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The Daily Dose/September 5, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Notes from around the Human Experience...
A BUCKET OF WARM SPIT: As usual around convention time, the vice presidential candidates are more important than they really should be, with everyone wondering if Sarah Palin is qualified or Joe Biden is to Establishment to really be a part of Barack Obama's plan to really change things in Washington after 200 years.
Let's be honest, it doesn't really matter who the vice-president is. If the office is vacant, as it has been from time to time, the sun still comes up in the morning and water still comes out of the faucets. They seldom do anything more important than get photographed with the president, go to funerals and, preside over the Senate. On the off chance they do assume the presidency, history has shown that more often than not accidental presidents acquit themselves well. And if not, the country muddled through until the next election
So, as a public service, we are pleased to take a look at the eight men who assumed the presidency in the middle of a term, their qualifications for the national office, and how they did as president.
Leading Off: John Tyler, the first vice-president to assume the presidency in the middle of a term, was a fairly distinguished former US Senator from, and former governor of, Virginia when he was selected by the Whigs to run alongside William Henry Harrison in 1840.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Solid
Tyler was vice-president for all of a month when Harrison died. While Tyler was by no means a great president - he feuded with Congress and wasn't able to do much and Congress even refused to confirm several of his Supreme Court nominations - he did establish the precedent that a succeeding vice-president was a real President and not merely Acting President or a vice-president exercising presidential powers.
Overall Ranking: Good
Next Up: Millard Fillmore was a former New York Congressman, who later lost the governors race and followed that up by being elected state controller. Fillmore was not looked upon by Whigs in 1848 as the Second Coming, but was nominated as vice president to help the ticket carry New York, piss off Thurlow Weed and geographically compliment presidential nominee Zachary Taylor, a Virginian slave-holder.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Fair
Fillmore's presidency wasn't the type they build memorials for. He signed the Compromise of 1850, which basically put off the Civil War for a few years. He also signed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required everybody to mobilize in catching runaway slaves, regardless of whether or not slavery was legal where they lived. This cost him his party's nomination in 1852.
Overall Ranking: Could be better
Other Than That Mrs. Lincoln, How Did You Like The Play? Andrew Johnson, former Congressman, governor and military governor of Tennessee, was a tailor by trade and was taught to read by his wife. He was selected as President Lincoln's running mate for Lincoln's second term because of his staunch pro-Union stance.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Taken in the context of his times, very good.
Like Tyler, he was vice-president a very short time - about six weeks - before assuming the presidency. His term was not productive. Johnson, very courageously, supported Lincoln's reconstruction plans, but lacked his skill in getting them implemented, though in fairness to Johnson, Lincoln - and probably even Jesus H. Christ himself - would have had problems dealing with the mean, vindictive, radical Congress that was assembled then. He would become the first president to be impeached, and was spared conviction in the Senate by one vote.
Overall Ranking: Poor.
I Want That Table Moved Over There: Chester Arthur, a lawyer and former Collector for the Port of New York, was the Republicans second choice for vice-president in 1880, accepting the nomination only after Levi Morton declined to run with James Garfield, who himself was a compromise candidate after Republicans couldn't agree between Ulysses Grant and James Blaine.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Fair
This will surprise you, but the Republican Party in 1880 was fraught with factions and rivalries! I know, it's hard to believe. After becoming president, Arthur decided to blaze his own trail and replaced all but one member of Taylor's cabinet and generally ran the country as he saw fit, not as his party saw fit. A fashionable dresser and a bit of a snob, Arthur refused to move into the White House until it was redecorated to his taste.
Overall Ranking: Good
Speak Softly, Carry A Big Stick: Theodore Roosevelt, war hero, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Governor of New York, and was one of the few vice-presidential candidates who actually energized a ticket, helping William McKinley rout William Jennings Bryan in the 1900 election.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Very strong
He spent six months as vice president before McKinley was dutifully assassinated. In eight years, Roosevelt had a nice, useful presidency and was responsible for putting Abraham Lincoln's image on the penny.
