carried the South, as he ran as the candidate for the Southern Democratic Party. Breckinridge, like all incumbent vice presidents, had to read the winner of the Electoral College during a Joint-Session of Congress, announcing his loss and his opponent's victory. Unlike Vice President Breckinridge, Vice Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Van Buren announced their victories as Commander-in-Chief.

John C. Breckinridge. Kentucky. 14th VPOTUS. Democratic. 1857-1861. President Buchanan. 1860 Southern Democratic Presidential Candidate. Youngest man elected vice president at 36 in 1856.

100 years after Vice President Breckinridge's loss, Vice President Richard M. Nixon would have to announce his defeat in the close 1960 Presidential Election with Senator John F. Kennedy. Nixon was the first incumbent vice president to run for the presidency since Breckinridge. Eight years later in 1968, Hubert Humphrey would follow in Nixon's footsteps as the next eligible incumbent vice president to try for the top of the ticket. Like Nixon's 1960 close election, the incumbent vice president lost in a SUPER close race, this time however Nixon was on the winning side of the election, becoming the first former vice president to win the presidency.

Richard Nixon. California. 37th POTUS. 1969-1974. Republican. 36th VPOTUS. 1953-1961. 1960 Republican Presidential Candidate. Nixon in 1960.

From there the next eligible V.P. would be George Bush in 1988. Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, would resign, becoming the second to do so and be replaced by first-appointed vice president under the 25th Amendment, Gerald Ford. Ford would of course go on to be POTUS, the first to never run for the office or the vice presidency. Jimmy Carter and his running-mate, Walter Mondale, would lose a second term to Ronald Reagan and George Bush in 1980, but as if he served 8 years, Mondale tries his turn at the top of the ticket in 1984 and did worse than when he was on the bottom four years prior. So with Reagan and Bush's reelection in '84 and the 22nd Amendment limiting Reagan to two terms, Bush was next as the incumbent vice president for the top of the Republican Party's ticket in '88.

George Herbert Walker Bush. Texas. 41st POTUS. 1989-1993. Republican. 43rd VPOTUS. 1981-1989. President Reagan. Vice President Bush accepting the GOP nomination in 1988.

Bush 41 would be the first sitting vice president to run since Humphrey ran 20 years prior, but unlike the 1968 Democratic Candidate, Bush 41 was more like the Democratic Vice President in 1836, Martin Van Buren, the last incumbent to win the presidency. So for the first time in the 20th Century and since Van Buren in 1837, the vice president of the United States announced his win in the Electoral College making him the next president of the United States. Had Bush 41 won reelection in 1992 (some say he would have had Ross Perot not been in the race, since as a third party candidate Perot siphoned) and served out his second term until 1997, he would've been the first person to have served two terms as vice president and two as POTUS, just it would have been for another presidential father, Adams 2 in 1800. Jefferson served one term as VPOTUS and two as POTUS. MVB served one term as both the VP and POTUS. Nixon has been elected twice to both the presidency and vice presidency, but he did not complete his second term. There's a record to be broken, that's four out of five national elections. The 5th election was the super-close 1960 Presidential Election where JFK defeated the incumbent Vice President Nixon.

Al Gore. Tennessee. 45th VPOTUS. 1993-2001. Democratic. 2000 Democratic Presidential Candidate and winner of the Popular Vote in the 2000 Presidential Election. The screen capture is of his concession speech on December 13, 2000 after 36 days of recounts and legal battles.

Al Gore would come very very close to the presidency with a win in the popular vote in 2000 but not in the Electoral College thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore, which ended the recounts in Florida which then gave the State's votes to Bush 43. Eight years later in 2008, Vice President Richard Cheney would not run for the presidency. The chances of the current Vice President Joe Biden running in 2016 are slim. He will be 74 and while 74 is the new 64, he faces popular challengers from his own party and the GOP. So only time will tell if a future vice president will be a Bush 41 (winner), a Gore (super close), a Humphrey (close enough), a Mondale (loser, electorally), or a Nixon (all of the above).

Former Vice President Richard Nixon campaigning in 1968 as the GOP's Presidential Nominee, for a second time.

