Pointless Presidential Pfacts #51 - "From the First to the Last - Happy Old Inauguration Day!"

George Washington became the first POTUS sworn-in on a March 4th in 1793 for his second term.

1793: President George Washington arrives at Congress Hall in Philadelphia for his second inaugural on a March 4.

For his first term in 1789 he took the oath of office on April 30th...see even the great arrive late but then again I can move faster than Washington ever could.

1933: President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt taking the oath for the first time and the last time on a March 4 on the East Front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Franklin D. Roosevelt became the last POTUS sworn-in on a March 4th for his 1st term in 1933, 7 months before the 20th Amendment took effect. Four years later in 1937, FDR would be the first sworn-in on a January 20th, the start of his second term. Apparently the numbers, one, three, seven and nine are important to first inaugurations days for second term presidents. Happy Old Inauguration Day!

POTUS QUOTUS - BHO44 SECOND INAUGURAL 2013 - "That Means All of Us"

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.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #30 - "There's an Inauguration For That"

Times they are a changing. When a new technology surfaces it of course becomes a part of the national story and an inauguration is always a new chapter on the American story. When Barack Obama is sworn in for a second term, his inaugural this time around will be the first to have an app.

There were other technological advances that helped usher in a new presidential administration, or at least get the message out that there was one.

James K. Polk's inaugural on March 4, 1845 was the first to be telegraphed.

William McKinley in 1897 was the first to be filmed using a motion picture camera.

The first telephone at an inauguration was in 1905 for Theodore Roosevelt.

This just in, radio joined the event by broadcasting Calvin Coolidge's inauguration in 1925.

Inaugurations became talkies in newsreels with Herbert Hoover's swearing-in in 1929.

Don't touch the remote (which probably wasn't around), Harry Truman's 1948 inauguration was the first to be televised.

William Jefferson Clinton's inaugural ceremony was the first broadcast live on the internet on January 20, 1997.

POTUS QUOTUS - GWB43 SECOND INAUGURAL 2005 - "The Battle Cry of Freedom"

POTUS QUOTUS - WJC42 SECOND INAUGURAL 1997 - "The Great Communicator (Revamped)"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #28 - "From The East Front to the West Front"

Andrew Jackson's first term and the 11th inaugural ceremony on March 4, 1829, was the first to take place outside on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol building. This tradition of taking the oath on the East Front would last until President Jimmy Carter's swearing-in on January 20, 1977.

President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961 on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol.

A new precedent began with a new president, with Ronald Reagan's swearing-in on January 20, 1981, presidents have taken the oath of office on the West Front. The West Front of the Capitol allowed for more space both on the make-shift stage and the crowds of people. It also gave the television audience sweeping scenes of the Mall.

President Barack Obama's first term inauguration in 2009 on the West Front.

POTUS QUOTUS - RWR40 SECOND INAUGURAL 1985 "Here We Go Again"

POTUS QUOTUS - RMN37 SECOND INAUGURAL 1973 - "Nixon's Still the One"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #27 - "Second Billing"

Traditionally the vice president of the United States takes the oath office prior to the president on Inauguration Day. John Adams was sworn in as the first VPOTUS on April 21, 1789, 9 days before George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. Four years later when they took the oath of office for a second term, Adams took it first and then Washington.

When inaugurations became common place in the new capital city of Washington on the steps of the capitol, vice president-elects took their oath inside followed by a speech. The most well remembered vice presidential inaugural address was by Andrew Johnson on March 4, 1865. It is more remembered for the belief that Johnson 17 was drunk. He had been suffering a cold and took some whiskey to remedy himself, which led to his speech being slurred. Once outside for the presidential oath, president-elects would first give their address and then take the oath of office. With the passage of the 20th Amendment, things began to change.

