Dead Presidents

Oh yes, Reagan's campaign was very serious about offering the Vice Presidency to former President Ford in 1980. It went right down to the wire and fell apart at the last minute because Ford gave an interview to Walter Cronkite at the Republican National Convention where he stated that in order for him to accept the Vice Presidency and join the ticket as Reagan's running mate, he expected an arrangement that would have vastly expanded the role of the Vice President, allowed Ford to have veto power over political appointments, and basically be co-President alongside Reagan. That was a non-starter for Reagan and his campaign, so once they heard that they suddenly shifted gears and offered the Vice Presidency to George H.W. Bush.

Interestingly, Reagan considered Ford as a potential running mate because Reagan was not sold on Bush. Reagan had been frustrated by Bush, who was Reagan's only serious challenger during the 1980 Republican Presidential primaries. Reagan had not yet warmed to Bush and was concerned that Bush was too moderate. What makes that especially odd is that Gerald Ford was much more moderate than Bush, and there had been legitimate bad blood between Reagan and Ford dating back to the 1976 election. In 1976, Reagan challenged Ford for the GOP nomination despite the fact that Ford was the incumbent President. They had a bitter primary fight that wasn't settled until at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City when Ford squeaked by with the nomination. But Reagan's challenge was a significant factor in costing Ford the Presidency against Jimmy Carter that November. Ford was forced to move further to the right, dumped Vice President Nelson Rockefeller for the far more conservative Senator Bob Dole (For the rest of this life, Ford regretted dumping Vice President Rockefeller for Dole in order to placate conservatives), and in the general election, Reagan resisted opportunities to help campaign for President Ford in areas where Reagan could have helped Ford's chances. In the aftermath of the 1976 election, Ford straight up disliked Ronald Reagan, so it was remarkable that they came so close to sharing the ticket four years later.

As the 1980 campaign cycle kicked off, Ford actually considered running for President again. After all, he had barely lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976 (and was rapidly gaining on Carter in the final days of the '76 race) and Carter was a very vulnerable incumbent President. While polls showed Ford matching up well against President Carter if he jumped in the 1980 race, the harder part likely would have been running against Reagan in the GOP primaries. After barely surviving Reagan's challenge for the 1976 nomination, Ford recognized that many Republicans saw 1980 as Reagan's time for the nomination.

Once Reagan locked down the 1980 Republican nomination and the GOP Convention kicked off in Detroit, it was apparently Reagan who made the suggestion of a super-ticket with Ford as his running mate. When Reagan and Ford met face-to-face in Detroit, they buried the hatchet and moved forward from any remaining bitterness related to 1976. As news reports from the convention began to mention that Reagan and Ford were considering a Dream Team ticket, things got pretty dramatic. Ford suggested that, if he were to become Reagan's Vice President, he'd also like to solidify his supercharged Vice Presidential role by simultaneously serving as White House Chief of Staff -- an idea that President Ford rejected when HIS Vice President Nelson Rockefeller suggested a similar role during their Administration.

But even that wasn't an immediate deal-breaker for Reagan, who genuinely believed a Dream Team ticket of Reagan/Ford would guarantee his election in November. But as Ford went upstairs to sit down for a live interview with Walter Cronkite during the CBS News coverage of the Republican Convention, the anchor pressed Ford on what kind of deal he might require to actually serve as Reagan's Vice President. As they debated the potential role, Cronkite asked Ford if "it's got to be something like a co-Presidency?" and Ford answered that Reagan "really ought to consider" the idea.

Reagan and his team were among the millions watching live and the idea of sharing the job that Reagan had spent the past 15 years working towards winning was a bridge too far. Those around Ford were pretty sure he realized the potential complications of a Reagan/Ford Dream Team ticket, too. Ford was also worried about what a potential move back to Washington would mean for the health and sobriety of his beloved wife, Betty, who was supportive as always but not necessarily excited about the prospect of Ford diving back into his political career.

The delegates in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena were still buzzing about the drama and potential of a Reagan/Ford super ticket and Cronkite was speaking to CBS reporters who were on the floor of the convention when correspondent Lesley Stahl breathlessly interrupted him to announce that members of the Reagan campaign were telling her that it was a done deal: Reagan had chosen Bush. With Cronkite laughing at the craziness and the drama of the night, Stahl continued to let the world know that numerous Reagan campaign aides were confirming that Reagan had chosen Bush as his running mate, not Ford.