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.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #31 - "Let's Clear Things Up with the Vice Presidency"

The following words were added to the Constitution with the 25th Amendment after its ratification on February 10, 1967:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Before that it was unclear if the vice president of the United States became the president or an acting president. After the first death of a president in office, William Henry Harrison, on April 4, 1841, John Tyler stepped up and took the oath of office. The Tyler Precedent was followed by Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.

The amendment's second section clarified what to do if there is a vacancy in the vice presidency. Whenever a vice president became president, like those listed above, or died in office or resigned, the vice presidency remained unoccupied. Six years after the passage of the amendment, Spiro Agnew became the second vice president to resign from office and Richard Nixon used the new amendment to fill the office. Gerald Ford became the first vice president appointed to the office, after approval by both Houses of Congress. Less than a year into the office, Nixon became the first president to resign the presidency making Ford the first president of the United States never elected to either office. Once president, Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to the vacant office of the vice presidency. So from 1974-1977, the POTUS and VPOTUS were appointed office holders.

The third section of the amendment also allows the president to transfer power to the vice president, if the president is unable to perform the duties of the office. President Ronald Reagan did so with Vice President George Bush and President George W. Bush did it twice with Vice President Richard Cheney. Previously this should've happened with Presidents James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, but there was no amendment then, of course. To transfer power, the president must write a declaration of of the transfer to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, both relinquishing the powers of the office to the vice president and then resuming the duties of the office.

The final section of the amendment has never been put in to effect. President George H.W. Bush calls it a legal coup since it requires the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unfit for office. The movie Air Force One shows the vice president and cabinet with section 4 of the amendment as a backup plan while the president is held hostage by terrorists, but the plan is never used.

The Private Inauguration Part 2 - The Obamas

The private swearing-in of the new administration continued hours after Vice President was sworn in by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor at the Vice President's Residence. When compared to the last Sunday private swearing-in, President Ronald Reagan had his with a small audience in the foyer of the White House right after Vice President George Bush. President Barack Obama's was simpler than that. The president and the first family walked in to the Blue Room with the Chief Justice and the only audience seemed to be the film crew. Chief Justice John Roberts read the oath from a piece of paper, swearing-in Obama a third time since January 20, 2009. He and the president stumbled through the oath the first time around and non-believers in the president believed since he said it wrong he wasn't really the president so later that day the two redid the oath. A note on that presidents, chief justices and their vice presidential counter-parts have messed up the oath of office plenty of times. Even the man who took the oath as a president-elect and later administered the oath as chief justice, William Howard Taft substituted a word in the oath when swearing-in Herbert Hoover. Taft's response, "Before radio ... we messed it up even more than that."

The Private Inauguration Part 1 - The Bidens

The private swearing-in of the president and vice president happened a little differently than in the past. When President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush were sworn in on a Sunday, their little ceremony was held in the White House foyer. Invited guests sat in chairs facing the staircase and watched as the vice president went first and then the president.

This year the vice president took the oath of office almost four hours before the president. Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in my Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor (who apparently went from the ceremony up to New York, but will be back in Washington by noon tomorrow for the public swearing-in) in a ceremony that looked more like the Reagan/Biden private swearing in but at the Naval Observatory, aka the Vice President's Residence.

The Would've Been 43rd President of the United States

The Presidential Election of 2000 went from being a close election like 1976, 1968 and 1960, to name a few, to becoming one of the unusual elections like 1800, 1824, and 1876. 1888 was pretty simple...popular vote winner: Grover Cleveland, electoral vote winner: Benjamin Harrison. No Congressional vote. No Commission. No Supreme Court.

The 2000 election pitted the incumbent vice president, Al Gore against Texas Governor George W. Bush. The last sitting vice president to run for president to win was Governor Bush's father, the 43rd Vice President of the United States, George Bush in 1988 and the last president to win over 50% of the popular vote until his son's reelection in 2004. Before Bush in 1988, Martin Van Buren was the last incumbent to run and win. But Gore had a shot. The administration of William Jefferson Clinton brought nothing but peace and prosperity to the United States in a post-Cold War planet Earth. But the scandals that the media covered and the Right Wing pushed, the Clinton administration would carry sexual scandal scars from Gennifer Flowers to Monica Lewinsky. While the Republican controlled Congress couldn't stop investigating Clinton, they'd relax on the next guy.

