Archive for the ‘POTUS’ Category
Thomas Jefferson, portrait by Mather Brown. London,1786. Painted with a statue of Liberty over his shoulder, and commissioned by Jefferson for $25. Now in the National Portrait Gallery.
The 3rd President of the United States, 1801 – 1809
AKA: The Sage of Monticello, The Man of the People, The Apostle of Democracy, The Negro President
From: Virginia
College: The College of William & Mary
Married to: Martha Wayles
Children: Martha, Jane, Mary, Lucy, Lucy Elizabeth
Party: Democratic-Republican
Previous Jobs: Lawyer, Delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Governor of Virginia, Delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, US Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President
In His Words: “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
“The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes, should be one of the principal studies and endeavours of our lives.”
“Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.”
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”
“Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. — We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
“It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.”
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.”
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”
“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal it’s party divisions & make them one people. I do not speak of their leaders who are incurable, but of the honest and well-intentioned body of the people.”
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”
“No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as of duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad ones the former only.”
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”
“That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected.”
“Good wine is a necessity of life for me.”
Not true: Jefferson was the greatest writer from America’s Founding Fathers, and it’s inevitable that modern society has created many phrases that support their beliefs, and attributed them to Jefferson. It’s just not true. Don’t believe all of those graphics you read on Facebook. Jefferson did NOT SAY THESE THINGS:
NO – Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
NO – Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.
NO – My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
NO – The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
NO – The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
True: Jefferson was appointed to write the first draft of what became the Declaration of Independence. Others at the Continental Congress contributed to the effort. For example, Jefferson had written, “We hold these truths to be sacred and un-deniable…” Franklin changed it to, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”
Months before Jefferson actually assumed the role as Minister to France he arrived in Paris on August 6, 1784 and four days later rode to greet his old friend Benjamin Franklin. When the French foreign minister, the Count de Vergennes, commented to Jefferson, “You replace Monsieur Franklin, I hear,” Jefferson replied, “I succeed him. No man can replace him.”
Thomas Jefferson was the first to be inaugurated in Washington DC. Jefferson also was the only one to walk to and from his inauguration.
Jefferson was vehemently against the corrupting influence of banks and monied interests. He joined with Madison, and actively worked against Hamilton. Washington nearly dismissed Jefferson from his cabinet over this, and Jefferson did leave the cabinet voluntarily. Washington, however, never forgave and never spoke to him again.
Jefferson sought to purge from government the Federalists appointed to government jobs during the previous administration … a practice common today, but greeted with howls of protest in the early 1800s.
Ohio became a state during Jefferson’s Presidency.
The Louisiana Purchase was completed during Jefferson’s Presidency. Historians disagree with how that happened, exactly. Did Napoleon Bonaparte initiate the transaction? Does Jefferson deserve credit? Madison? Monroe? The price was $15 million, and it was a bargain. Jefferson gets credit for completing the deal, in spite of the lack of constitutional authority to do so (which Federalists criticized him for).
Historians have long disagreed about Jefferson’s commitment to the anti-slavery cause. Many believe he was the father of one or more children by Sally Hemings, a slave that he owned. It is true that in 1807, he signed a law that banned the importation of slaves into the United States.
Jefferson believed that all (white, landowning) men were created equal and should be treated the same. His home was open to all citizens. In 1803, England’s foreign minister came to call on him at the Presidential Mansion … wearing full diplomatic regalia. Secretary of State Madison couldn’t find Jefferson … but when he finally was found, Jefferson came to the meeting wearing slippers.
Lewis & Clark gave him two grizzly bears, which he kept on the White House lawn for some time.
Jefferson’s original tombstone is on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia, my alma mater. His epitaph, which Jefferson wrote, does not mention that he was the 3rd President of the United States!
HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
The Official Portrait: Rembrandt Peale painted the Official White House Portrait of Thomas Jefferson in 1800.
