4 weeks*

...of daily posts is enough.

Expect 4 a week, 3 regular posts and the Saturday Presidential Ranking updates.


*Even if it's a couple of days short.

Half-Breeds and Stalwarts

The Republicans of the late 1870s and 1880s were divided into two factions, the half-breeds and the stalwarts. These two groups were considered political enemies. They faught bitterly to get their candidates nominated over the opposing faction's candidates. They saught to block the platform of the other faction. When one faction was nominated as president, the other was necessarily VP nominated to satisfy the other faction.

And this was all over a single issue.

If such bitterness arises over one thing, in this case the spoils system, then how can a party stand? If the current Democrats became so broken up over healthcare that they became factionized, all they would do is hurt their own party. They still have the same overall agenda, but they decide that oh this one issue is supreme and if we can't agree on that we can't be friends anymore.

It's really stupid to factionize in this way, and it just makes it all the more important that Chester Arthur rose above factions in his day.

Presidential Ranking v1.1.2

This is a lot tougher than I anticipated. I didn't change any positions this week. I probably won't next week either. The goal for next week is to have some pros and cons for each man.

42. James Buchanan
Pro: Is there any?
Con: Bleeding Kansas, possibly the Dred Scott Case, didn't do anything to prevent the Civil War...
41. Andrew Johnson
Pro: Reconstruction Plan was similar to Lincoln's idea, had the balls to stand up to Congress when they imposed upon executive powers
Con: Refused to compromise with Congress, subverted Congressional Acts with nearly unconditional pardoning of Confederates
40. Franklin Pierce
Pro: Perry Expedition to Japan, Gadsden Purchase
Con: Kansas-Nebraska Act (repealing Missouri Compromise), allowed Bleeding Kansas to bleed
39. William Howard Taft
Pro: Trustbusting, Worked for World Peace (arbitration with Britain and France, attempted with Canada)
Con: Payne-Aldrich Tariff, did not enforce 15th Amendment, allowed Jim Crow laws and lynching of blacks
38. Herbert Hoover
Pro:
Con: Great Depression
37. Jimmy Carter
Pro:
Con:
36. William Henry Harrison
Pro:
Con: Died pretty darn fast, never in office while Congress was in session
35. Millard Fillmore
Pro:
Con:
34. Warren Harding
Pro:
Con:
33. Zachary Taylor
Pro: Wasn't concerned about his party's platform
Con: Apathetic about politics
32. Ulysses S. Grant
Pro:
Con: Cabinet partook in much scandal
31. Rutherford B. Hayes
Pro: Civil Service Reform
Con: Allowed Reconstruction to end?, sent troops to put down B&O strike
30. George W. Bush
Pro:
Con: Iraq
29. John Adams
Pro:
Con: Almost totally disliked by the people of his time
28. John Quincy Adams
Pro:
Con:
27. Richard Nixon
Pro: Good at getting his agenda across
Con: 'Nam, Watergate
26. Benjamin Harrison
Pro:
Con:
25. Gerald Ford
Pro:
Con:
24. John Tyler
Pro: Set the precedent of VP becoming president in the case of the chief executive's death
Con:
23. Grover Cleveland
Pro:
Con:
22. James Garfield
Pro: Was to be strong in Civil Service Reform, with the Half-Breed platform
Con: Didn't get to be strong in this because he was assassinated
21. Calvin Coolidge
Pro:
Con:
20. George H. W. Bush
Pro:
Con:
19. Chester Arthur
Pro: Pendleton Civil Service Act
Con: Chinese Exclusion Act
18. Martin Van Buren
Pro:
Con:
17. Bill Clinton
Pro: Good economic times (large surplus), didn't screw it up
Con: Monica Lewinsky
16. James Madison
Pro: Well we did win the War of 1812
Con:
15. William McKinley
Pro:
Con:
14. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Pro: Highway system
Con: Perceived as not active in the office
13. James Polk
Pro:
Con:
12. James Monroe
Pro: Monroe Doctrine
Con:
11. Ronald Reagan
Pro: Major steps to end the Cold War
Con:
10. Woodrow Wilson
Pro: He kept us out of war
Con: ...for a while
9. John F Kennedy
Pro: Could be a leader without just acting out of his gut, Cuban Missile Crisis
Con: Perhaps more about his image than most presidents
8. Lyndon Johnson
Pro: Civil Rights Act of 1964
Con: Continued sending troops to Vietnam
7. Harry Truman
Pro:
Con:
6. Thomas Jefferson
Pro:
Con:
5. Andrew Jackson
Pro: Really took charge and led the country like a man, helped make the veto what it is today (policy-based, not Constitutionally-based)
Con: Occasionally subverted the Supreme Court
4. Franklin Roosevelt
Pro: Master of pushing his agenda, New Deal
Con: Attempt to add judges to the Supreme Court, Japanese Intermittent Camps, 3rd and 4th terms (though he wasn't the only to attempt a third)
3. Theodore Roosevelt
Pro: Environmentalism, Beginning of Trustbusting
Con: Only broke trusts he felt were bad
2. George Washington
Pro: Set the stage for every freaking president with so many precedents and interpretations of the Constitution
Con:
1. Abraham Lincoln
Pro: Managed to free the slaves and get through the Civil War
Con: *Possibly* may have had a Reconstruction mindset like Johnson, took too many unconstitutional pathways in the Civil War?

