THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - THE MAGIC WORD IS O.K.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #53 - "Deathdays of July"

While June boasts six presidential deaths it is not the month with the most presidential deaths. On June 1st in 1868 the only president named Buchanan, thankfully says the past 25-plus years, died starting off the month with you know what kind of death...presidential. James Madison ends the month, so far, on June 28th. 6 days and 6 presidents...not listed Ronald Reagan, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Grover Cleveland. Since Cleveland is in the mix there must be an asterisk.

June's second, currently, because in July 3 presidents died on the same day and there's only 2 death years for those 3 presidential deaths. July 4th is not just celebrated as independence from Great Britain in 1776 but fifty year's after the passing of 2 famous founders. The historical coincident which did not go unnoticed by contemporaries of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams only enhanced the young Union of States. Adams 2 worried with his last words that Jefferson lived that 50th anniversary of independence when in the non-telegraph (most recent form of instant communication) era and information moved slower Jefferson passed away 5 hours before.

Sharing that historical day but in 1831 is the last president to be considered a founding father, James Monroe. Then there's Zachary Taylor's death on July 9, 1850, leaving Millard Fillmore to decide upon the Compromise of 1850. July 23, 1885 is when Ulysses S. Grant passed away after finishing an epic memoir like no other. The next day, the 24th, but in 1862, is when Martin Van Buren passed. He, like Former President Grant, tried for a non-consecutive term. Where Grant never got the nomination, Democratic Party founder Van Buren was nominated by the Free Soil Party, a single-issue party whose members would later find a home in the Republican Party founded in 1854. Andrew Johnson died on the 31st months after being sworn-in as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee. Johnson-17, so far, is the only former president to be elected to the Senate and for Johnson-17, a body that 7 years prior had almost removed him from the not-yet-built-Oval-Office.

That's 7 presidential deaths and just 5 days.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #45 - "THE TERM OF RESIGNATIONS"

It had been 141 years since a Vice President of the United States resigned the office.

On October 10, 1973, the vice presidency had become vacant for the second time because of a resignation. It had been vacant because of death 7 times, the last being James Sherman in 1912. While Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency the following year would be a first for that office, it would not be for his second-in-command. When Nixon chose a running-mate in 1968, he chose a little known governor, Spiro Agnew, instead of a star that would take attention away from the top of the ticket. What Agnew did bring was that attack dog persona and while a moderate in the GOP appeased conservatives and southerns, since he was from Maryland. Nixon hoped Agnew would resign before the 1972 reelection so he'd be easier to replace with Nixon's preferred vice president, John Connally, the guy that also got shot, but only wounded, on November 22, 1963.

Spiro Agnew of Maryland. 39th VPOTUS.

Agnew was reelected VPOTUS with Nixon in 1972, Nixon had deal with his decision from 1968 for another four years, or would he? When Baltimore started cleaning up corruption, investigations led to corruption in the Governor's Office, the former governor turned vice president of the United States. Nixon eventually got his wish, but he got it too late. Agnew resigned in the first year of the second term, 1973, and became the first vice president to resign because he faced criminal charges, among them bribery and tax evasion.

With Agnew's resignation, there was a vacancy in the vice presidency for the first time since the States ratified the 25th Amendment in 1967, just 6 years earlier. Nixon became the first president to appoint a vice president, not including nominating conventions, but because the Constitution says so. However, by the end of 1973, Nixon was not as popular as he was just a year prior when he won one of the biggest landslides in presidential history. Watergate continued to grow from a piece in the Washington Post in June of 1972, to investigation of the president and threat of impeachment if he does not comply. Nixon had to choose someone that was not going to divide the country any more than his administration had achieved by covering up the Watergate scandal and no cooperating with the Congress. Connally, a Democrat turned Republican, would not be a favorite for Republicans in Congress, both the House and the Senate, for fear of Nixon's removal would put a scalawag in office. Nixon was in no position to get what he wanted.

Gerald Ford of Michigan. The soon-to-be 40th VPOTUS on the cover ofTIME magazine in October of 1973. (later the 38th POTUS)

Less than 2 months after Agnew's resignation, Gerald Ford became the first appointed vice president after both houses of Congress confirmed him on December 6, 1973, the Senate confirmed him over a week before the House. The new vice president, "a Ford, not a Lincoln", easily won the votes because he was a moderate and a nice guy. He served in the House of Representatives for 24 years and only sought to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one-half of the leadership of the Legislative Branch of the United States, the Congress. Instead he'd have to settle for the other half, the vice presidency, which is also, the President of the Senate. The 40th VPOTUS would go on to be the 38th POTUS after the 37th resigns in August of the next year. Connally and Agnew, almost became president, but politics, and the law, came into play as it always does.

Now more than ever, but really this is from 1968.

The ticket of Nixon/Agnew won the 1968 election in one of the closest elections and won reelection in a landslide only Roosevelt 32 and Johnson 36 had accomplished. The ticket of Nixon/Agnew would not last the full second term, and become the only ticket to resign before the term expired...so far, of course. (2013) History showed that John C. Calhoun's resignation was not a one-time occurrence, just a rarity.