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Big Mo
Monticello.org – Bad Quotes
Bush sat for this portrait at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine. The picture’s backdrop, however, is the East Room of the White House. Among artist Ron Sherr’s aims was to balance the formality of the composition with a warmth capable of drawing the viewer into the picture. National Portrait Gallery.
George Herbert Walker Bush (1924 – )
The 41st President of the United States, 1989 – 1993
AKA: 41, Poppy, Papa Bush
From: Massachusetts, Texas
College: Yale University
Married to: Barbara Pierce
Children: George Walker, Pauline Robinson, John Ellis “Jeb,” Neil Mallon, Marvin Pierce, Dorothy
Party: Republican
Previous Jobs: US Navy Lieutenant, sales clerk, oil industry entrepreneur, company President, US Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations, Envoy to China, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Bank Chairman, Vice President
In His Words:”I’m the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he’ll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that’s one resort he’ll be checking into. My opponent, my opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And The Congress will push me to raise taxes and I’ll say no. And they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again, and I’ll say, to them, ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.'”
“I have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington 200 years ago, and the Bible on which I placed my hand is the Bible on which he placed his. It is right that the memory of Washington be with us today, not only because this is our Bicentennial Inauguration, but because Washington remains the Father of our Country. And he would, I think, be gladdened by this day; for today is the concrete expression of a stunning fact: our continuity these 200 years since our government began. We meet on democracy’s front porch, a good place to talk as neighbors and as friends. For this is a day when our nation is made whole, when our differences, for a moment, are suspended.”
Official White House Portrait Photo, 1989
“I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I will ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.”
“I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in.”
“Think about every problem, every challenge, we face. The solution to each starts with education.”
“We’re going to keep trying to strengthen the American family. To make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons.”
“It is possible to tell things by a handshake. I like the “looking in the eye” syndrome. It conveys interest. I like the firm, though not bone crushing shake. The bone crusher is trying too hard to “macho it.: The clammy or diffident handshake — fairly or unfairly — get me off to a bad start with a person.”
Not true: A 1992 New York Times article famously portrayed Bush as being amazed by a common supermarket scanner, which helped to paint him as an elitist who was out of touch with everyday American life. In reality, the scanner that Bush was so impressed with was an advanced prototype that could weigh groceries and decipher mangled and torn bar codes. Further, it was later discovered that the writer of the infamous article wasn’t even present at the convention where Bush was shown the scanner in question.
True: While serving as the Chairman of the Republican Party, he asked Nixon to resign the Presidency for the good of the Party.
After Ford became President, Bush was considered – and rejected – as his Vice President.
After serving as the Director of Central Intelligence, Bush decided to leave the government during Carter’s administration. He served as a part-time professor at Rice University.
When Reagan needed surgery on his colon, Bush became the Acting President for 8 hours until Reagan recovered from anesthesia.
When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and then threatened to move into Saudi Arabia, Bush rallied the United Nations, the U. S. people, and Congress and sent 425,000 American troops. They were joined by 118,000 troops from allied nations. After weeks of air and missile bombardment, the 100-hour land battle dubbed Desert Storm routed Iraq’s million-man army.
George and Barbara had two sons that became governors: George, of Texas, and Jeb, of Florida.
When son George ran for president in 2000, his father told voters, “This boy — this son of ours — is not going to let you down.” George W. Bush’s election made his father the second president in history, after John Adams, to witness a son elected president. Years later, when the latter President Bush was criticized, family members noted that the proud patriarch took the barbs more emotionally than he ever had those once directed at himself.
George and Barbara Bush were married in 1945; they are celebrating the longest marriage ever between a President and his First Lady.
The Official Portrait: The Official White House Portrait of George Herbert Walker Bush by was painted by Herbert E. Abrams in 1994. Abrams, who also painted the Official White House Portrait of Jimmy Carter, died in 2003.
The painting in the background is The Peacemakers by George P. A. Healy.