Which wouldn't be a third term of the Clinton administration, like Ronald Reagan had with his veep. Twice elected governor, MBA holder, and son of a president, George W. Bush presented a return to professionalcy after 8 years of the rowdy Clinton crowd from Arkansas, stature would return to the White House in the likes of George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower and no other president meets. With Gore distancing himself from Clinton and running on his own didn't help. Clinton, though impeached and acquitted, Clinton left office with high approval ratings. Had Gore used him even a fraction of the amount that President Barack Obama would use him in 2012, Gore would've been the victor in an election that would've been up there with 1968 and 1976.

But Election night 2000, would come and go with no winner. Gore had been predicted the winner in Florida and thus the presidency, but Florida went from the Gore column to undecided and then to Bush's. Gore conceded...and then he took it back after learning how close the Florida vote was. This was democracy in action. Lawyers flew in like the super heroes they are. Two former secretaries of state lead the campaign's legal teams. James Baker for Bush and Warren Christopher for Gore. Instead of recounting the entire State, Gore chose 4 counties that leaned heavy Democratic, but the Bush camp challenged the recount in the courts which led the Florida Supreme Court to side with Gore. The State Supreme Court leaned in Gore's favor, just as the Federal Supreme Court leans toward Bush. So with the recounts granted, the Bush team appeals to the Supreme Court, even though Bush represents the party that defends States' Rights...not when the electoral votes that will make someone the president of the United States at stake.

The Supreme Court would end the recounts and the electoral votes certified by the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, a member of Bush's Florida campaign team, would go to Bush. Gore would have a chance to concede to Bush again, the day after the Supreme Court ruling. Here is his address to the nation from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on December 13, 2000.

FLASH-FORWARD to December 13, 2003.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured hiding in hole. All thanks to the Decider, the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. USA! USA! USA!

Bush Again

After wonderful 8 years of President George W. Bush (and Vice President Richard Cheney) it was a given that Jeb Bush the Bush prodigy that should've been president, wouldn't be POTUS anytime soon after January 20, 2009.

It sometimes feels that the election of a Bush after President George (H.W.) Bush's reelection loss to William Jefferson Clinton in 1992 seemed a certainty and those responsible for Bush 41's defeat will get their comeuppance. Bush Junior has always been protective of his father and for the popular wartime POTUS to be defeated by Clinton and a third-party candidate, H. Ross Perot, a man from the era of first initials. With Bush 41 not pulling a Grover Cleveland, the 1990s became the path the younger Bushes needed to build credibility to eventually run for president.

Jeb seemed the likely one with the intellectual curiosity, his brother George lacked. Junior was an outdoor westerner, not an indoor thinker. And just to note, people in the West think indoors and outdoors...speaking as someone from the American West. But Junior wanted it more or he was a better politician than Jeb...or because he had a desire for revenge against those that humiliated his father with defeat.

While they both ran for governorships in 1994, Junior in Texas and Jeb in Florida, Junior was the victory. He defeated Ann Richards who famously insulted then Vice President Bush, who was seeking the 1988 GOP presidential nomination, with her line in the keynote speech: "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth". With his victory Governor George W. Bush had a shot for the GOP nomination, but not in 1996.

The GOP would nominate Bob Dole, senator from Kansas and 1976 GOP vice presidential nominee, because it was his turn and his challengers weren't going to prevent that. While Clinton's presidency started going downhill from the start in 1993 and the citizens confirmed it by the disastrous Democratic loss in the 1994 mid-term elections, the Newt Gingrich (House of Representatives) - Bob Dole (the Senate) led Congress only helped to turn Bill Clinton's fortunes around. By the spring of 1995, Clinton started to look unbeatable the following year. Those two factors probably contributed to Governor Bush abstaining from the 1996 Presidential Election. Just as Dole turn came, so too would Governor Bush's.

