THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - ON THIS DAY

In 2004 Ronald Reagan became a

DEAD PRESIDENT

THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - FDR PROTECTING THE WHITE HOUSE

Today in history, Vice President Harry S. Truman became the 33rd president of the United States after Franklin D. Roosevelt passed on and became a member of THE DEAD PRESIDENTS...

the First Funny - Lincoln is Hated More than Obama

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!

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #50 - "Presid--...er-uh WASHINGTON's BIRTHDAY!"

There is no federal holiday called Presidents (or President's or like the State of California labels it: Presidents') Day no matter what the stores tell you. It is George Washington's Birthday (which is actually the 22nd).

So, happy not-officially-presidents-day-but-really-the-day-we-observe-Washington's-Birthday-which-is-really-on-the-22nd-day! Now go out and save money on that mattress and who knows maybe you'll produce a future POTUS!

Today in POTUStory - RR40 Turns 103!

(Vice) Pointless (Vice) Presidential (Vice) Pfacts #47 - "It Has Nothing to Do with 47% of Anything Except a Warm Bucket of Spit"

The 47th vice president is the incumbent, Joseph Biden of Delaware. President Barack Obama is the 44th POTUS but only the 43rd man to be president. President Grover Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms established how we count our presidents since Cleveland was the 22nd POTUS and his popular vote losing successor, Benjamin Harrison, was the 23rd POTUS and when the two had a rematch in 1892 Cleveland became the 24th POTUS instead of simply being known as just the 22nd POTUS.

For the vice presidency, there has not been a non-consecutive vice president to serve. But the reason there are more vice presidents than presidents, and only by 3, is because some vice presidents have served more than one president, some have been dropped and replaced by another, and then with the passage of the 25th Amendment, some have been appointed to fill a vacancy.

Only two vice presidents have served two different presidents. George Clinton was the first as Thomas Jefferson's second vice president, and first elected under the 12th Amendment, and while President Jefferson left office, Vice President Clinton was reelected to a second term with the newly elected James Madison. Clinton would also become the first vice president to die in office in 1812 as President Madison was seeking reelection that year. Interestingly, Clinton's replacement Elbridge Gerry would be the second vice president to die in office. The other vice president to serve two different presidents was John C. Calhoun. He was elected vice president with a majority of votes in 1824, unlike the presidential winner. Calhoun ran on 2 tickets in the same race so he was guaranteed to win enough votes to be the vice president. John Quincy Adams became president in 1825 and by the 1828 election the incumbent vice president was running against the administration. The ticket of Andrew Jackson and Calhoun won but the would become so antagonistic toward each other that Vice President Calhoun resigned, becoming the first to do so, and win election to the Senate to better combat President Jackson.

Vice President George Clinton.

While Clinton and Calhoun are the only two vice presidents to stick around for more than one president, some vice presidents haven't even been asked back for another term. Vice President Burr was not on the first ticketed election in 1804, Clinton was the first vice president to replace another in a second term of a presidency. Since Calhoun resigned in 1832, President Jackson got a new vice president for the second term, Martin Van Buren. Jump to 1860 when Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won the general election with a plurality of the popular vote, but four years later President Lincoln would win 55% of the vote but without Vice President Hamlin. For his reelection, Lincoln ran on the Union Party ticket which represented not just the unity of the States and the Federal Government but the political factions within. So he chose a southern Democrat that remained loyal to the Union during the sectional crisis, a.k.a. the Civil War. That Democrat was Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Ulysses S. Grant would get a new vice president for his second term. Franklin Roosevelt would have 3 different vice presidents over his four runs at the office. Gerald Ford was the last incumbent to drop the incumbent vice president for a new one. But FDR is the last to drop a vice president and win with a new one and Ford was the first to try since.

Gerald Ford being sworn-in as Vice President.