Inauguration Day 1969, the outgoing and incoming administrations were comprised of former and present vice presidents. FROM L to R (the brief Johnson/Agnew administration): President Lyndon Johnson (36th POTUS and 37th VPOTUS), President-elect Richard Nixon (37th POTUS and 36th VPOTUS), Vice President Spiro Agnew (39th VPOTUS), and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey (38th VPOTUS)

Once January 20th became Inauguration Day in 1937, vice president-elects took their oath of office outside a few minutes prior to the presidential oath...but minus the address. Since then vice presidents take their oath and enjoy the day. The tradition of not having a set official to swear them in remained. Sometimes the Chief Justice swore in both men (still only men as of 2013), or the vice president chose an associate justice of their liking, or the out going vice president, or the president pro tempore or even the speaker of the House of Representatives administered the oath. The vice president even gets his own song after being sworn in, "Hail Columbia".

Henry Wallace being sworn in as vice president in 1941 by out going two term FDR vice president, John Nance Garner.

On January 21, 2013, the Chief Justice of the United States will once again swear-in the POTUS. Vice President Joe Biden will be sworn in by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the last female to swear-in a vice president, and that was Al Gore for a second term in 1997. Prior to that, Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to administer the Constitutional oath to a vice president, James Danforth Quayle in 1989. Sarah T. Hughes, a federal district judge in Texas, became the first to give the presidential oath in 1963 to Lyndon Johnson in Dallas.

POTUS QUOTUS - DDE34 SECOND INAUGURAL 1957 - "I Like No Filter"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #26 - "The New 57"

When Barack Obama is inaugurated for a second term as President of the Untied States, it will be the 57th Inauguration ceremony since the U.S. Constitution began operating in 1789. So every four years, previously on a March 4th, now on a January 20th, the nation gathers to inaugurate a new presidential administration with the pomp and ceremony of royalty like that of old Europe. But it's an example of what makes the United States so unique and an example of the lasting power of the U.S. Constitution. Every four years, the power of the office goes from one individual to the next connecting the present, 2013, to the past, 1789 and the Revolutionary War two decades prior. No matter if it is your first swearing-in or your fourth, the oath of office is administered and a new term begins.

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

POTUS QUOTUS - WM25 SECOND INAUGURAL 1901 - "The 20th Century's First Second Inaugural"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #25 - "The Sampler-Elected Presidents"

So 17 presidents have been reelected to second terms, there were another 4 that were reelected to the presidency. Of the vice presidents that succeeded to the presidency through death of the president, only four were ever reelected to a term of their own after completing their predecessor's term of office like Theodore Roosevelt who finished William McKinley's second term and was reelected to the presidency in his own right in 1904. But it can also be argued that since TR took over so early in the 1901-05 term, six months in, that McKinley's second term was TR's first and the 1905-1909 term was TR's second. The same could be argued for someone like Lyndon Johnson who took over John F. Kennedy's first term with less than one year until the presidential election and then won his own election. And yes, both reasons can be considered correct. This is about the four vice presidents-turned-presidents with on-the-job-training prior to their first run at the top of the ticket.

John Tyler became the first vice president to become president after William Henry Harrison died 30 days after being inaugurated. The U.S. Constitution didn't clearly state that the vice president officially became the president until the passage of the 25th Amendment in 1967. Tyler, in 1841, established the precedent which Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Roosevelt 26, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and LBJ would all follow until the amendment was written. But it wouldn't be until Roosevelt 26 in 1904, that one of these VPOTUS turned POTUS would win an election after succeeding to the office. Some would try to run for the job they got from outside the democratic process (although elected vice president), but only a few would actually get the chance to try on their own...and even win.