Artist Norman Rockwell admitted that he had intentionally flattered Nixon in this portrait. Nixon’s appearance was troublesomely elusive, Rockwell noted, and if he was going to err in his portrayal, he wanted it to be in a direction that would please Nixon. National Portrait Gallery
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913 – 1994)
The 37th President of the United States, 1969 – 1974
AKA: Tricky Dick, Richard the Chicken-Hearted, Gloomy Gus, The Boss
From: California
College: Whittier College, Duke University School of Law
Married to: Pat Ryan
Children: Tricia, Julie
Party: Republican
Previous Jobs: Lawyer, Navy Lieutenant Commander, US Representative, US Senator, Vice President
In His Words: “We were poor, but the glory of it was, we didn’t know it.”
“I always remember that whatever I have done in the past or may do in the future, Duke University is responsible in one way or another.”
“What are our schools for if not for indoctrination against communism?”
“I leave you gentleman now. You will now write it; you will interpret it; that’s your right. But as I leave you I want you to know…. just think how much you’re going to be missing. You don’t have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference, and I hope that what I have said today will at least make television, radio, the press recognize that they have a right and a responsibility, if they’re against a candidate give him the shaft, but also recognize if they give him the shaft, put one lonely reporter on the campaign who’ll report what the candidate says now and then. Thank you, gentlemen, and good day.”
“The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.”
“The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.”
“I should say this—that Pat doesn’t have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she’d look good in anything.”
“North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”
“The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.”
“The Jewish cabal is out to get me.”
“When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.”
“We are faced this year with the choice between the “work ethic” that built this Nation’s character and the new “welfare ethic” that could cause that American character to weaken.”
“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.”
“In any organization, the man at the top must bear the responsibility. That responsibility, therefore, belongs here, in this office. I accept it. And I pledge to you tonight, from this office, that I will do everything in my power to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and that such abuses are purged from our political processes in the years to come, long after I have left this office.”
“I have never been a quitter.”
“Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation.”
“I’m not for women, frankly, in any job. I don’t want any of them around. Thank God we don’t have any in the Cabinet.”
“As long as I’m sitting in the chair, there’s not going to be any Jew appointed to that court. [No Jew] can be right on the criminal-law issue.”
Not true: Nixon did not tell the truth to the American people. Here’s how the Watergate scandal is described by Dummies.com:
President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the infamous Watergate scandal is a controversial issue, even today. Nixon’s role in Watergate has been under discussion and clouded in suspicious for years. In a nutshell, here’s what happened in the greatest presidential scandal in U.S. history:
- On June 17, 1972, McCord and four other men working for the Committee to Re-Elect the President (or CREEP — really) broke into the Democratic Party’s headquarters in the Watergate, a hotel-office building in Washington, D.C. They got caught going through files and trying to plant listening devices. Five days later, Nixon denied any knowledge of it or that his administration played any role in it.
- The burglars went to trial in 1973 and either pled guilty or were convicted. Before sentencing, McCord wrote a letter to Judge John Sirica, contending that high Republican and White House officials knew about the break-in and had paid the defendants to keep quiet or lie during the trial.
- Investigation of McCord’s charges spread to a special Senate committee. John Dean, a White House lawyer, told the committee McCord was telling the truth and that Nixon had known of the effort to cover up White House involvement.
- Eventually, all sorts of damaging stuff began to surface, including evidence that key documents linking Nixon to the cover-up of the break-in had been destroyed, that the Nixon reelection committee had run a “dirty tricks” campaign against the Democrats, and that the administration had illegally wiretapped the phones of “enemies,” such as journalists who had been critical of Nixon.
- In March 1974, former Attorney. General John Mitchell and six top Nixon aides were indicted by a federal grand jury for trying to block the investigation. They were eventually convicted.
- While Nixon continued to deny any involvement, it was revealed he routinely made secret tapes of conversations in his office. Nixon refused to turn over the tapes at first, and when he did agree (after firing a special prosecutor he had appointed to look into the mess and seeing his new attorney general resign in protest), it turned out some of them were missing or had been destroyed. (They were also full of profanity, which greatly surprised people who had an entirely different perception of Nixon.)