Ford is also a product of the 25th Amendment. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the threat of nuclear war brought the presidential line of succession into focus. Throughout the history of the presidency the vice presidency never had a remedy for a vacancy. Whenever the office was vacant it wasn't replaced until the next election and for some that was a whole four years. Such a thing could not happen in the Cold War era, so by 1967 the amendment was ratified. Just six years later in 1973, the amendment would be invoked and Gerald Ford would be the first appointed vice president. Then as President Ford, he too would appoint his own vice president, the moderate Republican Nelson Rockefeller...before dumping him in '76 for the more conservative Bob Dole.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Senator and Vice Presidential-Nominee Bob Dole, President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.

RE:POTUS - Summary of Presidential Impeachment

Impeachment of the President of the United States is the only way to remove a president from office outside of death, resignation, or rejection by the American people in an election. Politicians say they do not want to go down the road of impeachment. Impeachment is part of the checks and balances within the Constitution. In the 224 years under the Constitution, the House of Representatives, the chamber with the power to impeach, has only written articles of impeachment on three different occasions. Of those three instances only two of those three were actually impeached, however they survived the trial in the Senate so they were not removed from office. To impeach a president, the House of Representatives in session determines the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” part of the definition of impeachment in the Constitution.

Seventy-nine years into the government under the Constitution, the House impeached a president for the first time. Andrew Johnson, from Tennessee, was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union after eleven southern States seceded from the Union from 1860-61. His loyalty was repaid with a spot on the bottom of the presidential ticket in the election of 1864. The Union Party of Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Andrew Johnson won the election. Just a little over a month into Lincoln’s second term, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. Lincoln died the next morning elevating the loyal southern Democratic vice president to the highest office in the land.

Vice President Andrew Johnson taking the presidential oath of office on April 15, 1865, after President Abraham Lincoln's death from an assassin's bullet.

President Johnson would continue, to the best of his ability, the plan for Reconstruction of the Union as Lincoln had intended. By 1868, the Radical Republicans in the Congress were not happy with the President and his handling of Reconstruction. The legislative branch sought to curb Johnson’s executive power. The first attempt to curb Johnson’s power came in the form of the Tenure of Office Act. The act required the approval of the Senate for the President to fire anyone in a position the Senate gave their consent to. Johnson disagreed with the law and knew its true meaning, an attempt to weaken the executive. Johnson decided to test the new law by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, without the consent of the Congress.

The House wrote up eleven articles of impeachment, eight having to do with Johnson’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson knew it was more political than rational. In the Senate, Johnson survived the impeachment by a single vote on three of the articles of impeachment. Since Johnson survived three of the articles, the Senate adjourned without further consideration of the remaining eight articles. In the end, Johnson quietly finished out the remainder of the term as the Congress took control of rebuilding the Union. His impeachment was a blow to presidential power and an increase in legislative authority that would dominate the government for the next twenty years.

The Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson in the U.S. Senate from March to May 1868.

The Radical Republicans in the Congress wanted to be in charge of Reconstruction and were not happy with Johnson and his handling of Reconstruction and his leniency toward ex-Confederates. They created a political situation or confrontation via the Tenure of Office Act, seizing on Johnson’s violation of the law as means for removal from office.

It would be 106 years until the House of Representatives would write articles of impeachment for another president, Richard Nixon. What would seem like a “third-rate burglary” would turn into a Constitutional crisis. In 1972, operatives connected to the White House broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate hotel. Nixon knew of the break-in and began a cover up which would bring down his presidency.

President Richard Nixon released 1,254 pages of edited transcripts of 20 audio tapes on April 30, 1974, to avoid handing over subpoenaed tapes to the House Judiciary Committee. It did not help.

By the summer of 1974 impeachment of the president was being considered by the House. That summer the “smoking gun,” an audio tape implicating Nixon’s involvement, was discovered. The House Judiciary committee wrote up three articles of impeachment and voted on the articles. The three articles consisted of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. While the Congress of the United States was a Democratic majority, Nixon was advised by leading Republicans in the Senate, headed by Barry Goldwater of Arizona, that he would not survive a trial in the Senate. Republican National Committee Chairman George Herbert Walker Bush suggested the same. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, at noon before the articles of impeachment could be voted on by the entire House.

