Dead Presidents

I’m sure I’ll miss a few.  My favorites were Pusha T’s Fear of God II: Let Us Pray EP, Jay-Z and Kanye’s Watch The Throne, Royce da 5’9”s Success Is Certain, Bad Meets Evil’s (Royce and Em) Hell: The Sequel, Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer, and Brotha Lynch Hung’s Coathanga Strangla (I’m still a Sactown kid at heart with love for the Garden Blocc crew!).

A few others that I felt were amongst the best: Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers, Raekwon’s Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang’s Legendary Weapons, X-Raided’s Unforgiven Volume 3: Vindication (like I said, loyalty to the Blocc), WC’s Revenge of the Barracuda, and Talib Kweli’s Gutter Rainbows.  Right now, I’m really looking forward to B.o.B.’s Strange Clouds.

President Arthur instituted civil service reform during his term, which helped get rid of some of the corruption that stemmed from political patronage, but he was the personification of a man of the Gilded Age.  Arthur owed his career to political patronage, and he was a dandy.  He famously changed his clothes numerous times per day and had closets packed with clothing.  He loved to entertain and eat and drink and had rich friends that he loved vacationing with.  When he moved into the White House, Arthur auctioned off some of the historic furnishings (Jackie Kennedy tracked a bunch of them down later) and had Louis Tiffany (yes, THAT Tiffany) redecorate it to his tastes.

So, President Arthur helped bring about some reform when he was in office, but he certainly enjoyed the Gilded Age.  Here’s something I wrote about the man they called “Elegant Arthur”.

Great question.  I enjoyed it so much that I decided to answer it on the latest episode of the podcast Overrated Radio, starring myself and Keith Davis.

The book you’re asking about is The Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland by Charles Lachman (Kindle version here).

No, I didn’t finish reading it.  I started reading it right before I moved from Austin to St. Louis, so it was a hectic time, and unfortunately, I misplaced the damn thing.  If it shows up somewhere, I’d love to finish it.

Probably not.  LBJ was from the South, and there was still a stigma with Southern candidates for the Presidency that carried over from the Civil War and wouldn’t be lifted until LBJ’s 1964 election — a path that was paved due to LBJ’s ascension to the White House following JFK’s assassination.

In 1956, Stevenson only won 7 states and they were the Southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as Missouri, which is South-ish (if I can create a word).  LBJ probably would have won those states, although Missouri is questionable.  There’s a chance LBJ could have won Texas (which Eisenhower won in 1956), but Eisenhower had some Texas ties, too (he was born there, Mamie’s family had a winter home in San Antonio, and Ike was stationed there after he graduated from West Point). 

Like you said, Eisenhower was unbeatable in 1956, and there’s no way LBJ would have ever challenged him.  LBJ was Senate Majority Leader during most of Eisenhower’s Presidency and he barely challenged the Eisenhower Administration’s agenda during that time.  LBJ had a ton of respect for Eisenhower, and they had a good relationship throughout Ike’s Presidency and LBJ’s Presidency, too.

Nixon pretty much earned that title by default since he’s the only President who had to resign in disgrace because he almost certainly would have been impeached and removed from office if he had not decided to quit.

LBJ was too powerful and cunning of a politician not to have won the 1968 Democratic nomination as an incumbent President.  As President, he was still the head of his party and would have controlled the 1968 Democratic National Convention.  I think it would have been tough for any Democratic challenger to have wrestled that power from him, so yes, I think he would have been renominated had he sought the nomination.

The general election is a different story.  I think LBJ was probably sufficiently wounded enough politically to have not been able to stave off Richard Nixon and the need for change.  The country was ready for something different in 1968, and if LBJ had stayed in the race, Nixon would have exploited that.  I’ll tell you what, though: I would have loved to have seen what an LBJ vs. Nixon race might have looked like.

Since nearly all of them were sworn in by placing their hands on a Bible and ending their oath with “So help me, God”, I would venture to say that they haven’t been able to separate Church and State from literally the moment that they became President.

I’ll say this: Ron Paul is doing better than I expected so far, but I think his two strongest states coming into 2012 were Iowa and New Hampshire and those contests are already finished (and despite his strong performances, he didn’t win either of them, by the way).

Ron Paul can’t win because, on a national level, his views are too extreme and radical for the majority of American voters.  All of the support that Ron Paul has is all of the support that Ron Paul will get.  The Republican Party will not nominate Ron Paul because Ron Paul can’t win a national election.  The GOP knows this, and there is no way that they would want Ron Paul to be the Republican nominee.

By the way, if you take the politics out of the equation — if Ron Paul had the same political positions as Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman or Newt Gingrich — he still would be a bad choice for the Republicans.  Why?  He’s too old.  There were concerns about John McCain in 2008 and Bob Dole in 1996.  Ron Paul will be 77 years old on Election Day.  He would be the oldest major party Presidential nominee in American History.  He’s older than Reagan was in 1984 when he sought a second term.  He’s older than Eisenhower was when he left office.  He’s older than John McCain — not older than McCain was in 2008, but older than McCain is NOW.  McCain was born in August 1936; Paul was born a full year earlier, in August 1935.  

I’m not going to get in the argument again with the Paul supporters, but just stop already — not only is he never going to be President of the United States, but he’s never going to be nominated for President.  If you want to be realistic, get behind his son.  Rand has a better chance than Ron (but that’s not going to happen, either).

Yes, it is one of those fascinating little facts that make me enjoy history so much.  Old “Cactus Jack” Garner saw and experienced a lot during his long life — he was just about two weeks short of 99 years old when he died in 1967.  Another interesting tidbit about Cactus Jack: he was born during a Johnson Administration (Andrew’s) and died during a Johnson Administration (Lyndon’s).

It’s a pretty awesome perk.  I’m fortunate because I have a platform with a significant audience, so publishers send books that my readers might be interested in and I do my best to read them and review them in order to share with you what books I feel are worth your time (and which ones are not). 

Believe me, it’s not because I’m cool — although, I would really like to believe that’s the reason — it’s marketing.