Why did it fall apart and why did Ford suggest a role for the Vice President that he certainly wouldn't have accepted during his own Presidency just a few years earlier? Some political observers wondered if Ford was getting some revenge against Reagan because the former actor and former California Governor's challenge for the 1976 Republican nomination arguably helped cause Ford's narrow loss in the general election. Maybe Ford was stringing Reagan along, with no intention of actually returning to Washington, especially as Ronald Reagan's Vice President. But that is totally uncharacteristic of Gerald Ford. Dick Cheney, who served as Ford's White House Chief of Staff and remained very close to Ford throughout the former President's long life, felt it was much simpler and more straightforward. Cheney told Ford's biographer, Richard Norton Smith, "I had the feeling that Ford didn't really want the job and one way he could get out of it was ask for the moon." Later, Ford would also tell a few reporters whom he trusted that one of his goals during the Convention was actually to help George H.W. Bush overcome Reagan's hesitance to make Bush the Vice Presidential candidate. The dramatic back-and-forth over Ford's potential "requirements" to join the ticket with Reagan, stretched late into the night towards the end of the Convention and by the time Reagan and Ford mutually decided that the Dream Team ticket wasn't a good idea, Reagan needed a running mate quick. So, that possibly helped ensure that Bush was the candidate who Reagan called when he and Ford went their separate ways.

Well....I'm the author who wrote "One Minute in Dallas" and it was first posted here on my Tumblr! I believe that was written and posted in time for the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination in 2013.

There's probably a huge segment of my audience that is relatively new to following my Tumblr and don't realize that I used to know how to write and this blog actually started as a place for me to share some of the various essays about the Presidency that I wrote, many of which were longform pieces. The blog really started taking off once Tumblr enabled readers to ask questions (that feature wasn't available in the early years of Tumblr). I used to write a lot but somewhere along the way -- roughly around 2016/2017 for some curious reason -- I lost a significant amount of my interest in, and energy for, Presidential history.

I think a modern former President or former Vice President would find being a state Governor more fitting than a legislative position after leaving the White House. We almost saw former Vice President Harris run for Governor of California this year. Former Vice President Levi P. Morton, who served a single term as President Benjamin Harrison's VP (1889-1893), is the only former President or Vice President who actually did serve as Governor after leaving the Executive Branch. Morton served a single, two-year term as Governor of New York after his Vice Presidency.

"You, Biden, Panetta: Old lips." -- President Obama, on why he wouldn't share sips from his smoothie with Larry David, Joe Biden, or Leon Panetta.

That's a great question.

Yes, former President John Quincy Adams spent the last 17 years of his life in the U.S. House of Representatives. In fact, he collapsed at his desk in the House while casting a vote and actually died in the U.S. Capitol building. The only other Presidents who held a different office after leaving the White House were Andrew Johnson, who briefly served in the U.S. Senate until his death, and William Howard Taft, who was appointed to the Supreme Court eight years after leaving the Presidency and was Chief Justice of the United States from 1921-1930. (I guess you could also include former President John Tyler, who served in the Confederate Congress shortly before his death after Virginia seceded from the Union.)

I can't imagine a modern President doing what Adams, Johnson, or Taft did. It's technically possible, but I just think it would be much more difficult now. It seems like it would feel like a demotion or a step backwards and, after exercising the vast powers of the modern Presidency, holding a legislative position or a Cabinet office would be frustrating. Instead of being an executive -- and not just any executive, but the chief executive of all chief executives -- a former President in the House would be one of 435 or one of 100 in the Senate. I feel like a former President would feel handcuffed by the lack of executive power in Congress or as a member of the Cabinet. It would also be risky for a a President to appoint a former President to their Cabinet, because there would always be questions about potential power struggles or competing loyalties -- kind of like the debates when there were two Popes living in the Vatican following Pope Benedict XVI's resignation and Pope Francis's election.

There was also some reasoning behind the post-Presidential political careers of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, and William Howard Taft. In Taft's case, he would have preferred a career entirely spent in the judiciary, rather than in political office. He had long hoped for an appointment to the Supreme Court, but the timing had never been right for him. When President Harding appointed him to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice, Taft was ecstatic. It was his dream job. Andrew Johnson's election to the Senate after his Presidency was seen as redemption for him after his disastrous time in the White House. Johnson was the first President to be impeached and had only survived removal of office by the narrowest of margins. To be elected to the Senate after all of that -- the same body where his impeachment trial had been held -- gave him a sense of vindication.