In 1998 both Bush Brothers were on ballots again for governor in their respective states and this time both celebrated election night victories. The time for Texas-Bush to run is ASAP. He was now a governor elected to two terms and by the start of the next presidential administration on January 20, 2001, he would have served six years as the chief executive of the nations second largest state. By that next presidential inauguration date from 1998, Florida-Bush would only be governor for two years and while he may be more wonky than Texas-Bush it wouldn't be his turn.

So Texas-Bush's turn for the GOP nomination would be 2000 and John McCain would be the one with the most to disagree with that idea, although it would help him become the next-in-line because of his opposition to Bush in 2000. Bush would go on to win the needed electoral votes to become POTUS, but would lose the popular vote to Vice President Al Gore in a ruling by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. Bush won the presidency with a federal court decision over turning a state court ruling in the Florida recount, and Gore accepted the Court's decision no matter how much he disagreed with it. Defeating Gore was an extension of Bush 43 seeking revenge on those that defeated Bush 41, since Gore is a product of the Clinton administration Bush's victory is a jab at Clinton. Of course Clinton and Bush 41 would eventually become super friends in the first decade of the 21st Century, going on missions for Bush 43 and Clinton too became friends with his successor. But the 2000 election and the aftermath is another topic altogether.

Bush 43 goes on to becoming a wartime POTUS, at first not by choice but when he does the neo-conservatives that filled the administration continued to spend money and enlarge the size of the government, which had been reduced during the Democratic Clinton/Gore administration. After reelection in 2004, Bush 43 slowly but surely starts to see the light and after the mid-term defeats in 2006 starts to take control away from the neo-cons. But by then we were in two wars and spending like crazy ensuring a Democratic victory in 2008. Ten years after being elected governor of Florida and reelected as well, Jeb Bush was ready to be POTUS...but not after 8 years of an unsuccessful presidency not just an administration of your own political party, but your brother was the chief executive. No Bush would be elected in 2008.

By 2008, the Tea Party group came on to the political scene decrying the big government overreach and big spending. The opposition to Bush 43 would say where have you been since 2002 (the State of the Union Address which coined the term "Axis of Evil" and started us on this path of multiple wars on the credit card). But the group is here. By 2010 they have successfully influenced elections, supported and endorsed candidates. The Tea Party faction of the Republican Party was taking over. Factions within political parties come and go, they win seats when they come and lose seats big time on their way out. The Democrats have had the Copperheads, Dixiecrats, and Blue Dogs to name a few. While the Republicans have had Half-Breeds, Stalwarts, and Neo-Cons. The Tea Party and Christian Right have seized dominance over the rest of the party...the faction of the party that Jeb Bush and more than likely Bush 41, 43 and Dick Cheney belong to which is to show the diversity in this small faction alone.

Jeb stood up recently denouncing those that oppose compromise...namely those that have taken control of the GOP which Jeb feels is not the same as the days of Ronald Reagan and George (H.W.) Bush or even his own. Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for a generation and Bush 43 will be no different. Jeb's chances at running might not occur. However with his recent statement on the divisiveness in our politics, brought on by those in constant opposition to compromise like the current GOP, Jeb has an opportunity to become the uniter that Bush 43 failed to accomplish in 2000 after the divided election and Barack Obama was unable to achieve with his hope and change in 2008, no thanks to the GOP's lack of trying. Jeb just needs to stand up to those that took over the Grand Old Party.

Imagine a faction taking control of the party and that faction's choice would mean certain electoral defeat, so the only thing to do would be to stand up to that faction with your own campaign for electoral...well defeat. This is essentially the election of 1912. Theodore Roosevelt was upset with how his successor William Howard Taft did nothing to main the legacy TR created in the two previous presidential terms. So TR and his progressive constituents bolted the party in response to the conservatives support of the incumbent, Taft. With TR in the race on the Progressive Party ticket, or the Bull Moose Party, he would divide the GOP vote in 1912 ensuring the victory of the Democratic progressive Woodrow Wilson. That election would be the last election a former president runs for the presidency again but also the first and only time a third-party came in second. A similar scenario can occur in 2016...assuming President Obama is reelected.