The Gettysburg Address

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-
field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave
their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate…we cannot
consecrate…we cannot hallow…this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it
far above our poor power to add or detract. The world
will little note nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us…that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom; and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln is quite possibly the foil to William Henry Harrison. While Harrison felt a long speech could show his strength, Abraham Lincoln just had a knack for relatively short speeches. He has the shortest inaugural address of any president, and of course his famous Gettysburg Address. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it is also the heart of lasting strength. Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg, a time fourscore and seven years after the founding of the nation endures in memory and has as much meaning eleven score and thirteen years after the founding of the nation.


But, while I greatly respect Lincoln for this, I did not make this blog for him.


Oliver Jensen rewrote the Gettysburg Address as Dwight David Eisenhower would have given it:

"I haven’t checked these figures but 87 years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental set-up here in this country, I believe it covered certain Eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual. Well, now, of course, we are dealing with this big difference of opinion, civil disturbance you might say, although I don’t like to appear to take sides or name any individuals, and the point is naturally to check up, by actual experience in the field, to see whether any governmental set-up with a basis like the one I was mentioning has any validity and find out whether that dedication by those early individuals will pay off in lasting values and things of that kind. . . . But if you look at the over-all picture of this, we can’t pay any tribute – we can’t sanctify this area, you might say – we can’t hallow according to whatever individual creeds or faiths or sort of religious outlooks are involved like I said about this particular area. It was those individuals themselves, including the enlisted men, very brave individuals, who have given the religious character to the area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will not remember any statements issued here but it will never forget how these men put their shoulders to the wheel and carried this idea down the fairway. Now frankly, our job, the living individuals’ job here is to pick up the burden and sink the putt they made these big efforts here for. It is our job to get on with the assignment – and from these deceased fine individuals to take extra inspiration, you could call it, for the same theories about the set-up for which they made such a big contribution. We have to make up our minds right here and now, as I see it, that they didn’t put out all that blood, perspiration and – well – that they didn’t just make a dry run here, and that all of us here, under God, that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this idea about freedom and liberty and those kind of arrangements, and that government of all individuals, by all individuals and for the individuals, shall not pass out of the world-picture."

Yeah, not quite as powerful.

Obligatory Thanksgiving Day Post

"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789."

George Washington proclaimed this on October 3, 1789.



Seperation of Church and State, my ass.

Chester Arthur is special

...and not just for his facial hair. He's the only president to have no animals while in the White House.

There were some interesting animals over the years. Jefferson had bear cubs. John Quincy Adams had alligators. Badass Andrew Jackson had fighting cocks.

I can understand the idea of having a dog, like Bo Obama, or a cat. But Teddy Roosevelt had at least 25 animals. Is it really necessary to have a one legged rooster, TR? Really?

I was amazed by the media surrounding the First Family of Obama as they were picking out a dog. War in Iraq? I haven't heard about it. But did you hear that Obama got a Portugese Water Dog? I know, I expected a Chesapeake Bay Retriever in honor of TR's "Sailor Boy."

Presidents have the right to have a nice family pet. But the media needs to learn the world doesn't depend on it. And the First Families need to keep it under control. The president doesn't need to become like the crazy cat lady, except instead of cats they have alligators, badgers, cows, duikers, and all this other crazy stuff.

John Tyler (1841-1845)

John Tyler is the man with the shortest Vice Presidency (31 days) and the most children of any president (15 plus possible mulatto children).

He also was probably the biggest side-changer (at least 2, possibly 3).

Prior to being nominated for VP by the Whigs, he was a Jacksonian Democrat. But some policies made him decide to ally with the Whigs. And so in 1836 he was a VP nominee for the Whigs, and in 1840 he won the Vice Presidency with William Henry Harrison.

Harrison died quickly, and Tyler made the bold move of becoming a full president, not acting. He did some stuff, including annex Texas and help make the veto evolve into not a Constitutional matter, but instead a matter of policy. His actions were more Democratic than Whig, so the latter group kicked him out of their party.

By this point, he's been a Democrat and a Whig and been thrown out to be on his own.

The really cool side change to remember about Tyler is the one where he joined the Confederates.

That's right. During the Civil War, he sided with the CSA. And he was a Sworn Enemy of the United States. No other president became a sworn enemy of the US. Some of the things Andrew Johnson did as president made him seem like an enemy, but he wasn't officially an enemy.


I honestly don't care too much about Tyler's policies, nothing can top the leader of our country becoming an enemy. Granted, he died January 18, 1962, so he didn't really do anything as a rebel, but imagine if Texas seceded and faught the US, with the support of George Bush. That's the rough equivalent. And damn that just sounds so cool.