- In the summer of 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment against the president for obstructing justice.
The tapes clearly showed Nixon had been part of the cover-up. On August 8, 1974, he submitted a one-sentence letter of resignation, and then went on television and said, “I have always tried to do what is best for the nation.” He was the first and, so far, only U.S. president to quit the job.
The Watergate scandal rocked the nation, which was already reeling from the Vietnam disaster, economic troubles, assassinations, and all the social unrest of the preceding 15 years. It fell to Nixon’s successor, Vice President Gerald R. Ford, to try to bring back a sense of order and stability to the nation. And no one had voted for him to do it.
True: Richard Nixon was 5′ 11′ and weighed about 175 pounds.
Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover were our two Quaker Presidents.
Nixon lost the first televised Presidential debate. Kennedy lost that same debate, according to radio listeners. Nixon refused to use make-up, and his 5 o’clock shadow made him look unkempt to TV viewers.
Nixon had the cottage cheese flown in every week from Knudsen’s dairy in Los Angeles.
He was the first president in 120 years to have both the Senate and the House of Representatives controlled by the opposing party.
President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up, 5/22/73
Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”
Nixon was the first candidate to carry 49 states (1972), a feat later matched by Reagan.
The Official Portrait: James Anthony Wills’ 1984 portrait of Nixon is the official White House Portrait.
Fillmore’s portrait by an unidentified artist dates to about the time he retired from the House of Representatives in the early 1840s. National Portrait Gallery
Millard Fillmore (1800 – 1874)
The 13th President of the United States, 1850 – 1853
AKA: The Accidental President, The Wool Carder President, The American Louis Philippe
From: New York
College: One of eight US Presidents that did not attend college
Married to: Abigail Powers (1826 – 1853), Caroline Carmichael (1858 – 1874)
Children: Millard, Mary
Party: Anti-Masonic (before 1832), Whig (1832 – 1856), American (1856 – 1860)
Photo by Matthew Brady
Previous Jobs: Lawyer, New York State Assemblyman, New York State Comptroller, Chancellor of the University of Buffalo, US Representative, Vice President
In His Words: “The Government of the United States is a limited Government. It is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted and such others as may be necessary for carrying those powers into effect; and it is at all times an especial duty to guard against any infringement on the just rights of the States.”
“An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory.”
“God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, and give it such protection as guaranteed by the Constitution, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world.”
Not true: Millard Fillmore did not install the first bathtub in the White House.
A piece authored by HL Mencken was published in the New York Evening Mail on December 28, 1917 — 33 years after Fillmore died! — that credited Fillmore with the plumbing innovation. It was all a hoax, though … but it was a hoax that came to be cited as fact for decades after the piece was published.
Mencken eventually admitted that the article was not true, but not before Millard Fillmore had his reputation besmirched. Poor guy; his reputation wasn’t that good to start with!
True: Millard Fillmore was born in a log cabin, and grew up very poor on the New York frontier, in the Finger Lakes region.
He was apprenticed to a cloth maker at age 15, where he learned to card wool.
He was a compromise candidate when he became the Vice Presidential nominee for Zachary Taylor.
As the Vice President, he of course served as President of the Senate during Taylor’s Presidency. He came to support what is now known as the Compromise of 1850, and he championed its final passage early in his Presidency. That legislation was intended to calm emotions and help strengthen the republic, but in the end it only inflamed divisive passions further. It was composed of five separate bills:
- Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico.
- California was admitted to the Union as a free state.
- The slave trade in Washington DC was banned (though slavery was not).
- New Mexico and Utah were named US territories with no clear ruling about slavery within their borders.
- The Fugitive Slave Act required Federal law officers to return runaway slaves to their owners.
Fillmore directed Commodore Perry to travel to Japan and open that nation to trade with the west. Fillmore directed Perry to use the guns on his steamships to persuade Japanese representatives if they refused to allow Perry to present Fillmore’s letter to the Emperor. The threat was not necessary, and trade with Japan became a reality.