Now if Mitt Romney wins in 2012 then this is just political fantasy. If the A-Team that sat out this last GOP primary/caucus season sits out the 2016 because the crazy B-Team thinks it's A-Team material because they went through the cycle once before or more unqualified individuals think they can do it too, then someone should bolt the party. Jeb could be that person. It would certainly split the vote, but those that have taken over the party won't appeal to the Democratic opposition anyway, but Jeb could appeal to the crucial independents that determine the elections as well as the remaining sane-thinking Republicans now called RINOs (Republican In Name Only), the Reagans, Bushes, Cheneys. But of course if Jeb pulled a TR, he would more than likely give the election to the Democratic candidate just like Perot did in 1992 and the opposite with Ralph Nader in 2000. Especially if the economic fortunes turn around in a second Obama administration...surely guaranteeing a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016. Remember this is just political fantasy.

The Non-Cleveland Qualifications to be President

There are only 3 qualifications to be President of the United States, being a natural born citizen, 14 years residency, and 35 years old.

As long as these qualifications are met, then there should be no reason why one individual couldn't run for the highest office in the land. In the 2008 Democratic primary race, then-Senator Hillary Clinton of New York touted her experience (which is real, genuine, and legit), verse then-Senator Barack Obama of Illinois' lack of experience (which was just at the federal level of politics...or just ageism). Experience was the theme of the Hillary Clinton campaign in the first half of the primary before evolving to an experienced politician for the working class American.

Senator Clinton's experience then in 2008, qualified her to be president. Her resume included a college graduate, law school graduate, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States and senator from New York, and now she can include Secretary of State, an old stepping stone to the presidency. Let's just say, she's gone up in value since '08.

In that primary race her argument that then-Senator Obama wasn't experienced enough never stuck and the reason is because he met the qualifications to hold the office just as men before him with a small policial resume, like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy.

While experience is not a qualifier to be POTUS, then-Senator Clinton's resume probably came the closest to having the chops for the job without having been president. She was married to the president so she has some first hand experience seeing what the office holder must go through. There has only been one person ready for the job of the presidency before winning on election day and that's Grover Cleveland...only because he had been elected president 8 years before resuming the office.

In 1992, then-Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas just had five terms as governor under his electoral belt before running. His main opponent, President George H. W. Bush had an even bigger resume plus as the commander-in-chief during a time of war. In 1996, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas had racked up years of political service in Congress and even as a vice-presidential candidate on a national ticket. In 2000, Vice President Al Gore's resume led him to the nomination as the sitting v-p, just like Bush, while his opponent, Bush's son George W. Bush, got the electoral weight from one full term as governor of a large state, Texas, and an election to a second term. John Kerry used his military service in Vietnam and political service in the senate as building blocks to his candidacy and then-President Bush 43 used his first term on top of all his experience for reelection. So really there is no clear cut mold for a person to fit to become a nominee. Obama used his brief federal experience, and State-level experience, and everything that made him unique to help him win the nomination, just as his opponent Senator John McCain used to prove to the electorate that he too was qualified to be president. In 2012, Obama is using his first term and Mitt Romney (assuming he is the nominee) will use his one term as governor and business career (he'd be using his political career had he won the senator race against Ted Kennedy in 1994) to be president. So why in 2008, didn't Sarah Palin's unique resume make her qualified for the bottom of the ticket?

Her lack of intellectual curiosity was made clear in her interview with Katie Couric and then later with Charlie Gibson and it was nobody's fault but her own...and probably the McCain camp's vetting team. Palin's resume is a political dream come true and only if she had intelligence to back up her short political resume, she would be a political super-star just like Obama, Reagan, Bush 43 (pre-2006), and both Clintons. She can muster a following, but if there was only substance to back it up would her following become more powerful in putting her into a position of power.

