Post Scripts: Our Presidents

In a little over a month we will have elected a new president. There have been commanders in chief of all kinds – tall, short, handsome, and homely, well educated, barely schooled, scoundrel and saint. Even the most obscure of the bunch left his mark.

One of the least known presidents, 47 year old alcoholic Franklin Pierce, a dark horse chosen in1852 when the Democrats were having a hard time finding someone to run. He was picked to run against the Whigs, candidate, war hero, General Winfield Scott. Pierce defeated Scott by a large number of electoral votes. Two months after his victory his small son was killed in an accident. He and his wife were unable to get over this tragedy and he wasn’t able to accomplish anything good in his years as president from 1853 to 1857.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to attend his party’s convention in 1932 where he was nominated and went on to become president. No doubt the nominees had stayed away to avoid the infamous smok-filled rooms.

Four state capitals are named after presidents. They are Jackson, Miss., Jefferson City, Mo.., Madison, Wisc., and Lincoln, Neb. In order of those states admitted to the union.

Between 1825 and 1829 there was a "moon" on the Potomac River as John Quincy Adams stripped down each morning at 5 a.m. to take his morning constitutional.

James Garfield, the only minister ever elected as president, had a parlor trick when he would write a Greek sentence with one hand while writing a Latin sentence with the other hand. He took office in March 1881 but died from a bullet wound six months later.

Theodore Roosevelt, president from 1901-09, said we would never be a great Democratic nation until we elected a Jew and a black man as president. He was shot by an insane stalker when making a speech in 1912, while running for president on the Progressive ticket, having lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft. The bullet hit him in the chest but his eyeglass case and speech manuscript slowed the bullet. Despite being shot, he continued his hour long speech.

Gerald Ford was born in 1913 as Leslie L. King, Jr, his mother divorced and remarried. His stepfather informally adopted him renaming him Gerald R. Ford. President Ford was a park ranger at one time in his career.

Ronald Reagan was credited with saving 77 lives. He was a lifeguard in his hometown of Dixon, Ill., but some he rescued were women faking simply to get the handsome "Dutch" Reagan’s attention.

Andrew Johnson was a tailor and could barely read or write but was extremely ambitious. His young wife taught him to read and write and from there his political career took off as mayor, governor to vice president to president in 1865.

Six foot William Howard Taft weighed 335 pounds. James Madison was our smallest leader, five feet four inches, weighed 100 pounds. Lincoln, six feet, four inches, was the tallest.

I could go on and on, even name lots of things about our current presidential candidates, but perhaps you know all about them.