Fillmore threatened to use the US Military on three occasions to help enforce domestic law: against Texas, when that state’s militia was about to invade the territory of New Mexico; against South Carolina, when that state was rumored to be near secession; and against a citizen revolt that attempted to lead a coup against Cuba … and failed.
The Whig party would not nominate him as their candidate in 1854. He eventually became a third party candidate representing the racist “Know Nothing” American Party … which he joined perhaps not because of their ideology, but because it was the best political platform available to him at the time. He lost, winning only the state of Maryland, and retired from politics.
He was not a weak President, but is often seen as such, since his actions failed to save the Union and prevent the Civil War. Today, his legacy is as much about what isn’t true as it is what he actually accomplished.
The Official Portrait: Congress commissioned George P. A. Healy to paint six Presidential portraits: John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, James K Polk, Franklin Pierce and Millard Fillmore. Fillmore was finished in 1857; the rest were all complete by 1859. At that point, the paintings were then stored in the White House attic, as framing had not been budgeted. It was left to Andrew Johnson to frame and suitably display the paintings after the Civil War.
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Big Mo
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: Fillmore Still Dead, Still Misquoted
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: Mencken’s Hoax
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: Sources on Millard Fillmore
Bill Clinton, Official White House Photo
William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (1946 – )
The 42nd President of the United States, 1993 – 2001
AKA: Bubba, Slick Willy, The First Black President, The Comeback Kid, The Big Dog
From: Arkansas
College: Georgetown, Oxford, Yale
Married to: Hillary Rodham
Children: Chelsea
Party: Democratic
Previous Jobs: Campaign worker, teacher, Attorney General of Arkansas, Governor of Arkansas
In His Words: “I end tonight where it all began for me: I still believe in a place called Hope.”
Bill Clinton portrait by Nelson Shanks, from the National Portrait Gallery. This portrait suddenly became controversial 10 years after its unveiling … see the link “How To Be Unemployable,” below.
“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two — and didn’t like it — and didn’t inhale and never tried inhaling again.”
“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.”
“Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people.”
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. … Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”
“A preemptive action today, however well-justified, may come back with unwelcome consequences in the future. And because … I’ve done this. I’ve ordered these kinds of actions — I don’t care how precise your bombs and your weapons are, when you set them off, innocent people will die.”
“Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”
Not true: In a shameless campaign speech for Obama in 2012, Clinton criticized Mitt Romney’s truthfulness:
“You’re laughing, but who wants a president who will knowingly, repeatedly tell you something he knows is not true?” Clinton asked, after discounting a claim in a recent Romney ad that the Obama administration’s auto bailout hurt American workers.
“When I was a kid, if I got my hand caught in the cookie jar, where it wasn’t supposed to be, I turned red in my face, and I took my hand out of the cookie jar,” Clinton added.
True: The future President was born William Jefferson Blythe III in Hope, Arkansas, but his father died in a traffic accident. When he was four years old, his mother wed Roger Clinton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school, he took the family name.
The Clinton family had a cat named Sox … the first Presidential pet to have its own website.
Paula Jones brought a sexual harassment suit against Clinton while he was President, for acts against her while Clinton was Governor of Arkansas. Clinton settled for $850,000.
Bill Clinton was the first President to appoint his First Lady to head a Presidential commission.
Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, had a sexual relationship with Clinton. The result of this affair was Clinton being impeached by the House of Representatives – the first elected President to be impeached. In the Senate, he was acquitted of all charges.
He was the first President to use the Line-Item Veto.
The Official Portrait: When Simmie Knox unveiled his portrait of Bill (as well as one of Hillary) Clinton in 2004, he became the first African American to paint an official White House Portrait of a President.