Overall Ranking: Very high
Speak Softly, And Seldom: Calvin Coolidge is not completely dissimilar to Palin, in that he, too, worked his way up from small town politics to the national stage. A former mayor, state legislator and governor in Massachusetts, Coolidge was not the Republican's first choice in 1920.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Good
Coolidge presided over the Roaring 20's and had the good sense to get out so Herbert Hoover could take credit for the Great Depression. Coolidge was the first vice president to attend cabinet meetings and after assuming the presidency met with the press 529 times, making him the most accessible president in history.
Overall Ranking: Good
Dewey Defeats Truman: Harry Truman was not the first pick of either the Democratic Party's power structure or of President Franklin Roosevelt when it was decided the current vice-president, Henry Wallace, had to go. Thanks to his handling of the Truman Committee he was already nationally known and respected, but was not on the tips of everyone's tongue as vice presidential material, and he didn't really want the job.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Average
Despite not being told of the atomic bomb project, or any of FDR's polices or plans, while vice-president, Truman is one of this country's great presidents, a man who knew how to make a decision.
Overall Ranking: We already said he was one of this country's great Presidents, what more do you want?
At Ford, Pardon's Are Job 1: After a long career in the House of Representatives, Gerald Ford was well qualified to become vice-president when he was appointed by evil Richard Nixon to take the place of disgraced, resigned, Spiro Agnew.
Overall Qualifications For National Office: Very good
As president, though, Ford had no chance. You could have put a wizard with a magic wand in the Oval Office in August of 1974 and he wouldn't' have had a chance either. Had Ford not pardoned Nixon this country would have faced a mess as a former president was taken to trial and probably convicted. As it was, pardoning Nixon didn't do him any favors either.
Overall Ranking: All right
WE THE PEOPLE: The first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphiaon this date in 1774, with all the original colonies, except for Georgia, sending delegates. The Congress is in response to the British passing what have come to be known as The Intolerable Acts, which, among other things, closed the port of Boston until damage from the Boston Tea Party had been repaid, and an act which provided for royal officials accused of crimes to have their trial moved to another colony or even Britain, which meant it could be difficult for witnesses to attend, because even though the act provided for the payment of expenses, good luck getting away to England for a few months to testify with the crops coming in.
Hut Hut Hike: The first legal forward pass in college football is completed on this date in 1906, by Saint Louis University's Bradbury Robinson to Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College. Their first attempt earlier in the game had fallen incomplete and, in accordance with the rules, resulted in a turnover. Saint Louis would go 11-0 in 1906, finishing with a 39-0 victory over Iowa.
Editor's Note: In order to rub in the fact it's been a whole century (100 years) since the Chicago Cubs have bothered to win the World Series, On This Date is pleased to chronicle the 1908 Chicago Cubs World Championship season.
You May Now Remove The Broom Handle: One day after getting anally violated by umpire Hank O'Day, who refused a 10th-inning appeal that would have negated the winning run, the Cubs smack around the hapless Pirates 11-0 in Pittsburgh. Ed Reulbach pitches a four-hitter.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: The goddamn Giants won again, their seventh straight, beating the Phillies 5-1, so the Cubs, themselves winners of 16 of their last 19, are still two games back, with Pirates a game-and-a-half behind the New York.
Higher Stronger, Deader: On this date, in 1972, Palestinian terrorists attack the Israeli Olympic team at the Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches, five terrorists and police officer were killed.
3…2...1…Blastoff: Voyager 1 is launched on this date in 1977, 16 days after Voyager 2 was launched. Voyager 1 would do flyby's of Jupiter (March, 1979) and Saturn (November, 1980) and is currently over 9.8 billion miles from Earth. It is farther away from the Sun than any solar system object, manmade or natural, except some comets, and radio signals take almost 15 hours to reach Earth. Voyager 1 is expected to last until 2025.
FunFact: Voyager 1 was originally scheduled to be Mariner 12.
Thought For The Day: He was not so unreasonable-usually- as to demand both freedom and the fruits of popular slavery. - Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
Your Column Four Foto For Today: Hubba-hubba, Raquel Welch!
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There was not a trivia question last time.
Today's Stumper: Who was the last President of the United States to submit his name for nomination, but not be nominated by his party? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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