Can Bush survive his presidency?
By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
TIMES STAFF WRITER
For those who love politics, the little known facts about it are quite fascinating. Teddy Roosevelt carried a gun throughout his presidency, sometimes blatantly violating local laws. John Kennedy took more drugs then Keith Richards, and Gerald Ford was the only president not to be elected president or vice president.
A more amazing tidbit is that every president elected since 1840 in a year divisible by 20 has died in office, with the exception of one who was severely wounded.
In 1840, William Henry Harrison, a hero of the early Indian Wars, was elected president at the age of 68. During his inaugural address he spoke for an hour and 40 minutes in freezing rain. He contracted pneumonia and died 30 days later, becoming the first Chief Executive to die in office.
Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, and then reelected in 1864 during the Civil War. He was shot while watching a play at Ford's theater in Washington D.C. on Apr. 14, 1865, just 5 days after Lee surrendered his troops to Grant and just hours after General Johnston surrendered the remaining Confederate forces to General Sherman in North Carolina.
The assassin, a renown actor, John Wilkes Booth, jumped off the balcony, breaking his leg, and shouted, "Sic semper tyrannus," ("So always to tyrants," the motto of the state of Virginia) before he fled on horseback. He was killed by Union troops after he was surrounded on a farm outside Washington D.C. Later, a cadre of conspirators was executed by hanging.
James A. Garfield was elected in 1880 and shot July 2, 1881, just months after being sworn in as president by Charles J. Guiteau. Garfield died on Sept. 19, undoubtedly from poor medical attention and lack of sterilization during an operation. On June 30, 1882 Guiteau, who has historically been called "a disappointed office seeker," was put to death by hanging in Washington D.C.
In addition, William McKinley was overwhelmingly reelected in 1900. While at a greeting line at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, he was mortally wounded by a shot from Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz was an anarchist who believed if he shot the president the world would embrace his view of privilege. Before he was electrocuted on Oct. 29, 1901, he said, "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people-the good working people. I done my duty."
The winner of the 1920 election, Warren G. Harding, died in August of 1923 of a heart attack in San Francisco. Harding has been remembered as a terrible president because of the corruption that existed throughout his administration including the most famous of which the Teapot Dome Scandal. However, it seems hardly fair to blame someone for failing to clean up corruption because he died.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected to an unprecedented third term in 1940. Four years later, despite his apparent frail health he was elected to a fourth term. On Apr. 12, 1945, he died of a stroke vacationing in Warm Springs, GA.
John F. Kennedy beat Richard M. Nixon by 100,000 votes to win in 1960 to become America's youngest elected president. Cuban sympathizer, Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Oswald himself was subsequently shot in a police parking lot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, bringing an end to one of the most bizarre assassinations in history.
Ronald Reagan won the 1980 contest against President Jimmy Carter and third party candidate John Anderson. Returning to his car after making a speech, on Mar. 30, 1981, he was shot by John David Hinckley, Jr. The president's heart was barely missed by the bullet and he spent a considerable amount of time in the hospital recovering.
Hinckley shot the president in an attempt to impress actress Jodi Foster, whom he was infatuated with since the movie Taxi Driver came out. Hinckley never won Foster's love, but he won a not guilty verdict by reason of insanity.
George W. Bush won the 2000 election by less than 600 votes. Is he destined to follow in the footsteps of 7 out of the last 8 presidents elected in a year divisible by 20? We may have to wait until 2009 to find out for certain, but then how certain is fate anyway?
© The Michigan Times 2002