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How To Be Unemployable
Philadelphia Inquirer
Only known portrait of Mary Ball Washington. Quoth her son, our first President, “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
Abigail Adams, to her son John Quincy Adams, during his first semester at Harvard, “If you are conscious to yourself that you possess more knowledge upon some subjects than others of your standing, reflect that you have had greater opportunities of seeing the world, and obtaining a knowledge of mankind than any of your contemporaries. That you have never wanted a book but it has been supplied to you, that your whole time has been spent in the company of men of literature and science. How unpardonable would it have been in you to have been a blockhead.”
Statue of the Lincoln family, with Mary Hanks Lincoln holding Abraham. Abraham’s law partner quoted him as saying, “God bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her.”
1933 photo by Elias Goldensky
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)
The 32nd President of the United States, 1933 – 1945
AKA: FDR
From: New York
College: Harvard, Columbia Law School
Married to: Eleanor Roosevelt
Children: Anna, James, Franklin (I), Elliott, Franklin (II), John
Party: Democratic
Previous Jobs: Lawyer, New York State Senator, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York
In His Words: “Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.”
“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”
“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
“In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.”
“We must be the great arsenal of Democracy.”
“We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.”
“These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him – at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars- his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself – such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog.”
Not true: Hyde Park on the Hudson, a movie about FDR and his relationship with “Daisy” Suckley, was widely panned as poor history. It misstated the relationship between these two very good friends, and doesn’t portray events in a historically accurate way. For example, the cottage featured in the movie was not actually a surprise to Daisy; rather, she and Roosevelt collaborated on its design. Enjoy the movie if you like … but don’t look to it for history.
True: FDR and his wife called each other “CP,” a term of endearment that was short for “Certain Person.”
Roosevelt was the first President elected with a physical disability.
He was the first person to lose the election as a Vice Presidential candidate, and then win as the Presidential candidate.
A case can be made that Roosevelt was a racist. After the 1936 Olympics, all of the white athletes were invited to the White House. The black athletes, including the 4-gold medal winner Jesse Owens, were never acknowledged by Roosevelt. During the war, he ordered the internment of over 100,000 US citizens of Japanese descent.
FDR built a swimming pool and a movie theater in the White House.
Roosevelt was the first President to appear on television.
Roosevelt’s “New Deal” redefined the role of government in America. The new federal involvement in matters traditionally handled by the private sector was anathema to the conservatives of his day. His engagement in solving America’s economic problems, however, resulted in his election to an unprecedented 4 terms.
FDR worked at improving his reading speed. Eventually, he was able to absorb an entire paragraph at a single glance.
Roosevelt’s White House pet was a black Scottie named “Fala.”
In high school, I learned that FDR’s “New Deal” helped end the Great Depression and fueled the recovery. In college, I learned that the build-up of the war machine is actually what caused the recovery, and the “New Deal” actually had little impact on the economy. My conclusion: Democrats love it, Republicans hate it, and such is the nature of political discourse. It was true in the 70s, and it’s true today. Unfortunately.
The Official Portrait: Frank O Salisbury painted the image of FDR that ultimately became the Official White House Portrait. The original was painted in 1935, and now hangs in the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. Salisbury made 5 copies, each with slight variations from the original. One of these is in the FDR Library, and the last, painted in 1947, hangs in the White House.
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Freedom From Want
New York Times: Tapping The Inner Dog
This 1967 portrait by Peter Hurd was meant to be Johnson’s official White House likeness. But that plan was quickly scrapped after Johnson declared it “the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Soon the pun was making the rounds in Washington that “artists should be seen around the White House-but not Hurd.” This ugly thing is now in the National Portrait Gallery.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908 – 1973)
The 36th President of the United States, 1963 – 1969
AKA: Bullshit Johnson, Landslide Lyndon, Light-Bulb Lyndon, LBJ
From: Texas
College: Texas State University – San Marcos
Married to: Claudio Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor
Children: Lynda, Luci
Party: Democratic
Previous Jobs: teacher, Congressional aide, US Navy Lieutenant Commander, US Representative, US Senator, Senate Majority Whip, Senate Minority Leader, Senate Majority Leader, Vice President
In His Words: “I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American.”
“At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have the right to vote…Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes… No law that we now have on the books…can insure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it… There is no Constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States’ rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.”
Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One two hours and eight minutes after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Judge Sarah T. Hughes became the first woman to swear in a new President.
“You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: ‘now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.’ You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, “you are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe you have been completely fair… This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity—not just legal equity but human ability—not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.”
“I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth, our finest young men, into battle.”
“I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
“Making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.”
Not true: Johnson ran for the US Senate in 1948, and the Democratic primary proved to be a career-maker for him.
Unfortunately, it appears that he stole the election. In the run-off primary between Johnson and Coke Stevenson, the Democratic Party certified that Johnson won by 87 votes, but there were widespread charges of fraud by both of the candidates. David Frum’s How We Got Here: The ’70s states that Johnson’s campaign manager and future Texas governor John B Connally, was connected with 202 ballots from Jim Wells County that were cast in alphabetical order at the close of polling.
Robert Caro’s 1989 book, The Johnson Years: A Congressman Goes To War, alleges 10,000 rigged ballots in Bexar County, alone. Further, Luis Salas, an election judge, said in 1977 that he had certified 202 fraudulent ballots for Johnson.
But Johnson was the certified winner – by one vote of the sanctioning Democratic committee – and from that victory, an exceptional political career resulted.
True: Johnson was an accomplished power broker during his 12 years in the House and 22 years in the Senate. Randall Woods, in his biography, described Johnson as the “greatest intelligence gatherer Washington has ever known.”
Johnson was the first to ride to his inauguration in an armored vehicle, and the first to take his oath of office behind a bulletproof shield.
Johnson’s Presidential agenda was at first devoted to passing Kennedy’s programs, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president to fly all the way around the world visiting other governments.
While in the White House, the Johnsons had beagles named Him and Her. LBJ was criticized when he was photographed picking one up by its ears.
After the 1964 election, Johnson began working to pass his “Great Society” programs, which were a far-reaching set of government programs which attacked problems as far-ranging as the fight against poverty, beautification of the country, Medicare, aid to education and removal of obstacles to the right to vote. After his programs passed, citizens had access to need-based aid from the US government for the first time.
Johnson’s decision to expand the Viet Nam war became the decision he was most known for in the 70s, and he was broadly criticized for the war. The earlier accomplishments of his administration were forgotten as Americans became conflicted over the Viet Nam war. He chose not to run for re-election so he could work full-time on fostering peace in Viet Nam.
The Official Portrait: Johnson selected a portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, done in 1968, to be his official White House Portrait. There’s a link to the transcript of an interview with her, below, where she discusses the process of painting both Lady Bird & LBJ.
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Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: Lyndon Johnson As Visionary
Interview with Elizabeth Shoumatoff On Painting The Johnsons
Elaine de Kooning, known for her contemporary, gestural portraits, was chosen in 1962 to create a portrait of President Kennedy for the Truman Library because she worked quickly. She had seven informal sessions in Palm Beach, Florida, with Kennedy at the end of December and early January of 1963. De Kooning was so moved by Kennedy that over the next ten months she created hundreds of drawings and twenty-three paintings of him. After his assassination, she didn’t paint for a year.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
The 35th President of the United States, 1961 – 1963
AKA: JFK, Jack
From: Massachusetts
College: London School of Economics, Princeton, Harvard
Married to: Jacqueline Bouvier
Children: Arabella, Caroline B., John F., Jr., Patrick B.
Party: Democratic
Previous Jobs: US Navy Lieutenant, US Representative, US Senator
In His Words: “War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis”. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger — but recognize the opportunity.”
“If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.””
“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
“I believe in an America where the rights that I have described are enjoyed by all, regardless of their race or their creed or their national origin – where every citizen is free to think and speak as he pleases and write and worship as he pleases – and where every citizen is free to vote as he pleases, without instructions from anyone, his employer, the union leader or his clergyman.”
“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote—where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference—and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.”
