Why has there never been an Italian-American President?

[LBJ Revivalist]

I'm asking this in all sincerity. Many I'm sure thought before 2008 that we'd never see a black President, and so in some ways the ''impossible'' happened in '08, but why to this day have we still not seen an Italian-American president, or another Catholic President?

[Franzl]

There haven't been extremely many presidential elections.....so it's not statistically probable that every demographic group is represented. Why has there never been a Native American President.....or a German American President?

Who even cares?

[phk]

There haven't been extremely many presidential elections.....so it's not statistically probable that every demographic group is represented. Why has there never been a Native American President.....or a German American President?

Who even cares?

Eisenhower was German-American

[Torie]

Well, I gave the max to Rudy back when.

[Franzl]

There haven't been extremely many presidential elections.....so it's not statistically probable that every demographic group is represented. Why has there never been a Native American President.....or a German American President?

Who even cares?

Eisenhower was German-American

I stand corrected, right you are.....but my point still stands. There are so many demographics that are still to be represented.....and there just aren't presidential elections often enough to allow that.

[dead0man]

6% of the population.....and most of those are in one little corner.  (serious answer)

Jersey Shore, La Casa Nostra, hot blooded, loud?....fugetaboutit  (less serious answer)


and yes, it's the Germans that have been screwed here.  17% of the population and only 2 (and a half...Hoover and Ike both German.....Nixon's mother was German) Presidents?


..and why no Protestants on the Supreme Court?

[patrick1]

Just you wait...



The Situation/Paulie D 2032 for a brighter, more orange tomorrow.

[Franzl]

Does anyone seriously even care?

[rob in cal]

I believe Tyler was half German.  Nixon's mom (Mulhaus)  was at least part German.  Also, Obama is a little German.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Al Smith was a quarter Italian and look how his campaign turned out.

[Free Palestine]

Because nobody's going to vote for one of those damn wops.

[Eraserhead]

Just wait 'til Andrew gets in there!

[Brittain33]

It took 100+ years after Irish immigration began in force to elect an Irish-American President. Italian immigration peaked about 100 years ago and we've already had a few people who got into the outer circle: Geraldine Ferraro as VP nominee, Mario Cuomo as a likely frontrunner for the Dem nom who wouldn't commit, Rudy Giuliani as a flawed candidate. Michael Dukakis was not Italian but fits the same demographic box, which means that was one less opportunity for an Italian-American candidate. Given the limited opportunities, Italian-Americans have done well.

[Capitan Zapp Brannigan]

They've been waiting for The Situation to take his place in 20 or so years.

[milhouse24]

I've been surprised at this considering there are so many Italian politicians in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest and West.  But there are Italians in both Republican and Democratic Party, but Republicans usually go for the WASPY Christian conservatives, so an Italian candidate will probably be a Democrat, probably Andrew Cuomo.

[Bacon King]

Because Keystone Phil can't have nice things.

[Zarn]

Historically, Americans have frowned upon Catholics in general as Commander-in-Chief. They didn't want to give control of the country over to the Pope.

[old timey villain]

There haven't been extremely many presidential elections.....so it's not statistically probable that every demographic group is represented. Why has there never been a Native American President.....or a German American President?

Who even cares?

Americans care a lot about our ancestry.

[old timey villain]

Also, the streak might end with Christie in 2016

[pbrower2a]

There haven't been extremely many presidential elections.....so it's not statistically probable that every demographic group is represented. Why has there never been a Native American President.....or a German American President?

Who even cares?

Eisenhower was German-American

Hoover, FDR, and Truman were part German, too.

It is significant that as late as 1960 America had not even had a Catholic President even though Irish Catholics were a large part of the electorate and had shown much success in large-city and state politics. If Irish-Americans could not win the Presidency, then how could Italian-Americans or Polish-Americans?

Presidential campaigns succeed because nominees are able to consolidate support in several regions of the country and win a couple of swing states. Such well explains the absence of random-scatter Presidential elections in our history.

We do not have a random scatter of Americans by ethnic origin. Patterns of immigration concentrated Italian-Americans (and others of the late-19th/early 20th century wave of immigrants) in relatively-few areas. Italian-Americans settled heavily in a triangle from Boston in the northeast, Norfolk in the southeast, and Chicago in the west, and along the West Coast where there were opportunities.  The pattern also holds true among Polish-Americans, "Russian" Jews, and Greek-Americans.

Until 2008 political realities were such that politicians unable to win the very rural parts of America with white populations descended almost exclusively of Protestants with origins in Great Britain and Northern Ireland just could not win the Presidency. Barack Obama shattered that reality, so we may have just seen the end of WASP dominance in Presidential elections.   

 

[philly09]

Santorum is also Italian.

Is Krysten Sinema Italian? 

[Antonio the Sixth]

Has there to be a particular reason?

I don't think there is anything that prevents Italian-Americans from winning elections. An Italian-American nearly won the Bigot Party's primaries.

[minionofmidas]

Oh, and I think the Sinema name is Dutch. Not that there aren't quite a few Mormon Italians in the West as well, just ask Mike Crap.

[Simfan34]

I believe Tyler was half German.  Nixon's mom (Mulhaus)  was at least part German.  Also, Obama is a little German.

I thought Mulhouse was in France.

[Blue3]

Has there ever been a French-Canadian president? Or even a French president?

Or Portuguese?

Or Dutch?

Or Scandinavian?

Or Eastern-European (like from Russia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Greece, etc.)?