For Tyler, he was more of an independent after being shunned by the Whig Party that nominated him as vice president in 1840 and the Democrats didn't want him. He considered running as an independent but chose not to run in the end. Fillmore, Johnson 17, and Arthur weren't even given a chance for renomination. Tyler would eventually side with the Confederate States of America, or as Lincoln called them the States in rebellion, or something like that. Fillmore gave the presidency another chance in 1856 as the Know Nothing Party's presidential candidate. He would place 3rd in the general election and not like early 21st Century 3rd Parties and their 3rd place positions. Fillmore would win a State, Maryland and not his home State of New York, which means 8 electoral votes and 21% of the popular vote. Johnson 17 would get reelected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee becoming the first and only former president to be elected to the Congress as a senator, but never ran at the top of a presidential ticket. Arthur wanted to try but realized, like Fillmore in 1852, the party wasn't with the incumbent. A challenge TR wouldn't have to face thus starting a new trend.

TR was a popular American with his stories of gallantry in the Spanish-American War leading the Rough Riders. He'd served as McKinley's Assistant Secretary of the Navy and went on to be the governor of New York, a stepping stone to national office. When McKinley's first vice president, Garret Hobart, died in 1899, Roosevelt was put on the ticket because New York Republican Party bosses wanted to put an end to TR's corrupt-busting from the State capital. Of course putting TR, a crazy cowboy according to Mark Hana, McKinley's political brain or Karl Rove, thought it was unwise to put him so close to the presidency. His fears came true when McKinley was shot in September 1901 by Leon Czolgosz. Since McKinley was shot in the first year of his second term, President Theodore Roosevelt's popularity continued to grow through the remainder of that term. His 1904 reelection was a given. However after winning the 1904 election, he declared he wouldn't run for reelection in 1908 because he was following in the tradition set by George Washington and limiting one's self to two terms. Roosevelt 26 considered McKinley's second term as his first term but his declaration as a two term president made him a lame duck president from the start of his second term.

He would however handpick his successor William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War. After realizing Taft was no TR, former President Roosevelt decided to do what only a few former presidents had tried... run for reelection as a former president. Only one has been successful, TR's fellow New Yorker Grover Cleveland. And he was renominated by his own party 3 times in a row. Roosevelt 26 would have to do what former presidents Fillmore and Martin Van Buren did. They went the 3 party route. Whereas Fillmore won a State in 1856, Free Soil Party nominee Van Buren got 10% of the popular vote and no electoral votes. Very modern. All 3 were vice presidents, but Van Buren was the last incumbent vice president to become president through election until 1988 with Vice President George Bush's election to the presidency. As a 3rd Party candidate in 1912, Progressive Party or the Bull Moose Party nominee former President Theodore Roosevelt became the last 3rd Party candidate to come in second place. The 1920 election would be the first election since Roosevelt 26's death in 1919, but there would be a Roosevelt on the ticket. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Woodrow Wilson's Assistant Secretary of the Navy and future governor of New York, was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee to James Cox. A son of Ohio would've been president had either ticket won, but the vice presidents were different. FDR was from New York and Republican vice presidential nominee Calvin Coolidge of Vermont was from Massachusetts. He would be president of the United States before the presidential election of 1924, not that much different from TR 20 years prior.

Calvin Coolidge finished Warren G. Harding's first term after he died of natural causes in 1923. (Myth will have you believe his wife, Florence Harding, poisoned President Harding...she didn't. But there are some that would want you to think that.) Coolidge presided over a prosperous America in the Roaring 20s and was easily renominated by the GOP in 1924. Like Roosevelt 26, but not with the proclamation of not running in 1908 (which limited TR from seeking his own second term or historically speaking an unheard of 3rd term), Coolidge didn't run for another term in 1928 in the days before the 22nd Amendment which limited presidents to two terms, or 8-10 years in office. But Coolidge's successor, Herbert Hoover would face the man in 1932 for which the 22nd Amendment was passed, Coolidge's rival for the vice presidency 12 years before.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first and only man to be elected to a third and fourth term. He also had the most vice presidents, 3. And it was lucky number 3 that succeeded him after he passed in April of 1945. Harry Truman was the lucky one of FDR's vice presidents and served about two and a half months as the nation's number 2 before taking on the big job of filling the shoe's of the POTUS that presided over the nation through the Great Depression and most of the Second World War. Truman's chances of reelection weren't great by 1948, but at least he was easily renominated. The election was close and even though everyone including the press thought Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York (there's that State again) and 1944 Republican Presidential Nominee, would be the 34th POTUS. Truman woke up to learn that he had finally become a president-elect.

