Presidents Die In Office
I was only curious: How many Presidents died in office? Eight. It's a perfect Wikipedia question.
(Which reminds me, I need to memorize this quote. "“Wikipedia is literally the most accurate form of information ever created by humans", Amy Bruckman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology told me..." Dang! I haven't even started. Where was I?)
William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy.
Okay, don't let your eyes glaze over. I went through that list
without embellishment. I know how you people are. (Okay, not really.
But I'm trying to cater to people's short attention spans. Okay, not
really.)
William Henry Harrison died of the flu and was succeeded by John Tyler. Forget Tyler. He's ranked in the lower third (of Presidents). Not so bad as to be infamous, not good enough to be famous.
Zachary Taylor died of gluttony (Google it!) and was replaced by Millard Fillmore. Fillmore is ranked in the lower 30s. Forget him too.
You know about Abraham Lincoln. He was replaced by Andrew Johnson.
An absolute disaster. You really have to wonder how different America
could have been had Hannibal Hamlin remained Lincoln's Vice-President.
Of course, Lincoln may not have won reelection had he not replaced
Hamlin. So there's that. (Really, you have to love Wikipedia.
"Hamlin swore Johnson in as Vice President. Johnson, who was drunk,
subsequently gave an incoherent speech.") Oh yeah -- Lincoln was in The
Big Three. The greatest of Presidents. Andrew Johnson is in the bottom three.
James A. Garfield. (sigh) There's not enough time. He's in the obscure middle. He was succeeded by Chester Arthur -- another middling, Republican President.
William
McKinley. Now we're getting somewhere. McKinley oversaw the creation
of the American Empire (Yes, I know that makes people uncomfortable) by
declaring war on Spain and winning Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the
Philippines. Unfortunately, he was assassinated by an anarchist and
replaced by none-other-than Teddy Roosevelt. You might have noticed, Teddy is on Mount Rushmore. McKinley is not. (Although, he does have an awesome mountain named after him.)
Warren
G. Harding. Considered one of the worst (and most corrupt) Presidents
of all time. He died of a heart attack and was replaced by (John) Calvin Coolidge. "Silent" Cal was considered another middling President.
Franklin D. Roosevelt. My personal favorite. He was replaced by a guy with a checkered past -- Harry Truman. Now, because the main thrust of this blog post is about history providing a guide to what is possible, I really want you to click on this link and read this section on Wikipedia.
"Roosevelt's
advisors knew that Roosevelt might not live out a fourth term and that
his vice president would very likely become the next president."
Keep in mind, this was in the middle of World War II -- the biggest thing to happen...ever. Harry Truman is ranked in the top ten
of all Presidents. You think our circumstances are crazy now? Think
about these circumstances. Harry Truman didn't even graduate college.
But he dropped The Bomb. He implemented The Marshall Plan. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift. He desegregated the U.S. Military. He oversaw the creation of NATO. He defended South Korea.
That
brings us to John F. Kennedy. While exceedingly popular with the
American Public (Camelot, etc.), I'm not sure why he ranks so high (near
the top ten) with Presidential historians. But I am sure why his
successor -- Lyndon Baines Johnson -- is ranked as high. I've read about 4,000 pages studying up on it.
If
you've read my blog for long, you know the gist of it. Everybody
thought that LBJ was as racist as all the people he used to gain power.
And once he had that power -- the Presidency -- he used it to pass the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. It's an extraordinary story. I encourage you to read it.
By the way, LBJ had his staff run the numbers. He knew exactly what his
chances of becoming the first Southerner (post Civil War) elected to be President.
(Zero) He also knew he had a 20% chance if he took the Vice-President
job. Remember where we started this blog post? Presidents die. (Never trust my math
skills: 7 ÷ #34 ((Eisenhower)) = 20.58%.)
And I encourage you to remember where we have been, as Americans. We have faced incredible circumstances before. Hard times, good times, bad times, great times. Sometimes, at the same time.
One last note. Trump just picked J.D. Vance as his Vice-President. I've read Hillbilly Elegy. Call me crazy, but he might be an LBJ. Just throwing it out there. You can take the poor boy out of West Texas but you can't take the West Texas out of him. You can take the rich, privileged brat out of Queens but you can't take the Queens out of him. You can take the poor hillbilly out of the hills, but you can't take the hills out of him. Just ask Dwight Yoakam. (I still wouldn't vote for him.)
July 16, 2024
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