Archive for the ‘POTUS’ Tag
Andrew Jackson (1767 – 1845)
The 7th President of the United States, 1829 – 1837
AKA: Old Hickory, The Hero of New Orleans
From: Tennessee
College: One of eight US Presidents not to attend college
Married to: Rachel Donelson
Children: Andrew Jackson, Lyncoya Jackson, John Samuel Donelson, Andrew Jackson Donelson, Andrew Jackson Hutchings, Carolina Butler, Eliza Butler, Edward Butler, Anthony Butler
Party: Democratic-Republican (until 1828), Democratic (after 1828)
Previous Jobs: Saddle maker, teacher, lawyer, solicitor (prosecutor), planter, merchant, US Representative, US Senator, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice, General,
In His Words: “Let it be signified to me through any channel … that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished.”
“The individual who refuses to defend his rights when called by his Government, deserves to be a slave, and must be punished as an enemy of his country and friend to her foe.”
“As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.”
“John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.”
Not true: Andrew Jackson married Rachel Donelson Robards, that’s true. However, it’s not true that she was available to be married! They were united in holy matrimony after Ms. Robards told Jackson that her husband had divorced her in 1790. Unfortunately, the divorce was never completed, which made our future President a bigamist and invalidated their marriage. Eventually, the divorce was completed and Jackson was later legally married to Ms. Donelson.
True: Jackson may have owned as many as 300 slaves during his lifetime.
In the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, Jackson commanded an outnumbered American force that won a decisive victory over the British.
Rachel Jackson died two months before her husband was inaugurated.
Jackson was the first President to invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes.
Jackson paid off the entire national debt in 1835. This is the only time in U.S. history this has been accomplished.
The Official Portrait: Thomas Sully painted the official White House portrait of Andrew Jackson. This prolific painter completed over 2,600 paintings according to his own index. Other famous portraits done by Sully include a different painting of Jackson, which was the source for Jackson’s image on the $20 bill. His portrait of John Quincy Adams is in the National Gallery of Art. Portraits of Thomas Jefferson are at the University of Virginia and West Point.
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Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, center, carries a ballot box containing the 12 Massachusetts electoral votes for Vice President Al Gore during the Electoral College voting at the Statehouse Dec. 18, 2000, in Boston. Pool Photo/Getty Images
Americans don’t really vote for President or Vice President. We vote for a secret group of “Electors” that participate in a process called the Electoral College. That’s how it’s mandated in the Constitution, and then revised by the 12th Amendment. Your vote matters, but you don’t know who you voted for.
You didn’t vote for Obama or Romney. You did vote for a slate of state electors that you probably have never even heard of — electors that hold the fate of our nation in the palms of their hands. Here’s how we really elect our President. And believe me, in our litigious society, it is all about the details.
A 1976 Elector casts her ballot. New York delivered 41 votes to Jimmy Carter.
1. You don’t vote for the Presidential candidate of your choice. Ever. You do vote for a slate of Electors.
2. The number of Electors for each state is the same number as their Congressional delegation … 1 for each Senator and US Representative. Washington DC also has 3 electors.
3. Those Electors are selected by a process unique to each state. In California, the process is different for each party.
4. The Electors cannot be a member of Congress or an employee of the federal government.
5. The Electors are under no federal obligation to vote for the candidate that they are pledged to, though 25 states and Washington, DC do require them to do so. The other 25 states … electors can vote for anyone they choose, becoming “faithless electors.”
6. The Electors are selected on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November in years divisible by 4 (yes, that’s our election day). The Electors, in turn, vote on the December Monday following the 2nd Wednesday in each State Capitol (December 17 this year). They must vote for a President and a Vice President separately, and one of those must not be from their state. The votes are then sealed.
Note that most states have a “winner take all” structure for awarding their electoral votes, but that is a state decision. In Maine and Nebraska, the electors are awarded individually to the winner of each congressional district’s votes, with the two extra votes going to the over-all state winner.
The President of the Senate opens each state’s votes in front of a joint session of Congress on January 6.
