Pointless Presidential Pfacts #49 - "Mailing It In"

While Washington and Adams 2 delivered their annual messages to Congress, Jefferson broke with tradition and established sending the annual message which would then be read by a clerk to the joint-session. This was the tradition until Wilson when he addressed a joint-session, something I'm sure Theodore Roosevelt would've loved to start up again just a few years before Wilson. Bully!

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #44 - "THE FIRST DEMOCRAT SINCE... PART 2: THE 50 PERCENT"

In 1996, President William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd POTUS, was the first Democratic president of the United States to be reelected to a second term since Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd POTUS. Harry Truman, the 33rd, and Lyndon Johnson, the 36th, were reelected to the office after finishing the term of the late president they succeeded. This pfact is focusing on full presidential terms. The difference between Clinton's reelection and FDR's, is that Roosevelt 32 received more than 50% of the popular vote in all four of his presidential runs. Clinton's plurality wins in both 1992 and 1996 is the first for a Democratic president since Woodrow Wilson's two-term wins in 1912 and 1916.

President William Jefferson Clinton the night he won reelection as the 42nd POTUS with the First Lady, Hillary, and their Daughter Chelsea on Election Night 1996.

When Clinton won the White House in 1992, he only won 43% of the popular vote, the same amount won by Richard Nixon in 1968. Unlike President Nixon's reelection in 1972, Clinton did not win in a landslide but just short of getting 50% with just 49%. So the last double plurality popular vote wins was President Wilson. Whereas Clinton faced a three-way race in 1992 between the incumbent Republican President George Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot, eighty years prior Wilson faced a four-way race against the incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft, the Progressive Party, or Bull-Moose Party ran former president Theodore Roosevelt, and Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs. Wilson won 41% of the popular vote and in his reelection bid four years later he came just as close to 50% as Clinton would 80 years later in 1996.

Campaigning for Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

After Roosevelt 32, of the rest of the 20th Century Democratic presidents Johnson 36 and Jimmy Carter are the only other ones to receive more than 50% of the popular vote. In 1964, Johnson 36 won reelection in a landslide to the office he inherited through assassination. Then-former-Governor Carter got 50% of the popular vote in the super close 1976 election, not a mandate like Johnson 36's but 50%.

The first Democratic president elected in the 21st Century would be the first Democrat to win the presidency with more than 50% of the vote since Carter's win in 1976, and that would be Barack Obama in 2008. It would be with President Obama's reelection in 2012 that he would achieve what only two other Democratic presidents have achieved, winning over 50% of the popular vote in back-to-back elections. Andrew Jackson's two wins in 1828 and 1832 (there was also his plurality win, but of no matter to the House of Representatives in 1824) and FDR's 1932 and 1936 wins, as well as his 1940 and 1944 reelections to a third and fourth term, respectively.

President Barack Obama on the night he won reelection to a second term as the 44th POTUS.

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 #29 - "First Frist Ladies and Inauguration"

The role of a first lady on Inauguration Day increased early in the 20th Century.

Helen Taft became the first to ride back to the White House with the newly sworn in president, William Howard Taft, in 1909.

The Tafts ride back from the Capitol after the inaugural ceremonies on March 4, 1909.

For Woodrow Wilson's second swearing-in, Edith Wilson became the first First Lady to accompany the president to and from the ceremony. In 1921, the outgoing first lady, Wilson, rode with incoming first lady Florence Harding to the Capitol starting the tradition of first ladies following the president and president-elect. Eventually, First Ladies and Second Ladies would ride to the Capitol with their successors separately from their husbands.

On Lyndon Johnson's Inauguration Day in 1965, Lady Bird Johnson became the first First Lady to hold the Bible for the president. Judy Agnew became the first Second Lady to hold the Bible for the vice president on Vice President Spiro Agnew's second inauguration in 1973.

Lady Bird Johnson holds the Bible for President Lyndon Johnson on January 20, 1965.

Judy Agnew holds the Bible for Vice President Spiro Agnew on January 20, 1973.

POTUS QUOTUS - WW28 SECOND INAUGURAL 1917 - "Before Wilson's War"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woodrow Wilson's second second inaugural.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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