Pointless Presidential Pfacts #12 - "The Popular Candidates"

In 2008, Barack Obama received the most popular votes in a single election with 69.5 million votes. The second most number of votes in a single election went to George W. Bush in 2004 with 62 million. The person with the next most after Bush 43 went to John McCain in 2008 with 60 million, followed next by John Kerry in 2004 with 59 million. Ronald Reagan is next in 1984 with 54.5 million, a number that made him the person with the most popular votes in a single election until Bush 43's reelection. Before 2004, the closest any presidential candidate came to Reagan's 54.5 million was Al Gore in 2000 with 51 million votes. All numbers rounded.

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.

Madame Vice President

In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro of New York was the first female on a national ticket. 64 years after gaining the right to vote, a female was on the ticket for the vice presidency. She lost. That presidential ticket lost, to quote a vice president...big time.

There wouldn't be a female on the ticket again until 2008. The Democrats never opined the idea again after 1984, with the exception of the brief flirtation with a female at the top of ticket during the heated 2008 Democratic Party Primary when it was clear Senator Hillary Clinton, of New York by the way, was not going to be the presidential nominee. It took the Grand Old Party 152 years, but they broke the white-males-only ticket streak, with the selection, by Senator John McCain of Arizona, of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.

Once again the ticket with the female on it did not win. Women voters voted for the ticket without the female on it both in 1984 and 2008. If McCain had his way he'd have former-Democratic-but-still-siding-with-said-party-now-Independent Joe Lieberman. But in 2008 that would not happen. Clinton's major defeat during the primaries, which came with "18 million" or 48% of the primary vote a few hundred thousand more than the man that won the nomination. Her near victory was a great way to attract voters (i.e. woman voters) that were hoping for a female on the ticket. So selecting the young (opposite of McCain), attractive (same as before), and executive branch experienced (about as much "experience" as then-Senator Barack Obama). Choosing Palin, McCain went with the way to get votes and not the person that would work best with him to governor if he won. No offense to the other female politicians or non-politicians in the GOP circa 2008. Remember Alaska doesn't bring the Electoral votes. It's already in the GOP column.

The third time can happen in 2012...and with the GOP too. Recently the GOP has had difficulties with women, just like a Star Trek fan at any age. The GOP can save themselves with the women vote by putting a female on the ticket. They of course have to go with the opposite of Palin. The woman does not have to be old, unattractive, that would be an insult to the would be candidate. But the party can find a vp candidate in the governor mansions, Congress, in the judiciary, and the non-political world. They just need to be opposite of Mitt Romney ideologically...whatever that is or the election he's running in. So the general election by the time it's important.

Now while the GOP have the opportunity to put a female on the ticket and a political reason, the Democrats have probably until the end of August/start of September to nominate their candidates. If the GOP put a female on the ticket and the benefit, there's nothing stopping the Democrats from doing the same. Vice President Joe Biden will be 73 in 2016, the same age President Ronald Reagan was when he ran for reelection in 1984...the election Ferraro lost as vp. Biden will be 74 a few weeks after the election in 2016. Not really presidential age. The loyal and foreign-policy-minded Biden could be persuaded to step down from the ticket with a new post at the head of the State Department, Hillary Clinton's current job. The dream ticket of 2008, thought of during the heat of the primary battle, can be a reality in 2012. If it happens, 2012 and the third time a female is on the ticket (2nd time for both parties) could be the charm.

Now I'm an Unbeliever

The unbeliever is a misleading name, but it is perfect since their mission is unbelievable. Their mission is to show their love of country through protest backed with misinformation. The dispensing of this lack-of-knowledge encourages near-terrorist-like actions at simple town hall meetings. It is fine to disagree and not want to want what the majority voted for in November, but the behavior is not an example of an educated democracy. The United States is just a democracy.

People at these town hall meetings scream and holler fictitious claims with as much passion as a Trekker dressed up as a Klingon warrior at a "Star Trek" convention roaming around spouting Klingonese. These people are believing the misinformation spread and without checking the validity of such outlandish, no medieval-like, claims like the "death panel" spread it further unleashing them on their representative or senator in the Congress.

We the people...can't we be nicer employers to our employees, those representing us nationally? These senators and representatives are getting yelled at about things that aren't part of and should not be part of the health care debate. It's like the hardcore misinformed anti-health carers are reading from a different script than the sane portion of the country. My script has a written by credit with common sense listed.

Those people have the right to free speech, but that speech should not be filled with such hatred and disgust. However they should speak when understanding special interests encourage their spread of the misinformation which rip the political seams of the United States. A respectful opposition to health care, rather than a disrespectful and disgraceful one. This is a discussion on health care and not a debate whether or not the president should send U.S. soldiers, men and women, to invade a country with no threat to our national security.

If you believe the United States is going down the wrong path you have ever right to believe that. When not respectfully protesting, the remedy is at the ballot box. You hate what your senator is doing with health care, then vote him or her out! Same with your representative. But understand that in the last federal election, which was November 4, 2008, the Democratic Party's presidential ticket received 53% of the popular vote, rounding up of course. No landslide. Sure the popular vote means nothing, except gives a percentage representation of the nation's pulse since four years past. The Electoral College, which does mean something, shows a landslide of 67% for then-Senator Barack Obama to Senator John McCain's 32%.

