dual personalities

Since doomsday is fast approaching, I thought I would review some fun facts to know and tell about past presidential elections, concentrating on those that occurred on November 3rd.

On this day in 1868 Ulysses S. Grant defeated Horatio Seymor to become the first elected president after the Civil War ended. Has anyone ever heard of Horatio Seymor? And I must say, in his inaugural portrait U.S.G. doesn’t really look as if he wants the job, but who could blame him?

The stately looking Civil War veteran, William McKinley, who served at Antietam, defeated William Jennings Bryan in 1896 on 11-3. By all accounts it was a humdinger of an election with over 90% of the electorate turning out to vote. Now we’re lucky if we get anywhere close to 50%!

In 1908 William Howard Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan on November 3rd. That was poor Bryan’s third and final attempt at the presidency. I always think of Taft as a really obese guy, but he must have been a stress eater and put on weight in office. He doesn’t look all that portly here. Even so, he’d never get elected these days — can you imagine how today’s press would react to a candidate that makes Chris Christie look svelte? Personally, I’m all for the idea of a padded president. I’m tired of the health craze.

Moving forward, we get to the election of 1964 in which Lyndon Johnson won 61% of the popular vote to defeat Barry Goldwater. I’m going to skip his picture as I’m not a huge fan. Johnson won the silver star in WWII, but under controversial circumstances that remind me of John Kerry’s “swift boat” claims. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say on Johnson’s award:

Johnson and two Army officers went to the 22nd Bomb Group base, which was assigned the high risk mission of bombing the Japanese airbase at Lae in New Guinea. Reports vary on what happened to the B-26 Marauder carrying Johnson. Lyndon Johnson said it was also attacked by Japanese fighters but survived, while others, including other members of the flight crew, claim it turned back because of generator trouble before reaching the objective and before encountering enemy aircraft and never came under fire, which is supported by official flight records. Other airplanes that continued to the target did come under fire near the target at about the same time that Johnson’s plane was recorded as having landed back at the original airbase. MacArthur awarded Johnson the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest medal.

Oh, the politics of medals…

Finally, we have Bill Clinton’s 1988 victory over George W. Bush, which also happened on November 3rd. But since you know all about that, I’ll say no more.

There were doubtless other presidential elections on November 3rd, but these are the ones that struck me as interesting or important. I’m not attributing any particular significance to November 3rd — it doesn’t seem to favor one party over the other and I’m no believer in prognostication of that type anyway. But keep your fingers crossed about this November 6th — whatever happens, I hope there is a CLEAR WINNER!