Calhoun, resigned for different reasons. Calhoun and Agnew share nothing more than being known for their resignations. While Agnew had a short rise from Baltimore County Executive to the Vice presidency in just six years, Calhoun is an American political legend. They both were southerners, but Calhoun was from South Carolina and not a border State like Maryland. They didn't get along that great with their Chief Executive. While Nixon tried his best to avoid Agnew and realized, when it was too late to replace him, that Agnew was not smart enough for the job of Commander-in-Chief (so avoiding him, is a great way to prep him for the job). Calhoun did not get along with his President either, Andrew Jackson. And Jackson wasn't even Calhoun's first President. He was the second VPOTUS to serve two presidents. Calhoun won election to the vice presidency in 1824, when he was on both John Quincy Adams' ticket and Jackson's ticket. In that uncertain election, the House of Representatives chose Adams to be the president while Calhoun easily won enough Electoral Votes to win the vice presidency. He won reelection to the office when Jackson ran again in 1828, but wouldn't be around by election day in 1832.

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 7th VPOTUS.

Calhoun was proponent of States' Rights and limiting the power of the Federal government, which rankled Jackson. The president even threatened to go to South Carolina and hang Calhoun. Calhoun would eventually resign to win a seat in the Senate where he could do more against Jackson than as his Vice President, a weak and powerless office at the time. Martin Van Buren would be put on the bottom of the ticket in '32 and win election with Jackson. Van Buren would then gain Jackson's approval as his heir-apparent in the 1836 election. Van Buren easily won.

Unlike Agnew, Calhoun would continue his illustrious career defending the peculiar institution of slavery, illustrious to southerners, not those in favor of progress like the Abolitionists, while serving in some capacity in the Federal Government of the United States. Agnew would go into political obscurity and really only reappear at Nixon's funeral in 1994, three years before his own death. Because of Nixon's resignation in 1974, Ford's elevation to the presidency created another vacancy in the vice presidency. Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to his recently vacated office. The Ford/Rockefeller Administration became the first where neither the president or vice president had campaigned for the offices. From then on, there would be no vacancies in the vice presidency...so far.

Today in POTUStory - MVB IS DEAD! OK?!

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #42 - "THE FIRST DEMOCRAT SINCE..."

In presidential history there's always a presidential first. George Washington had a bunch from 1789 to 1797. Until there are more elections of non-white males, then the "firsts" are pretty low key stuff.

President William Jefferson Clinton gives his Second Inaugural Address, the first Democratic president to do so since FDR sixty years prior at the first January 20th inauguration of a president in 1937.

President William Jefferson Clinton's reelection in 1996, the first time I was eligible to vote, was the first time a Democratic president to be reelected since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, and again in 1940, and again in 1944. Before Roosevelt 32, the last Democratic president to win reelection was Woodrow Wilson, but Wilson never achieved over 50% of the popular vote unlike FDR. Clinton's 1992 and 1996 elections are similar to Wilson's 1912 and 1916 elections in that they both were Democrats to win election and reelection with just a plurality of the popular vote. At that point in 1916, Wilson was the first Democrat reelected, consecutively, since Andrew Jackson's reelection in 1832. Grover Cleveland won the popular vote three elections in a row in 1884, 1888, and 1892, but only the Electoral College in '84 and '92, so in 1912 Wilson was the first Democrat reelected since Cleveland. When FDR passed away just months into his fourth term in 1945, his third vice president, Harry S. Truman became the president. In 1948 Truman won reelection to the presidency in a contest everyone thought his opponent had won. While President Truman is a Democratic president that won reelection, it was also his first and only election at the top of the ticket. President Truman could've ran again at the top of the ticket in 1952 since he was unaffected by the 22nd Amendment, which limited presidents to two terms, but chose against running.

The next Democrat would be John F. Kennedy and he never had the chance to face the voters a second time. His Vice President Lyndon Johnson would succeed Kennedy and follow in Truman's (and Coolidge and Roosevelt 26) footsteps. LBJ would win his own election in 1964, a landslide, but all that would be lost four years later. Johnson 36 would realize he'd face challenges from within his own party when he lost the New Hampshire Primary to Eugene McCarthy in 1968.

Eugene McCarthy's challenge to President Lyndon B. Johnson helped prevent Johnson 36 from being the first Democrat since FDR to win reelection to a second term in 1968.

Hubert Humphrey in 1968 came pretty close to being the next POTUS and in 1972 George McGovern had the opposite experience on his failed attempt at being the next Democratic president. In 1976, in another close election but with 50% of the popular vote, Jimmy Carter won the presidency. In 1980 he had the chance to be the first Democrat to be reelected since FDR. But it wasn't to be Carter. He'd be defeated by former California Governor Ronald Reagan. Carter would be the first incumbent Democratic president to lose reelection since Cleveland's first reelection bid in 1888, however as mentioned above, Cleveland won the popular vote just lost the necessary Electoral College majority AND Cleveland came back four years later and won reelection, non-consecutively. Before Cleveland 22's loss (and win) in 1888, the last incumbent Democratic president to lose reelection was Martin Van Buren. Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson were never given a chance by the party to face the voters at the top of the ticket. James K. Polk limited himself to one term. In 1848, MVB would try another run at the top of a ticket but lose his non-consecutive run as the Free Soil Party's candidate.

Former President Martin Van Buren's failed third party bid for a non-consecutive second term in 1848 with Charles F. Adams of Massachusetts, grandson of John Adams and son of John Quincy Adams.

Clinton would hold the title as the first Democrat since FDR to win reelection and the first since Wilson since a Democrat won the presidency twice but with a plurality both times. Interestingly, so did Cleveland. President Clinton's eventual Democratic successor 8 years later will hold a new first for a Democrat since...well that's for another time.

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.