7. The President of the Senate then opens and counts the votes in front of both houses of Congress on January 6.
8. If no one receives a majority of votes (270), then the US House of Representatives chooses the President from the Top 3 candidates with each state casting one vote. If no Vice Presidential candidate receives a majority, then the Senate chooses the Vice President from the Top 2 candidates.
Oddities in the history of the Electoral College:
- 1800 – an electoral tie, decided amicably in the House
- 1824 – debatable if the popular vote winner won, especially since not all states even used a popular vote
- 1876 – amid vote tampering and political machinations, the result seems to not reflect the popular vote
- 1888 – the clearest 19th century example of the popular vote winner (Democrat Samuel J Tilden) not being the electoral winner (Republican Rutherford B Hayes)
- 2000 – Gore won a plurality (but not a majority) of the national popular vote by over 540,000. For the electoral college, however, Florida was a mess with hotly contested recounts over ballots that were allowed, or not allowed, in the official count. Ultimately, the US Supreme Court ruled that the official count submitted by Florida was in fact their official result, and Bush won the electoral college 271-266 with one faithless elector abstaining.
None of these incidents degraded the legitimacy of the popular vote, nor the electoral college. Is this because of a better informed populace? A great election system first implemented in 1804, but still working in spite of World War, economic turmoil and societal upheaval? Or are we just staying lucky?
The reality is that only swing states are active sites for modern campaigns. Here’s how the 2012 election looked in late October.
You’ll see pro and con viewpoints over the next few days, I’m sure. Here are three key points to remember:
1. The only way the system changes substantially is by constitutional amendment. That is not an easy thing to do … 3/4 of the states must approve it. Typically, 2/3 majorities in both the House & Senate are required just to propose it. That sounds like Washington these days, right?
2. States can change the way they allocate their Electoral votes, but there is currently no groundswell of public opinion for that to happen. 48 states and the District of Columbia all do it the same way: winner take all.
3. It’s worked over 50 times since the 12th amendment passed, through all kinds of societal turmoil.
I believe the bigger issue today is why we continue to have so many varieties of registration, voter identification at the polls and the actual ballots themselves. I think fixing those issues is much more important than changing the wacky electoral college procedures that we’ve had for over 200 years.
We vote. The Electors vote. The President is peacefully inaugurated on January 20. It has been the American way.
Whatever the alternative systems are that you’re going to read about … there is no proof they will work any better. So why should we change, exactly?
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The Electoral College by William C Kimberling, FEC Office of Election Administration, rev. May 1992
Legal requirements to vote as pledged, by state
The Truly Strange Election of 1836
California electoral law summary
Electoral votes by person in 2012
James Madison (1751 – 1836)
The 4th President of the United States, 1809 – 1817
AKA: Little Jemmy, His Little Majesty
From: Virginia
College: Princeton University, class of 1771
Married to: Dolley Todd
Children: John (stepson)
Party: Democratic-Republican
Previous Jobs: Virginia state legislator, plantation owner, US Representative, Secretary of State,
In His Words: “In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.”
“The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
“Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
Not true: On page 120 of David Barton’s book The Myth of Separation, Barton quotes James Madison as saying:
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.”
In 1994 this quote was cited by Rush Limbaugh, which of course prompted cries that Limbaugh was wrong. And he was … but only because he was quoting Barton’s book, that was wrong. Responding to the controversy, the editors of The Papers of James Madison, John Stagg and David Mattern, cited their previous research on the quote: “We did not find anything in our files remotely like the sentiment expressed in the extract you sent us. In addition, the idea is inconsistent with everything we know about Madison’s views on religion and government, views which he expressed time and time again in public and in private.”
True: At only 5′ 4″, he is the shortest person to serve as president.
Best known as “The Father of the Constitution,” Madison is considered the most influential contributor to the US Constitution. He worked vigorously to see it ratified in his own Virginia and throughout the US.
Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay collaborated to write the Federalist Papers, which were 85 newspaper articles published in New York that explained how the proposed Constitution would work. These articles were also published in book form and became the road map for the supporters of the Constitution at each state’s ratifying convention. Clinton Rossiter called the Federalist Papers “the most important work in political science that ever has been written, or is likely ever to be written, in the United States.”