For John Quincy Adams, there were several reasons that made serving in Congress after his Presidency appealing to him. First and foremost was the fact that he had been in public service since he was a child. Adams went to Europe with his father during the diplomatic missions that John Adams held during the American Revolution, and was so brilliant and useful that he was private secretary to the U.S Minister to Russia when JQA was 14 years old! So, John Quincy Adams felt rudderless when he was not in public service. Getting elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1830 allowed JQA to be a voice in opposition to President Andrew Jackson, who had defeated Adams's bid for reelection to the White House in 1828. After facing off in bitter campaigns in 1824 and 1828, there was no love lost between Adams and President Jackson, and a seat in Congress ensured that Adams remained a potent political figure. In many ways, his 17 post-Presidential years in Congress were much more influential than JQA's single, four-year term in the White House. As perhaps the most outspoken supporter of the abolition of slavery of any elected official in the United States at the time, Adams was a one-man antislavery movement in the House at a moment when most of the nation wasn't ready to have that debate yet. Congressman Adams was also a major critic of the Mexican-American War and President Polk's actions in triggering the conflict. The post-Presidential Congressional service of John Quincy Adams helped shape his legacy as one of the most influential and accomplished public servants in American history.

So much can happen between now and 2028 that it's almost silly to guess, but I'll answer the question anyway.

I don't think Vice President Vance is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. First of all, I just don't think people like him. I think a lot of voters -- even Republicans -- have a preference for other candidates, and the 2028 election will probably be one of those wide-open races since Trump can't run again. In my opinion, Marco Rubio has been vastly more influential in the second Trump Administration. Now, that isn't necessarily a good thing considering the foreign policy debacle that has been the Iran War, but with Rubio in the Kissinger role of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, I think he's established himself more than Vance.

With Trump out of the picture in 2028, I think there are a lot of Republicans who will be looking to run for President, so it's no guarantee that anyone from the Administration will even be the frontrunner. I'm guessing that Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley will almost certainly take a shot at the White House, along with a number of Governors. And, of course, Democrats are already lining up and testing the waters for 2028.

No, that's not true. There have been a number of Presidents who never lost an election at any level, especially if you're only focused on general elections and not including primary elections or unsuccessful party nominations.

If we're talking about positive impacts stemming directly from their Presidency, I think the answer is probably FDR.

I don't think Buchanan was a traitor or dumb. I think he underestimated the lengths that secessionists were ready to go towards the end of his term, particularly after Lincoln's election, and he was paralyzed by either fear or resignation that he was powerless to do anything to stop secession. It doesn't excuse him, though. Buchanan didn't want to start the war by making it look like he was taking action that could trigger hostilities. But his inaction allowed the embryonic Confederacy to build up early advantages that the South never should have been able to have once the war did start.

It is crazy to me that Buchanan's Secretary of War that you referenced -- John B. Floyd -- isn't as well-known as Benedict Arnold because Floyd was arguably an even bigger traitor. All of the Confederate soldiers were traitors, but Floyd should be remembered as one of America's biggest villains. He committed Treason (with a capital 'T') while he was a still not only a member of Buchanan's Cabinet, but the civilian leader second in command authority of the U.S. military behind only the President.

Ulysses S. Grant made sure to remind everybody of Floyd's treachery several times throughout his Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (BOOK | KINDLE), suggesting in his section about the Battle of Fort Donelson where Floyd commanded the opposing Confederate forces, that Floyd was particularly anxious about being captured by Union troops when the Confederates were about to surrender (Floyd gave up command before the formal surrender and fled):

"General Floyd, the commanding officer, who was a man of talent enough for any civil position, was no soldier and, possibly, did not possess the elements of one. He was further unfitted for command, for the reason that his conscience must have troubled him and made him afraid. As Secretary of War he had taken a solemn oath to maintain the Constitution of the United States and to uphold the same against all its enemies. He had betrayed that trust.

Quick question - who was the tallest of FDR's VPs?

I think Henry Wallace was slightly taller than Truman, who I believe was 5'9". It definitely wasn't Cactus Jack Garner, who was only like 5'6".

It's hard to tell in photos where they are together. Here's Speaker Sam Rayburn, former President Harry S. Truman, former Vice President John Nance Garner, and Senate Majority Leader LBJ celebrating Garner's 90th birthday in 1958:

And here's a photo of James F. Byrnes (who would become Secretary of State a few weeks later), President Truman, and former Vice President Wallace at FDR's funeral in April 1945: