Presidential Trivia

[gorkay]

Is the answer to "What do Garfield, Hoover, Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton have in common" that they are/were all left-handed? I know Garfield, Truman, Ford, Bush I and Clinton were.

I've been racking my brain trying to think of good questions... the problem is that I can come up with plenty that would stump the average person, but would be easy for people as knowledgeable as you guys. But let me try a few:

1. Who was the last incumbent President to actively seek his party's nomination for a second term and be denied it?
2. With the exception of Presidents who were assassinated, which one died at the youngest age?
3. Which President is thought by some historians to have been ineligible to serve, because there are doubts as to whether he was really born in this country?

[jokerman]

A few guesses to gorkay's questions:

1. Harry Truman
2. James K. Polk
3. Martin Van Buren

[True Democrat]

1. Who was the last incumbent President to actively seek his party's nomination for a second term and be denied it?
2. With the exception of Presidents who were assassinated, which one died at the youngest age?
3. Which President is thought by some historians to have been ineligible to serve, because there are doubts as to whether he was really born in this country?

1. Well, I know Grant sought a third term, but you said second term, so that can't be right.  I guess Teddy Roosevelt (1912) and Herbert Hoover (1940) could also work, but that's probably not what you're thinking of either.  My guess is that you are thinking Franklin Pierce.

2. James K. Polk

3. Chester Alan Arthur, it is believed by some that he was born in Canada.

And my question is:

Who was the first President to serve after the completion of the Civil War not to serve as a soldier in the Civil War, with the exception of Andrew Johnson (there was still some fighting while he was President)?

[12th Doctor]

What President holds the record as the longest serving earliest living President?  How many years did they hold the title?

[minionofmidas]

1. Who was the last incumbent President to actively seek his party's nomination for a second term and be denied it?

LB Johnson actively sought his party's nomination for a third term until it became apparent that he might conceivably denied it, and then withdrew from the race, so I doubt you're thinking of him.
Chester Arthur "didn't stop" his fanboys, according to some text I dimly recall, but certainly didn't seek another term particularly actively.
Andy Johnson and John Tyler had no party by the end of their term.
I think Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan retired voluntarily as well. Although of course Buchanan certainly wouldn't have been renominated had he wanted to, and Pierce quite possibly not either.
So, bottom line - I actually can think of only one president who actively sought renomination and was denied it, and that's Millard Fillmore.

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Polk maybe? He was 54 or something, younger than Harding or Arthur who also didn't live to 60. But maybe I'm forgetting someone.

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There was a book at the time of the 1880 presidential campaign which claimed that Chester Arthur was born in Canada and later assumed the name of a US-born brother who died in infancy, but I think the scholarly consensus is and has always been that this was just a fanciful invention by a Democratic hack, based on the fact that elder siblings of Arthur's certainly were born in Canada. Probably some theory I never heard of, then.

Who was the first President to serve after the completion of the Civil War not to serve as a soldier in the Civil War, with the exception of Andrew Johnson (there was still some fighting while he was President)?

Grover Cleveland I think... either him or Teddy Roosevelt (the first President to be too young).

[jokerman]

Truman was on the ballot for a few primaries, I believe, does that count?

[12th Doctor]

Truman was on the ballot for a few primaries, I believe, does that count?

Technically Truman was seeking a third term.

[minionofmidas]

What President holds the record as the longest serving earliest living President?  How many years did they hold the title?

So in other words the President who had the longest remaining life after the death of his last living predecessor?
Heh.

Herbert Hoover probably. 31 years from Coolidge's death to his own.

[minionofmidas]

Which President was (at least arguably, with the urban part the iffy part) born into the urban Working Class?

Yes, there's only one.

[12th Doctor]

Which President was (at least arguably, with the urban part the iffy part) born into the urban Working Class?

Yes, there's only one.

I suddenly feel very stupid, as I was about to say "Alexander Hamilton".

I do believe the answer is Richard Nixon, though.

[12th Doctor]

What President holds the record as the longest serving earliest living President?  How many years did they hold the title?

So in other words the President who had the longest remaining life after the death of his last living predecessor?
Heh.

Herbert Hoover probably. 31 years from Coolidge's death to his own.

Correct...

Hoover had a long, successful, respectable and happy life after the White House.  Sadly, its not what he will be remembered for.  The unique circumstances that led to his holding the title (the three Presidents before him dying long before their time) mean that this record is highly unlikely to ever be broken.

[jokerman]

Truman was on the ballot for a few primaries, I believe, does that count?

Technically Truman was seeking a third term.

Is there some arbitrary time at which point a partial term gets counted as a full term by historians?

[12th Doctor]

Truman was on the ballot for a few primaries, I believe, does that count?

Technically Truman was seeking a third term.

Is there some arbitrary time at which point a partial term gets counted as a full term by historians?