In 1776, he was elected to the Virginia convention that resolved for independence. He specifically worked to strengthen the clause on religious freedom to proclaim “liberty of conscience for all,” which is a very liberal view. It certainly does not advocate for a view that is centered on the Ten Commandments.
The Official Portrait: John Vanderlyn was commissioned many famous Americans, including George Washington (for the US House), Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, John C Calhoun and others. He painted battles and city panoramas, but his commissions barely supported him, as he worked very slowly. His 1842 commission by Congress to paint The Landing of Columbus produced one of his most famous works, which was later used on five-dollar banknotes and a 2 cent stamp in 1893.
“The portrait of James Madison was commissioned by James Monroe. The face is set above a high-collared black coat between a freely painted cravat and the simple powdered hairstyle favored by Madison.” (extracted from Kloss, William, et al. Art in the White House: A Nation’s Pride. Washington, D.C.: The White House Historical Association, 2008.)
President Ford, first official photo
Gerald R Ford (1913 – 2006)
The 38th President of the United States, 1974 – 1977
AKA: Leslie Lynch King, Jr (his birth name), Jerry, Mr. Nice Guy
From: Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan
College: University of Michigan (class of 1935), Yale Law School (class of 1941)
Ford’s marriage to Betty was delayed until after his first election to the House, as he was not sure how the voters would feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer.
Married to: Elizabeth Bloomer Warren
Children: Michael Gerard, John Gardner, Steven Meigs, Susan Elizabeth
Party: Republican
Previous Jobs: waiter, dishwasher, boxing & football coach, lawyer, US Navy (Lieutenant Commander), US Representative, Vice President
In His Words:
Eagle Scout Gerald Ford, on Right
“I believe in friendly compromise. I said over in the Senate hearings that truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.”
“If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises… I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman — my dear wife — as I begin this very difficult job.”
“All my children have spoken for themselves since they first learned to speak, and not always with my advance approval, and I expect that to continue in the future.”
“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers.”
“It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States. The prospects of such trial will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.”
Kinstler painted Ford ten times. “He wanted me to keep trying,” he said.
“The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?”
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, ‘I hear you spoke here tonight.’ ‘Oh, it was nothing,’ I replied modestly. ‘Yes,’ the little old lady nodded, ‘that’s what I heard.'”
Not true: On September 8, 1974, Ford gave President Nixon a full pardon for any crimes he committed against the United States while President. This was extremely controversial. Critics claimed the pardon must have been some sort of corrupt bargain that had been struck between the two men before Ford was nominated as Vice President. All parties denied that there had been such a deal. The New York Times called it “a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act.”
Ford testified before Congress about the pardon; he was the first sitting President to do so since Abraham Lincoln.
In 2001, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had opposed the pardon at the time, but in time he had come to the belief that history had proved that Ford had made the correct decision.
True: Ford is the only President who also earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
A star football player at the University of Michigan, Ford helped lead the team to two undefeated seasons and national championships. Ford became the only future President to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner in 1934 when he tackled Jay Berwanger, who won the award in 1935.
President Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission, who investigated the assassination of President Kennedy. He was an outspoken proponent of the single-assassin theory.
Ford was the first Vice President confirmed to office under the procedures outlined in the 25th Amendment. After Agnew’s resignation, Nixon had sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about whom he should choose as a replacement. House Speaker Carl Albert said, “We gave Nixon no choice but Ford.”
The Official Portrait: Among Everett Raymond Kinstler’s more than 1200 portraits are such well-known personalities as Tony Bennett, Carol Burnett, James Cagney, Betty Ford, Gene Hackman, Katharine Hepburn, Lady Bird Johnson, Paul Newman, Peter O’Toole, Gregory Peck, and John Wayne. Others include authors Arthur Miller, Ayn Rand, Tennessee Williams, and Tom Wolfe; Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harry Blackmun; business and government leaders such as John D. Rockefeller lll, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 6 U.S. Governors, four US Secretaries of State, and the presidents of universities and colleges including Brown, Harvard, Oklahoma, Princeton, Smith, Wellesley, Williams, and Yale.
Kinstler has painted more than 50 cabinet officers, more than any artist in the country’s history. Seven Presidents — Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — have posed for him. His portraits of Ford and Reagan are the official White House portraits.
