This is a repost of an entry on the thread about the AP story being wrong about where Bush was born.
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I noted Carter yesterday calling himself the first president from the South since James K. Polk, so I was thinking about this. In Carter's eyes, to qualify one had to be born and raised in the South, at least until college, and his definition of the South did not include Texas. Let's see who he left out.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson - born in Staunton VA, raised in Florida, went to college in Princeton, law school at U Va, and graduate school at Hopkins (earned Ph.D in poli Sci) before teaching first at Bryn Mawr and then ad Princeton, where he became president, then Governor of NJ. No one ever seems to think of him as a Southerner, when in fact it was his Southern roots that led him to resegregate public life in Washington and to praise D.W. Griffith's movie "Birth of a Nation." Remember that when Virignia claims itself as the birthplace of most presidents (8 versus 7 for Ohio) Wilson is included in the count.
Dwight David Eisenhower -- born in Denton, TX, raised in KS -- no one ever thinks of him even as a Southwesterner.
Lyndon Baines Johnson - born in Texas, raised in Texas, lived his whole life in Texas officially, although he spent a lot of time in Congress, Senate and executive branch, interrupted by his service in Navy during WW II.
Carrying this further - Some people did not consider the first President Bush to be a Texian, because he was born in MA and raised in the North East (CT - his father lter served as a Senator). But he voluntarily went to Texas to "seek'( actually have underwitten by family friends) his fortune, and he did represent Texas in the Congress an also ran (twice I believe) as Republican nominee for the Senate. While most would not consider him a Southerner, and would look askance at his continued return every summer to Walkers Point, Kennebunkport ME, I think he is entitled to the benefit of the doubt as a Texian.
Howard Dean - raised in NY, but went to Vermont for his internshipship or residency, and has remained there since, sierving in governmental positions for over 20 years. Is he a new Yorker or a vermonter - I would say the latter, because his entire adult life has by choice been in that place.
And what would people make of Sam Houston? Born in VA in 1793, gew up in TN served in Congress from TN, served served as Governor of TN. After deat of his wife, resigned from public life, and eventually moved to TX (after sliving for a number of years with Cherokee Indians). Served as Commander in Chief of Armies of TX, in Congress of Tx Republic, 2nd president of Republic of Texas, United States Senator from Texas, and Governor of Texas at the time of Secession, which he refused to support. Is he a Texian? a Tennessean?
Given how many of us move around year to year, I think where we choose to live should be how we accept a person, and if the people of that state choose to elect someone to govern or represent them, that in itself is the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval that they can claim that state as wher they are from. We could see how many people in the Congress, for example, represent states other than those where they were born or grew up. Joe Biden was born in Scranton PA, but was raised in DE, which he now represents. My own state of VA (the 3rd in which I've lived, being born and raised in NY, living in Penna for 11 years, and here now for 21) was repesented in the Senate by Paul Tribble, also born in Penna, and who I believe came to the state to go to law school. The late Paul Wellstone, was born in a hospital 3 blocks from my house and graduated from Yorktown HS right here in Arlington, about 2 miles from my house, and went to MN to teach college. I doubt very much that anyone from MN would by the time of his death thought of him in anyway other than as a fellow Minnesotan.
On this, regardless of the error in the original AP story, I think the President is due some slack. He has chosen to stay in Texas, to do his business in Texas. he went to elemtanry school in texas, his kids have gone to public schools in texas, and one of the twins is even at UT Austin. The people of Texas made the judgment for us that he is a Texian, electing him govenor twice. Whther or not Texaas is really the South is an entirely different issue. Sometimes Ithink we get too petty.