“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American’s capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
“The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”
“Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example. But inevitably they fail, either because men are not afraid to die for a life worth living, or because the terrorists themselves came to realize that free men cannot be frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its own response. And it is in the light of that history that every nation today should know, be he friend or foe, that the United States has both the will and the weapons to join free men in standing up to their responsibilities.”
Not true: Kennedy debated his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, in the first Presidential debates ever televised. Radio listeners felt that Nixon either won or tied the debates. However, Kennedy trounced Nixon on television. Kennedy allowed make-up to be applied to his face, and he looked cool and calm during the debate. Nixon, however, had a “5 o’clock shadow” and perspired throughout the event.
True: “Jack” Kennedy was the first President who had been a Boy Scout in his youth.
Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for bravery in WWII after his ship, PT109, was sunk by a Japanese destroyer and JFK saved his men.
His 1955 Profiles in Courage won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected President. He was the first President born in the 20th century.
He was the first Roman Catholic President (and this was controversial during the campaign, with some fearing the Pope could order him to implement specific policies).
Kennedy was the first President to have a live televised press conference.
After a failed meeting with Khrushchev, Kennedy believed the country must prepare for nuclear war … and that there was a one in five chance that war would happen.
Kennedy ordered the Bay of Pigs invasion in an attempt to overthrow Castro. It was a total failure.
JFK was the 4th President to be assassinated (after Lincoln, Garfield & McKinley).
The Official Portrait: Aaron Shikler was selected in 1970 by Jacqueline Kennedy to paint a posthumous portrait of John F Kennedy; it became his official White House Portrait.
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Being A Scout Is Expensive
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library And Museum
Biography: John F. Kennedy
Edgar Parker painted the portrait in 1878 based on an original by Gilbert Stuart.
John Adams (1735 – 1826)
The 2nd President of the United States, 1797 – 1801
AKA: His Roundity, The Atlas of Independence, The Colossus of Independence, Bonny Johnny, The Duke of Braintree
From: Massachusetts
College: Harvard
Married to: Abigail Smith
Children: Nabby, John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, Elizabeth
Party: Federalist
Previous Job: Teacher, lawyer, Colonial legislator to the Massachusetts General Court, Delegate to the First Continental Congress, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Ambassador, Vice President
In His Words: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with the power to endanger the public liberty.”
This 2 cent stamp was introduced in 1938.
“There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight.”
“Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
“Since the decay of the feudal system, by which the public defense was provided for chiefly at the expense of individuals, the system of loans has been introduced, and as no nation can raise within the year by taxes sufficient sums for its defense and military operations in time of war the sums loaned and debts contracted have necessarily become the subjects of what have been called funding systems. The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own. The national defense must be provided for as well as the support of Government; but both should be accomplished as much as possible by immediate taxes, and as little as possible by loans.”
“Thanks to God that he gave me stubbornness when I know I am right.”
“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
“Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”
Not true: It’s a quote often attributed to John Adams:
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress!”
Just one problem: John Adams didn’t say it. It’s a line from the 1969 Broadway music comedy, 1776!
True:The Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. Members included Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R Livingston and Roger Sherman. The committee apparently wanted Adams to write the document, but he persuaded the committee to have Jefferson write the first draft. In later years, Jefferson would say that Adams was “the pillar of [the Declaration’s] support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered.”
Adams was appointed our first Ambassador, traveling with his son and future President, John Quincy Adams, to France in 1777.
In our first Presidential election, George Washington was unanimously elected by our electors. The race was for 2nd place, and 11 candidates split the 69 available votes. Adams received the most, so he became our first Vice President.
Unfortunately, Mr. Adams didn’t like his position, saying, “My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived. . . .” However, he did win the 1797 election, only to lose in 1800 to his Vice President, Thomas Jefferson. Adams thus became our first one term President.
Adams kept a horse named Cleopatra.
The Official Portrait: Portrait of John Adams by John Trumbull, c. 1792-93.
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Big Mo