There are only 3 qualifications to be POTUS and they are clearly stated in the Constitution. Individuals like Obama and Palin have vied for it and have had to prove themselves beyond the qualifiers mentioned in one of our founding documents. You don't have to be a life long politician to be president but you have to show some knowledge of current events...just like students in a social studies class. Or if you're lucky, you can run for a non-consecutive term like Cleveland...but that's difficult in this 22nd Amendent era we live in.

Electing the Vice President

Since the passage of the 12th Amendment in 1804 the vice presidency has become the least sought after office. Prior to 1804 the person who received the second most electoral votes became the vice president. That meant that someone who went after the presidency was really worth the office, just look at the only two men who were elected to the office pre-12th Amendment: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. (Aaron Burr was elected on a backfired attempt at the first ever president/vice president ticket which is a story unto itself). Up until the 1950s the 12th Amendment made the vice presidency a balancing act to a presidential election, rather than a qualified office holder for the higher office. There were some exceptions between 1804 to the 1950s of great men in the vice presidency, but truly with Richard Nixon the vice presidency became an office to be reckoned with. As the 20th Century came to an end the importance of the vice presidency became ever apparent especially with the passage of the 25th Amendment which finally stated in the Constitution that "the Vice President shall become President" upon death, resignation, or removal from office.

Recently it has been said that Senator John McCain should reveal who is on his short list for vice president, since the search for his v.p. is going on behind closed doors. And why not? Go back eight years when then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas selected former Secretary of Defense Richard B. Cheney to head up his vice president selection committee. In the end, Secretary Cheney chose himself as the best candidate for vice president. After eight years of Cheney as vice president, who has become indisputably the most powerful vice president in United States history, the citizens of the United States should have more say as to who their vice president is.

Long ago the presidential nominating conventions lost the right to pick the vice presidential candidate for either party. The presidential candidates have been the ones to choose their respective running mates. Some were once bitter rivals during the primary campaign season and then became a presidential ticket, like Senator John F. Kennedy and Senator Lyndon Johnson in 1960, former Governor Ronald Reagan and former Director of the CIA George Herbert Walker Bush in 1980, and Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards in 2004. The time has come for the voters to decide the vice president.

A perfect example is the 2008 Democratic primary race for president. Neither Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton have enough votes to obtain the Democratic nomination. The party is almost split on the decision. It has come to the point where the two need to be on the same ticket to appease supporters of both candidates whether it is Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama. Also with the request of McCain to reveal his "short list" of v.p. candidates, it seems ever apparent that electing a vice president instead of having the presidential candidate making his or her first presidential decision pre-presidency is what the electorate wants. During the primary election each state should not only vote for their choice for president but their choice for vice president, on a separate ballot just like in the general election.

This separate ballot primary election will once again return the stature that was taken away by the 12th Amendment and return some electoral glory to the office as well as prevent the long drawn out primary or closed door selection as seen in the 2008 presidential/vice presidential selection.

A Future America

Times change and with that change comes a new way of life. Our foreign affairs have dominated our nation's affairs since the end of World War II, sixty-two years of being a super power both in positive and negative aspects. It is time to take the policy of nation building and throw it in the trash bin of history along side colonialism. If we learned anything from Hurricane Katrina it was that things were not so great in the United States. The time has come for the United States to take a break from the rest of the world and help the citizens of the United States and the United States alone. The United States needs a period of isolation from the world.

Isolation may seem like a difficult concept to follow in a world so integrated as the early 21st Century is. It is just difficult, not impossible. We as a country would have to adapt. At the beginning of our existence the large bodies of water protected and separated us from the Old World and the troubles that came with the Old World. Isolation lasted until our national security became threated as it did in 1917 by the Germans in the First World War.

Once peace was made in 1919, the United States returned to a period of isolation which lasted until December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor would rid the ideology from United States. Instead of returning to an isolation at the end of the Second World War, the United States did the honorable thing and allow democracies to blossom in the nations destroyed by war. The United States did not come in as the conquerors but as the liberators and we continued to defend those nations threated by the oppression of Communism. Vietnam was the turning point in the good we were doing throughout the world. After the Pentagon Papers revealed the deception of the government in their explanation of the war to its citizens, the government still wanted a form of victory for our country. Even though our country isn't a human being, we are. We make mistakes and should admit them.