Like Johnson 17, Arthur and Roosevelt 26's ascensions to the presidency, LBJ, or Johnson 36, would also become president because of an assassin. John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, while riding in the backseat of an open motorcade. Johnson 36 was sworn in on Air Force One before taking off for Washington, D.C. In 1964, LBJ's popularity propelled him into his own term as president with one of the biggest landslides in a presidential election.

It would be during Johnson 36's term that the 25th Amendment would pass and put John Tyler's precedent into the Constitution. "In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.". It also makes sure there is no vacancy in the vice presidency. When all the vice presidents listed above became POTUS, the office of the vice president remained vacant, as well as the times that the vice president died while in office. Vice President James Sherman was the last to die in office just weeks before the 1912 election. Votes for Sherman would go to Nicholas Butler of New York. This amendment takes care of that.

So when Spiro Agnew became the second vice president (after John C. Calhoun in 1832) to resign from the office in 1973, Richard Nixon became the first POTUS to use the 25th Amendment and fill the vacancy. Gerald Ford became the first vice president never elected by the people, but approved by a majority of the Congress of the United States, House and Senate. With Nixon's unprecedented resignation in 1974, Ford was the first unelected POTUS and went on to appoint Nelson Rockefeller as vice president. They would be the first unelected administration. Ford would earn his party's nomination in 1976, even though he did have a challenge from California's Ronald Reagan. But in a close election, Ford would become the first of these 20th Century vice presidents that moved on up to the presidency through death or resignation to lose election to his own term. Unlike his 19th Century vice president-turned-president counterparts, he at least won his party's nomination and got to face the electorate at the top of the ticket.

Nixon's resignation was the last time a vice president, Ford, became president outside of being elected, George H. W. Bush ran for president in 1988 while he served as Reagan's vice president and won. So while 17 won reelection to a second term and 4 won reelection to the presidency, 21 have spent more than four years as president of the United States.

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!

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #23 - "Good-bye to Philly"

In the nation's 3rd Inauguration ceremony, the incumbent and first Vice President of the United States, John Adams, became the first VPOTUS to be sworn in on Inauguration Day as president of the United States. It would also be the last time an inauguration ceremony took place in Philadelphia. Oliver Ellsworth became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, now formally known as the Chief Justice of the United States reenforcing the judiciary's co-equal status next to the other branches of government, to swear in a president. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the Chief Justice is to swear in the President. Since 1797, the Chief Justices of the United States have administered the oath of office to the president-elect on Inauguration Day.

John Adams, second POTUS, first VPOTUS. Oliver Ellsworth, 3rd CJOTUS.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #22 - "It's Not Always Inauguration Day in Philadelphia"

George Washington was unanimously reelected in 1792 and was inaugurated for a second term on March 4, 1793. This was the first inauguration of a POTUS on the date assigned by the Constitution and the first second term inauguration. New York City was the nation's capital at the start of the new government in 1789, but by the end of 1790 the young United States would have Philadelphia as its temporary capital until the City of Washington is ready to be populated as it is developed. So Washington is the first to be sworn in at Congress Hall in Philadelphia and also gave the shortest address.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #20 - "On the First Inauguration..."

The first inauguration took place on April 30, 1789 in New York City. George Washington of Virginia was the first president under the nation's second and current constitution, the U.S. Constitution. Prior to 1789, under the Articles of Confederation, our nation's first governing document from 1781-1789, the president of the United States was a member of the Continental Congress but with nowhere near the powers of the office that have been in effect since the date in the first sentence. Not really a pointless pfact, but the start of the American Presidency.