In this instance, the House Judiciary committee used the political solution of impeachment to uphold the Constitution, whereas the House of the late 1860s used impeachment as a weapon in a political fight between an embattled president and Congress. Investigation into another president would begin twenty years after Nixon’s resignation.

Kenneth Starr headed the independent council’s office and began the investigation of potential illegal dealings done by the Clintons, such as the Whitewater land development. In 1998, Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, gave a false affidavit about her relationship with President William Jefferson Clinton in the case involving Paula Jones. Clinton also lied under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. This led Starr to begin an investigation into the Lewinsky allegations, stemming from the Jones case. Lewinsky’s stained blue dress became the “smoking gun” in this instance.

The House Judiciary voted on four articles of impeachment, three for lying under oath and one for obstruction of justice. The full House passed two articles of impeachment; both had to do with lying under oath. The president survived the trial in the Senate and completed the remaining years of his second term as popular as ever.

First Lady Hillary Clinton watches as President Bill Clinton addresses his impeachment by the House of Representatives to the press and the nation on December 19, 1998.

Johnson and Clinton were both impeached because of those that ran the House of Representatives did not like the Chief Executive. The House sought to remove from office someone they did not agree with or get along with. The attempt to impeach Nixon was justifiable, an effort to uphold the Constitution, however he resigned before a full House vote of impeachment could take place. Nixon would not have survived a trial in the Senate. The three terms of Congress which made up George W. Bush’s first six years of the presidency did not contemplate impeachment. The Republicans who led the Congress did not see the need to investigate the president. When the Democratic Party took control of the House of Representatives in 2007, an assurance of no impeachment was given in the run up to the 2006 mid-term elections. Comparing the possible impeachable offenses made by Bush and his administration to his impeached or would be impeached predecessors leads to the realization that the sitting members of the House of Representatives do determine what is a “high crime and misdemeanor.”

Today in POTUStory - JFK 50th 1963-2013

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #46 - "Sherman's Death 101"

The first time a vice president died in office was in the year 1812 and the last time a vice president died in office was in 1912.

James S. Sherman of New York, 27th VPOTUS.

In the 1912 presidential election, the Republicans renominated President William Howard Taft and Vice President James S. Sherman that summer. It was the first time in 84 years that a vice president was being considered for reelection.

That moment 84 years ago was Vice President John C. Calhoun's reelection in 1828 with Andrew Jackson. Four years prior to the 1828 election Calhoun was the running mate for both Jackson and John Quincy Adams. While neither of those candidates secured a majority in the Electoral College, Calhoun did. JQA won the election in the House of Representatives and was defeated in '28. So, Calhoun's reelection was with a different president.

Daniel Tompkins of New York, 6th VPOTUS.

The last time a vice president was reelected with the same president was in 1820 when James Monroe and Daniel Tompkins cruised to victory in the Electoral College without much competition.

Death and the vice presidency seems more rampant than in the presidency. Not including assassinations, there have been 4 presidents that have died of natural cause: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding and Franklin Roosevelt. In the vice presidency there have been 7 deaths. The first death in the vice presidency was when the 4th VPOTUS, George Clinton died on April 20, 1812. Vice President Clinton, no relation to the presidential Clinton, was the first to be elected and serve with 2 different presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Clinton's successor won election with President Madison in the fall of 1812, but like Clinton Vice President Elbridge Gerry, the 5th VPOTUS, would not live out the term becoming the second vice president to die in office. Madison and his dying vice presidents.

William R. King of Alabama, 13th VPOTUS.
The next VPOTUS to die in office would be in 1853 with the lucky 13th vice president, William R. King. Vice President King was the first and only VPOTUS to be sworn in on foreign soil, Cuba. King won election in 1852 with Franklin Pierce. Pierce's presidency started with the death of his son on the train ride from New Hampshire to Washington, while just a little over a month in to the new administration and Vice President King died.