Well, I can pretty well guess that its not when a guy serves almost all of his predecessors term, as Truman did.

If I had to guess I would say two years, since that is the cut off date in the Constitution

[minionofmidas]

Which President was (at least arguably, with the urban part the iffy part) born into the urban Working Class?

Yes, there's only one.

I suddenly feel very stupid, as I was about to say "Alexander Hamilton".

I do believe the answer is Richard Nixon, though.

Not the answer I was looking for, although, coming from a non-posh outer suburb and from a very much lower middle class family, he comes closer then about 39 or 40 or so of his colleagues... 

Hint: "urban" is perhaps more than a tad misleading here.

Truman was on the ballot for a few primaries, I believe, does that count?

Technically Truman was seeking a third term.

Is there some arbitrary time at which point a partial term gets counted as a full term by historians?

A term is a term is a term. Even if it's just three weeks.

[J. J.]

1.  There are six name changers.  The five listed so far are:

Grant (Hirum)
Cleveland (Stephen)
Wilson (Thomas)
Ford (Leslie King, Jr.)
Clinton (William Jefferson Blyth)

There is one missing.  Who is it.

John Calvin Coolidge, I believe.

Correct!

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I think it's Henry Cabot Lodge, and Bobby was the campaign manager, but I'm not sure.

I am sorry True Democrat, JFK's 1958 Senatorial opponent was Vincent J. Celeste and his campaign manager was indeed Teddy Kennedy. Now here's my next question:

Who was Richard Nixon's first choice to be his running mate in 1968?

[J. J.]

Which president was elected to public office before his 21st birthday.  Hint:  He was elected to public office after his 66 birthday.

[12th Doctor]

Which President was (at least arguably, with the urban part the iffy part) born into the urban Working Class?

Yes, there's only one.

I suddenly feel very stupid, as I was about to say "Alexander Hamilton".

I do believe the answer is Richard Nixon, though.

Not the answer I was looking for, although, coming from a non-posh outer suburb and from a very much lower middle class family, he comes closer then about 39 or 40 or so of his colleagues... 

Hint: "urban" is perhaps more than a tad misleading here.

John Adams.  His father was a farmer, but they lived in a grown up town area.

[12th Doctor]

Ronald Reagan was born in an apartment.  Though it was in a small town, not located very close to a large area.

[J. J.]

Arguably Clinton was working class.

[minionofmidas]

Arguably Clinton was working class.

More so than any Republican President except Abe Lincoln, anyhow. But not urban, not by the standards of the 20th Century.

Which President was (at least arguably, with the urban part the iffy part) born into the urban Working Class?

Yes, there's only one.

I suddenly feel very stupid, as I was about to say "Alexander Hamilton".

I do believe the answer is Richard Nixon, though.

Not the answer I was looking for, although, coming from a non-posh outer suburb and from a very much lower middle class family, he comes closer then about 39 or 40 or so of his colleagues... 

Hint: "urban" is perhaps more than a tad misleading here.

John Adams.  His father was a farmer, but they lived in a grown up town area.

Posh landowner. Though not uber-posh.


No actually, the guy I'm thinking of is Andrew Johnson. Who grew up in abject poverty, the son of a porter (in the sense of bearer) in what was already (and still is) the state capital of North Carolina... thing is, though, it didn't reach 2500 inhabitants until the time he was 10.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Should have been paying attention to this thread; I knew that one. Curiously (or not) there's only been one British P.M from an urban working class background (and even then it can be disputed. Certainly urban poverty though).

[minionofmidas]

Should have been paying attention to this thread; I knew that one. Curiously (or not) there's only been one British P.M from an urban working class background (and even then it can be disputed. Certainly urban poverty though).

Who? The only Working Class Labour prime minister (James MacDonald Ramsay) was certainly not urban in origin.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Should have been paying attention to this thread; I knew that one. Curiously (or not) there's only been one British P.M from an urban working class background (and even then it can be disputed. Certainly urban poverty though).

Who? The only Working Class Labour prime minister (James MacDonald Ramsay) was certainly not urban in origin.

You mean Lossiemouth isn't urban? Oh.



Actually I was thinking of Callaghan; which is why I said background rather than origin and mentioned that it could easily be disputed. Impoverished lower middle class would be much more accurate o/c. Portsmouth does count as urban, right?

Funny thing is that there's actually a link, of sorts, between MacDonald and Callaghan's political careers; the Callaghan family become die-hard Labour supporters after the first MacDonald government introduced pensions for widows.

[minionofmidas]

Funny thing is that there's actually a link, of sorts, between MacDonald and Callaghan's political careers; the Callaghan family become die-hard Labour supporters after the first MacDonald government introduced pensions for widows.

That reminds me of the very conclusion of the Road to Wigan Pier.