The Cold War that President Reagan help bring to an end was accomplished without firing a shot. The standing army remained after the Cold War, as it remained since the end of World War II.

Desert Storm was our redemption for the Vietnam War. President George H. W. Bush successfully led a coalition of nations in defeating Iraq and their invasion of Kuwait. However it was this act that al qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sites as one of the reasons for attacking us on September 11, 2001.

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 scared us into thinking that we could be attacked from a foreign enemy on our land protected by two large bodies of water which have kept us safe since 1814 when the British invaded cities in the War of 1812, including Washington D.C. The scare tactics of the Bush Administration in the lead up to the Iraq War in 2003 played on our fears of another attack. The war of choice has ruined our reputation around the world.

This writing is not about hating America or "blame America first." In fact it is the exact opposite. This needs to be said if we are to live up to what our Founding Fathers wanted. The Founding Fathers and the other big nations of the late 18th Century knew of the great power the United States would achieve in later years. However, I'm sure the Founding Fathers did not want to be a super power along the lines of the one they rebelled against.

The United States needs to admit to itself that it has a problem and needs to fix those problems, foreign and domestic. The foreign problem is over our involvement in the world with the military stationed throughout the world. We currently are fighting two wars in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Afghanistan War is the forgotten war like that of the War of 1812. This was the right action following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and President Bush finally had a united country. However, when it looked as though everything was smooth sailing and attention was diverted to a false threat, Afghanistan was an afterthought to the American people.

Instead of having our troops finish the job in Afghanistan our president sent US sons and daughters into another war. The war of choice would take our attention away from Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. September 11th is also an afterthought as Iraq turns into chaos and the reasons why we're there no longer are important because that would mean placing blame on someone. Sons and daughters of this nation should not be fighting in a foreign country where we are not wanted and all for false reasons that get portrayed as justified.

We need to find or create a new energy source and cut all dependence of the Middle East. The people of the Middle East have a lot to work out and until they ask for our help we should leave. We need to leave other parts of the world too. This is the 21st century, so isolation would be a little different than before. The country can go back to a way of life similar to the time before both world wars and experience the peace and prosperity we achieved in the 1990s all at the same time.

The period of isolation will give us a chance to make our country number one in every aspect studied by social scientists, whether that be in education, lowering or exterminating poverty, health care for all. This does not and should not be done with big government or enormous spending. The money for the military can be reduced to a level that can maintain our defense against any possible threat or national disaster and spread to where it can help make this a more perfect Union. We cannot go abroad spreading democracy and policing the world when we need to put ourselves first for once.

The government can be a friend to big business by asking them to help bring jobs back to America. The period of isolation can be a time to rebuild the American economy and make it like it was before the two world wars when one income was enough to live off of. Immigration of course would be a big part of the reform needed in the United States.

Immigration should be put on hold until we can properly regulate and secure who is coming in and out. Immigration to the United States would resume as soon as it is fixed.

The length of isolation from the world can be from ten to fifty years. Japan has gone longer, but that was in a different time. We can fix ourselves, help ourselves for the first time in a long time without being distracted by the problems of others. The period of isolation would end when we as a country are ready to enter the world as the leader it once was but without the touch of the Roman Empire. Let the leading nations of the Old World deal with the problems of that hemisphere. If a Hitler rises and we are called on by the world for assistance, we'll aide in the defiance of an oppressive regime but only if the situation is truly a dire call for aide.

Isolation in the minds of politicians today is probably not happening. Our nation has had a foreign policy of intervention and nation building for over sixty years and a new course is needed to heal our nation and return it to the glory it once had both in the hearts of its citizens and the rest of the world. Just as the Middle East isn't ready to enter the world community, neither are we. If we reverse global warming and barring any asteroid impacts, we have a long time on this planet together. Globalization or a united Earth can happen some time in the future, and the United States can lead the planet to that point after it helps itself for once.

We can end our isolation ready to be the super power more aligned with the vision of our Founding Fathers.