The rounded 53% is important. While George W. Bush did received 50% in 2004 and claimed a mandate and political capital to spend, he was far from it. President Obama has both political capital and more of a mandate than Bush had in either 2000 or 2004. Let the will of the majority play out. The election showed less division, but the health care debate did what misleading a nation to war could not do and that is wake the unbeliever to preach the falsehoods and feed the stereotype of American stupidity.

The First African-American

John McCain's hero, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt invited the first African-American to the Executive Mansion, aka the White House, for dinner in 1901.

That African-American was Booker T. Washington.

That dinner caused such a stir TR, the real maverick, caved to the criticism and never invited Washington or any other African-American back to the White House again. The criticism came from those that couldn't accept African-Americans as equals. But we in the 21st century must put ourselves in the shoes of our little than over a hundred years ago counterparts and understand that the Civil War had just ended 36 years prior to that historic dinner. Also the Supreme Court had just ruled five years earlier from that dinner on Plessy v. Ferguson, which established racial segregation or "separate but equal" as law of the land.

It would be almost more than half a century later when Plessy v. Ferguson would be over turned via the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. And then a decade after that African-Americans would finally be considered equal with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and secure their right to vote with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

How far we have come from the days of slavery, abolitionism, segregation, and civil rights, to see that an African-American male has a true shot at the highest office in the land which once oppressed him. Barack Obama fought for the nomination of one of the two major political parties against a female and won. That scenario is unimaginable in our nation's history, but it occurred just eight years into the 21st century, where one hundred years prior dining with the president was considered blasphemy.

How far we have come from the day when Booker T. Washington dined with President Theodore Roosevelt. We have come a long way. While it would have been amazing to see President Roosevelt stand up to the bigotry of the times, he would be proud to see that an African-American would be seen as an equal in the eyes of his opponent. The equality between the two major political party candidates is seen simply in their candidacy. We have a lot more to over come, but with Obama's candidacy we have shown that we are taking a step forward.

How far we have come is certainly shown not only in Obama's nomination by a national party but by his certain victory as the 44th president of the United States. One hundred and eight years ago a president of the United States invited an African-American to dine in the White House. One hundred and eight years later we see the possibly...no the certainty...that an African-American will sit at the head of the table in the White House.

How far we have come since the days of Theodore Roosevelt.

McCain/Another White Guy '08

It's McCain/Palin all the way in 2008!

The 2008 election was going to make history from the start. That's from the start of the Democratic contest for the nomination, not the Republican's contest. The Democrats had an African-American male, a Latino, and a woman who was just not any woman, but the former first lady of the United States. When the contest came down to just the African-American male and the woman, it was very clear that history was being made and there was possible more history making to come.

While the Democrats put up five white males alongside the other three, the Grand Old Party totaled ten white males all vying for the top of the ticket.

For the first time in twenty-four the Democratic Party was going to bring some diversity to their national ticket. Once the people had spoken and put Barack Obama, an African-American, at the top of the ticket, some wondered if an unprecedented ticket was to be formed. Instead going the more democratic approach of choosing the person to receive the second most highest number of votes cast, Obama selected a safe choice in a running mate. The ticketed did not need to be balanced ideologically or geographically, but it was balanced with Joe Biden someone that balance outs any of Obama's flaws.

The other national party didn't seem to have the possibility of making some history in this election. Those that ran for the nomination were all white males. McCain could've chosen Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, the next two highest vote getters. But he didn't. McCain secured his party's nomination via the primaries and caucuses earlier than Obama. That was February and it wouldn't be until the first week of September when McCain would officially be the Republican nominee. And yet he still waited until the week before to make his selection.

By this point Obama was history in the making and with Biden the Democrats chose to make history one step at a time. McCain's choices of running mates were Romney of Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Secretary and former governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. His choices were nothing extraordinary for the Republican, save maybe Lieberman. Senator Lieberman would be a historical choice for a number of reasons: the first Jewish vice presidential candidate for the Republican ticket (he was also the first Jewish vice presidential candidate for the Democrats in 2000, which would've made his simply the first Jewish vice presidential candidate in U.S. history), and he would've been a Democrat turned Independent Democrat to run as vice president on the Republican ticket. Not since the election of 1864 had there been such a bipartisan ticket.

But that was not to be. McCain couldn't settle on the white males he was debating over. The Democratic party was about to have for the second time in twenty-four years a ticket with just one white male on it. It looked like McCain's Republican ticket would be no different than GOP tickets of the past.

One name did keep appearing on McCain's short list. The name on that list would eventually be the name added to the ticket and break the Republican party's one hundred fifty-two year streak of an all white male ticket.

Sarah Palin was the choice. She's a governor of a state, just like the other men McCain was considering, once again, except Lieberman. But her resume is somewhat shorter than the others on the short list. There are other qualified and more recognizable Republican woman: Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, a former candidate for the Republican nomination back in 2000 and wife of the GOP's 1996 nominee; former governor Christine Todd Whitman; business woman Carly Fiorina; and second lady Lynne Cheney. If a first lady can gain experience watch a president, I'm sure the same can be said of the second lady watch her vice president husband execute the duties of his office.

Sarah Palin was the choice. She was the choice because it went with McCain's maverick or outsider approach to politics. Sure the second lady would be an out there choice, but that would be like selecting another GOP woman rumored to be considered by McCain: secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Rice would've been an historic nomination, but enough of an outsider or change to compete with McCain's opponent idea of change.

Sarah Palin was the choice. Her selection fits with McCain and the options he faced. With Sarah Palin, McCain added much heat and interest into a campaign that without Palin would've been no different the first GOP ticket of John C. Fremont and William L. Dayton.

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.