This 1881 painting is currently in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
The 21st President of the United States, 1881 – 1885
AKA: Chet, Gentleman Boss, Prince Arthur, The Dude President, Walrus
From: Vermont, New York
College: Union College
Married to: Ellen Herndon
Children: William, Chester, Ellen
Party: Whig, Republican
Previous Jobs: teacher, principal, lawyer,
In His Words: “I trust the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized people, all international differences shall be determined without resort to arms by the benignant processes of civilization.”
“The office of the Vice-President is a greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining.”
“Men may die, but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken.” – said upon the death of President Garfield.
“I love the autumn. The crispness in the air, the changing of the leaves, and the changing of my wardrobe to winter-weight wools.”
“Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damn business.”
Not true: Arthur’s father was born in Ireland, and he moved frequently with his young family. That led to Chester Arthur’s political opponents starting a rumor that he was foreign born and not eligible to be Vice President in 1880. The rumors first swirled that he was born in Ireland, and then in Canada … but neither rumor took hold. Isn’t this all of the proof we need to see that history does repeat itself?
True: Arthur owned at least 80 pairs of pants, which may not be a lot by today’s presidential standards, it was quite the extravagance back then.
His nomination as Vice President was a compromise. Republicans were fighting between the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, with Garfield’s nomination only happening after 36 ballots. Arthur was the 2nd choice for Vice President.
He refused the duties of the office of President while President Garfield was incapacitated and unable to perform those duties. The nation was rudderless during the two months of Garfield’s decline.
His nomination was secured due to the sentiment that he would not upset the patronage system that prevailed in the Washington of his day. In the end, however, he did institute reforms, and his administration was not marred by the scandals that tarred so many of this era.
The Official Portrait: Daniel Huntington painted the official portrait of President Arthur in 1885. It would prove to be his last significant painting.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919)
The 26th President of the United States, 1901 – 1909
AKA: Teddy
From: New York
College: Harvard class of 1880, Columbia Law School
Married to: Alice Hathaway Lee, Edith Kermit Carrow
Both his mother and his first wife died on the same day; his diary entry said “The light has gone out of my life.”
Children: Alice (with Alice), and with Edith: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carrow, Archibald Bulloch and Quentin
Party: Republican, Bull Moose
Previous Jobs: Cattle rancher, deputy sheriff, historian, naturalist, explorer, author of 35 books, police commissioner, assistant Secretary of the Navy, governor of New York, war hero, and lawyer.
In His Words: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘not guilty.'”
Portrait by Adrian Lamb
Not true: The Iron Ore, a newspaper in Marquette County, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, accused Teddy of public drunkenness. The editorial stated, “Roosevelt lies, and curses in a most disgusting way, he gets drunk too, and that not infrequently, and all of his intimates know about it.” Roosevelt was running for President at the time as the standard bearer for the Bull Moose Party, and he sued for libel in what became one of the most celebrated trials of 1912. The newspaper editor admitted guilt, and Teddy settled for six cents … the “price of a good newspaper,” he said. The Iron Ore cost three cents.
True: As the first conservationist president, he spearheaded the creation of the United States Forest Service, and established five new national parks. He was responsible for the start of the Wildlife Refuge system. During his administration, 42 million acres were set aside as national forests, wildlife refuges, and areas of special interest (such as the Grand Canyon).
He coined the phrase “good to the last drop” after being asked about the quality of Maxwell House coffee.
The Official Portrait:
Edith Roosevelt portrait, by Theobald Charlton, 1902
John Singer Sargent’s painting would be the official portrait of the President, but it wasn’t the first. In 1902 Theobald Chartran was commissioned to paint portraits of the President and his wife. Although she enjoyed her’s, Teddy simply hated his. At first they tried to hide the blasted thing in an upper corridor in the darkest place on the wall. The family called it the “Mewing Cat.” Teddy disliked it so much that he eventually destroyed it.
What Teddy wanted was a man’s portrait by a artist that could capture the adventurer that he was.