President Ulysses S. Grant's second vice president, Henry Wilson, the 18th VPOTUS, would join the list in 1875. Ten years later in 1885, Thomas A. Hendricks, the 21st VPOTUS, died less than a year into the first term of the new administration headed by Grover Cleveland. Before the 19th Century ended in 1899, one more VPOTUS passed away. President William McKinley's first vice president, Garret Hobart, the 24th VPOTUS, died leaving the office vacant until Theodore Roosevelt was nominated in 1900 to shut him up.

TR would of course get the nomination and be sworn in as the 25th VPOTUS in March of 1901, however he would become the 26th POTUS six months later. It's during the 1912 election that a former President Roosevelt is seeking a third, non-consecutive, term. With the Republican Party split between Progressives and Conservatives, the Democratic ticket with Woodrow Wilson at the top of it won the election. Roosevelt 26's Progressive Party, or Bull Moose Party, did what no 3rd Party has done before or since, placing 2nd in the popular and electoral votes. So the ticket of Taft/Sherman placed 3rd, but had they won the Republican Party designated Nicholas M. Butler to receive the electoral votes that would've gone to Sherman. In the end the office remained vacant until Thomas Marshall was sworn-in on March 4, 1913. Vice President Marshall would become the first VPOTUS to win reelection with the same POTUS, Wilson, since Monroe/Tompkins.

Thomas Marshall of Indiana, 28th VPOTUS.

As the 20th Century moved on there would be no more deaths in the vice presidency. There would be more renominations of vice presidents and the occasional moving on (FDR in 1940, 1944 and Gerald Ford in 1976). While the office remained vacant whenever there was a death, in either the presidency or the vice presidency, it wouldn't be until 1967 when the Constitution provided a way to fill the vacancy. The sign now outside the Vice President's office reads: "101 Years Without a Death".

Joe Biden of Delaware, 47th VPOTUS.

Today in POTUStory - 278!

Presidential Pictures: THIRTEEN DAYS Trailer

Cuban Missile Crisis, from October 14-28, 1962, as shown in the feature film THIRTEEN DAYS from 2001.

Today in POTUStory - TR Turns the Big 155

Today in POTUStory - HH No More After '64!

Today in POTUStory - IKE 123!

Today in POTUStory - Piercing FP's Life

Today in POTUStory - MVB IS DEAD! OK?!

Today in POTUStory - KING FORD TURNS 100

Today in POTUStory

On the first ballot, the Democratic National Convention renominated former President Stephen Grover Cleveland in 1892. New York Governor Cleveland won the 1884 presidential election with only a plurality of the popular vote against James G. Blaine. President Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William Henry Harrison, the 9th POTUS, in his reelection bid. Four years later in 1892, a rematch between the 1888 candidates, but now it was President Harrison versus former President Cleveland.

This was the first time a major political party had renominated a former president. Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, and Theodore Roosevelt were nominated for president by third parties with MVB getting 10% of the popular vote and that's it. Fillmore carried one State, whereas TR was the first and last third party candidate to come in second, but not the last to carry States. The Republican Party came close to renominating Ulysses S. Grant for a third time, non-consecutively, but the nomination went to dark horse nominee James A. Garfield.

Former President Cleveland would once again win a plurality of the popular vote with 46%, 2% less than his 1884 and 1888 popular vote wins. He and Adlai E. Stevenson would win the General Election, the only time a former president defeated an incumbent. Stevenson would become the 23rd VPOTUS. Cleveland's second term would be labeled as a second presidency, so he would not just be the 22nd POTUS but the 24th POTUS as well.

This gay 1890s ticket of Illinois' Adlai E. Stevenson and Grover Cleveland in 1892.


A ticket to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1892. The ticket is for the 21st of June and 2 days later, Cleveland was renominated a third time by the Democratic Party, or for divisive politicos, the Democrat Party.

FLOTUS (AND SLOTUS) NOTICE