THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - PRINT THIS!!!

POTUS Photus - Warren G. Harding

44 days before the November 6th election day of 2012, I instagramed (or is it instagrammed) a countdown to the election pictures of all the presidents starting with George Washington and ending today with President Barack Obama.

For most of the POTUS Challenge the pictures were simply the portraits of the presidents. But as I started posting the presidents of the early 20th Century the pictures became more candid shots.

Warren Harding was the 29th POTUS. Elected in 1920 from Ohio. He was the first incumbent senator to win the presidency, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama were the only other incumbent senators elected. Harding was a Republican that promised a return to normalcy after the two term Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Harding would end up dying in office in 1923 while on a visit to the West Coast. His vice president, Calvin Coolidge would succeed him.

Warren Harding
29th POTUS
1921-August 2, 1923
Ohio
Republican

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

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

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