Presidential Trivia

[minionofmidas]

Who was the last sitting Representative to be elected President?

James Garfield

Name the only President to have served as a Representative, Senator, Governor and Vice-President.

Andrew Johnson has been mentioned in the thread, but the correct answer is John Tyler. Or maybe there wasn't an "only" one.

True Dem beat me to most of it...but, additionally, Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, & Wilson & Cleveland used their middle names.  (Why Cleveland used Grover instead of Stephen is beyond me)

Because he was named for a man called Stephen Grover, and called Grover from earliest boyhood on.

As to the current question, I don't know the answer and frankly wouldn't want to.

[minionofmidas]

If you want to claim that there are three, they are Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland and Richard Nixon. (Roosevelt had four. Of course that means he also had three. In which case you probably werent thinking of Alabama 1960 after all. It depends how you define it.)

Which American President lived to see the largest number of his successors hold office?

[minionofmidas]

And as I answer, I realize that I was wrong... the answer is actually Martin Van Buren... he lived to see 8 successors... including Tyler.  He was still alive when Tyler bite the dust.

Indeed, Van Buren was the answer I was looking for.

[minionofmidas]

IIRC I heard something about Andrew Johnson being a mayor or councillor when he was 20.
- So I'll stab at that being my answer.

Q. What do Presidents Garfield, Hoover, Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton all have in common? This is a very easy one.

They're white male humans.

[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).

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[minionofmidas]

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

Johnson held municipal office in Greeneville TN pretty early and returned to the Senate floor shortly before his death at the age of 66... so maybe he#s the answer to this one as well.

In which case I think the only remaining open question is who was Evil Dick's first choice for running mate in 68.

[minionofmidas]

IIRC I heard something about Andrew Johnson being a mayor or councillor when he was 20.
- So I'll stab at that being my answer.

Q. What do Presidents Garfield, Hoover, Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton all have in common? This is a very easy one.

Ah hem...

I answered that. They're white males.

[minionofmidas]

IIRC I heard something about Andrew Johnson being a mayor or councillor when he was 20.
- So I'll stab at that being my answer.

Q. What do Presidents Garfield, Hoover, Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton all have in common? This is a very easy one.

Ah hem...

Left handed?

I also got no response for getting Johnson. Ugh!!!

Yep, left-handed.

Sorry about that, but I still can't find it.

It's quoted in your post. (No, I hadn't seen it before, either.)

Okay... new question...

Which President was born in the same county as his Vice President?

[minionofmidas]

Okay... new question...

Which President was born in the same county as his Vice President?

[minionofmidas]

Did Taylor vote in 1848? I seem to recall that he did, and that it was the first time ever that he voted.

[minionofmidas]

What President had the greatest increase in electoral college votes for President in a four year period (excluding those who had no votes in the prior electoral college)? What were the years and what was the total Electoral Votes each year?

Percentage of the college or absolute no of votes? Also, do these have to have been votes for President or do all votes count?
Taking your question 100% literally as you posted it, people who received VP votes one college and pres votes the next count, so the answer would probably be Lyndon Johnson.

[minionofmidas]

What President had the greatest increase in electoral college votes for President in a four year period (excluding those who had no votes in the prior electoral college)? What were the years and what was the total Electoral Votes each year?

Percentage of the college or absolute no of votes? Also, do these have to have been votes for President or do all votes count?
Taking your question 100% literally as you posted it, people who received VP votes one college and pres votes the next count, so the answer would probably be Lyndon Johnson.

For President means "for President."  The electoral votes for vice president are not included.  It is not the percentage but the raw numbers (It might be the greatest percentage difference as well).  This should be very easy. 

Yeah, but when you said "excluding those who had no votes in the prior electoral college" you didn't include a similar qualifier.

[minionofmidas]

Anyways, the answer is Ronald Reagan, who received 1 EV in 1976 and an insane amount that I could look up but won't bother to in 1980.

[minionofmidas]

Back to my question:

How many Presidents have served as a Governor, Congressman, and Senator, and who are they?

Someone suggested the two Andrews. I'm sure Johnson is correct, anyhow, not sure about Jackson. Another is John Tyler. There might be more.

[minionofmidas]

Well, one obvious pick in James Tyler.

Wrong.

John Tyler. ha

Still wrong.  Ha, ha.

is John Tyler.

[minionofmidas]

The 1787 Constitution's President doesn't preside.
He is named for the President of the Continental Congress, who in turn takes his name from the Presidents of the Council (in modern usage, the Speakers of the House) of some of the British American colonies.

[minionofmidas]

How many Presidents have served as Judges?

The only two that I can think of are Taft and Truman (but the judges in Mo. were more like county commissioners).

I've only counted 1, and that was Taft.

I think Jackson did.

[minionofmidas]

Sierra Club? for the organization.

As for "only living President during their time in office":

John Adams, Hoover, and Nixon, at the very least.

Perhaps Teddy Roosevelt as well?

Those are all correct, including TR, but you are missing one.

Grant.

[minionofmidas]

Something descent-based apparently. Maybe descendants of the people on the Mayflower or summat like that.