The two men walked around the house searching for the right setting, but nothing was working. As they climbed the stairs, Teddy barked that Sargent must not know what he wanted. Sargent, who was also frustrated, snapped back that he didn’t think the President appreciated what was needed to pose for a portrait. Roosevelt, the stairway landing, planted his hand on the balustrade post, turned onto the ascending artist and said, “Don’t I!”
And that was the pose Sargent wanted.
Sargent’s portrait of Teddy Roosevelt was exactly what Teddy Roosevelt wanted and he would adore the portrait for the rest of his life. It had exactly captured, in the President’s eyes, the essence of his energy as well as his presidency.
Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, got her group into a lot of trouble in 2003 when she loudly, publicly and internationally declared that she was ashamed that President George W Bush was from Texas.
She was not happy with the policies of President Bush, so she proclaimed her dissatisfaction from the bully pulpit of her London concert stage. The result: she insulted a great percentage of Americans, including a whole bunch of the Country radio community. Those Country radio listeners expressed their unhappiness quickly and loudly … and within hours, you did not hear very much Dixie Chicks music on Country radio stations.
There was a public debate on Ms. Maines’ right to free speech, which she lustily engaged in for many months. Free speech was never in question; I support her right to express her opinion 100%. I also support the right of the listeners of Country radio to say that they don’t want to listen to her music. Free speech won, but the way we view our President was tarnished.
In 2006, Maines also retracted her earlier apology to President Bush, stating, “I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President, but I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t feel he is owed any respect whatsoever.” This appears to be Maines’ final position: that President George W Bush was not owed any respect whatsoever.
Other entertainers jumped on the bandwagon, by the way … Julia Roberts and Carlos Santana are both quoted as saying that “W” was “not my President.” That began a whole slew of back & forth partisanship about who was, or wasn’t, or wouldn’t be, “my president.” That inflammatory rhetoric continues to this day (buy a t-shirt! buy a bumper sticker!). And as celebrities and politicians feed the media escalating and bombastic rhetoric, we are left with an emotionally exhausted society that believes the end of the world will come if their candidate does not win.
When you wholly invest yourself into the political process, you run the risk of losing track of your values when your candidate does — or does not — prevail. If your candidate wins, you may feel you can dictate “how it’s going to be” to everyone else. If your candidate loses, you may feel disenfranchised from your government. You may feel you have no hope. Such is not the case: the strength of our country is based on the balance between the three branches of government, and we believe that balance will save our republic, come what may. And we have been proven right through civil war, world war, assassination, economic turmoil and social upheaval.
Let me tell you about my President.
In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman gave his philosophy on being in charge of our government, “The President–whoever he is–has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.” This sign was on his desk throughout his Presidential term, and is now in his Presidential Library in Independence, MO.
He is, first and foremost, the defender of the Constitution. He swears to protect the Constitution when he takes the oath of office. He will do whatever it takes for the United States of America to survive. To thrive.
He is the Commander-in-Chief, and directs our armed forces. Hopefully, he will use them sparingly. But he will use them to protect American interests here and abroad.
He is the head of one entire branch of our government: the executive branch. He is the face of America to the world.
These days, it seems that he must be a referee, as he attempts to balance the odious extremities of both parties and work with the Congress to craft the laws that govern our nation. Today’s rhetoric is not the most spiteful in our country’s history (Lincoln was denounced as a “military dictator … grasping at the power of a despot,” for example. ), but today’s political statements are certainly the most insulting and divisive in the memory of most Americans.
I regret that today’s citizens believe they must speak in an extreme fashion in order to be heard.
I regret that today’s presidential candidates feel they must spin their opponent’s statements and implications into a twisted version of “truth” that has little to do with the original statement’s intent. And many journalists are eager to feed the monster and escalate the statements even more with screaming headlines proclaiming the other guy a liar, an idiot … well, you’ve seen the headlines. They look the same to me, whether you’re reading the Huffington Post or the New York Times, Newsmax or the Drudge Report.
I know that I’ll disagree with our next President on many issues. That’s not really news: I disagree with everyone, including myself, sometimes. Disagreement is not the same thing as discourtesy. Or defamation. Or destruction.
I don’t know who’s going to win the election on Tuesday. But, I can tell you this: he will be my president.
