We all know this has been an historic, precedent-bending election season here in the Good Old USA: the first seriously viable female candidate for president came sooooo close to nomination by the party of Jefferson, FDR and Kennedy, not to mention that Barack Obama fellow, a first in so many ways: a son of Kenya on his father's side, the first African-American nominee of a major party, the first seriously multi-racial nominee, the first native of Hawaii......
But there's bound to be a lot more this election season is remembered for. Come beyond the Lehman Leap with me for an intriguing odyssey into the realm of transcendent trivia (or maybe it's not so trivial.... you be the judge!).
There's also, of course, the Sarah Palin factor. Though not a native of Alaska, that's the former territory which the Barracuda calls home now. So, just as Barack brings Hawaii (via birthplacery) onto the national ticket for the first time, Gov. Mooseburger brings Alaska for the first time (via current residency). Sarah is many things (I know, uggggh) but she's NOT the youngest Candidate for National Office on a Major Party Ticket (or, CNOMPT). She's older, though less grown-up, than, say, John C Fremont (1856); W. J. Bryan (1896 and 1900); or T. Roosevelt (1900), not to mention JFK (1960).
Forget about Sarah (if only we could...). The main variation on the theme of Historic Specialness I thought it fun to explore is the old saw that
Senators can't (often) become President because they have taken too many compromise-rich votes, and tend to be long-winded and patrician in manner.
Remember how that was blamed for Kerry's loss? Gee, I think Kenny Blackwell deserves some of the credit, don't you?
Fact is, there have been very few successful runs from the Senate to the big white house at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. And yet, here we are in 2008, amidst all the exoticism of Hawaii and Alaska, Kenya and Sarah's native Cloud-Cuckoo-Land (not to mention Arizona, admitted to statehood only 47 years before Alaska), with two sitting US Senators facing off against each other, making it a near certainty that one of them (we know which one that has to be, don't we?) will break the jinx.
So I asked myself, self:
when was the last such face-off between two sitting US Senators for the job of Chief Magistrate?
It took a little memory search, and some research into realms beyond the limits of my overstuffed memory. Let's take the trip together in this diary.
We know, of course, of Kerry's loss. The last sitting senator before him to be nominated? Uh oh: George McGovern! A great and good man, but he also, well.... lost. Don't remind me of Bob Dole, either: he resigned his seat to run, remember? Besides, both these midwestern fellas ran against incumbent presidents. The only other sitting senator in the last 47 years to get the nomination? That would be Barry Goldwater, the only other Arizonan ever to be a CNOMPT. He did about as well as George McGovern. Some problem with exploding daisies. So, in the 44 years before this one, we have Kerry (close call, might have been stolen), McGovern and Goldwater (Landslide Fail). Not a promising pattern. The only way to beat it would seem to be the 2008 solution: stack both tickets with senators at the top.
But there are exceptions to that "rule". The last sitting senator to be elected? We all know that one: John F Kennedy, in 1960, running against a sitting VP (but, as Joe Biden testifies, the VP is a member of the Executive Branch despite all that presiding over the Senate stuff).
Push the Way-Back Machine beyond the fluffy clouds of Camelot, and the next sitting senator getting the presidential CNOMPT mantle would be...........
The beloved Warren Gamaliel Harding of Ohio! Yay! Normalcy! In 1920, you had the oddity of a race between a US Senator from Ohio and Ohio's Democratic Governor (James Cox). But still, Harding had to beat The Jinx without the help of the 2008 solution. When Harding beat the odds, you ask, what kind of track record forged by earlier Senators who were presidential aspirants was he up against?
Well, let's skip from electoral rock to electoral rock across the stream of American Presidential Time.
- Incumbent President Wilson vs. former Chief Justice Hughes
- Incumbent President Taft vs. Former President TR and Gov. Wilson of NJ (one hot three-way!)
- Secy. Of War Taft vs. former Rep. Bryan
- Incumbent Pres. TR vs. Judge Alton Parker
- Incumbent Pres. McKinley vs. former Rep. Bryan
- Former Rep. Bryan vs. former Gov. McKinley
- Former Pres. Cleveland vs. Incumbent Pres. Harrison
- Incumbent Pres. Cleveland vs. Former Sen. Harrison (defeated for relection in 1997)
- Gov. Cleveland vs. Former Secy of State, Former Sen. And Former House Speaker Blaine
- Rep. Garfield vs. Gen. Hancock
- Gov. Hayes vs. Gov. Tilden
- Incumbent President Grant vs. deceased publisher and former Rep. Greeley
- General Grant vs. Former Gov. Seymour
- Incumbent President Lincoln vs. Gen. McLellan
- Vaguely Obamaesque one-term Rep. Lincoln vs. Sen. Douglas (like Coolidge, a native of Vermont) and a couple of sectional spoilers, Bell and Breckenridge.
AT LAST: A SITTING SENATOR --- but, like Goldwater and McGovern, Douglas lost.
Well, that took about 60 years, from "winner" Harding to "loser" Douglas.... was it any easier for Senators to make the jump in the antebellum world?
1856? Buchanan, former SecState and former Senator vs. former Senator Fremont
1852? Pierce, former Senator, vs. Gen. Scott
1848? Gen. Taylor vs. Lewis Cass, former Senator, Secy. Of War, Ambassador
1844? Polk, former Gov. and House Speaker, vs. Henry Clay, former Senator, SecState, House Speaker
1840? Incumbent Pres. Van Buren vs. Gen. Harrison
1836? Incumbent VP Van Buren (last man to rise by election to the White House from the VP job until GHW Bush 152 years later) vs. Gen. Harrison and Dan'l Webster and some southern Whig
1832? Incumbent Pres. Jackson vs. Henry Clay (in 1832 a SITTING SENATOR! WOOt ...but still, Clay lost)
1828? Former Sen. And Gen, Jackson vs. Incumbent Pres. J Q Adams
1824? Speaker Clay, SecState JQ Adams, Jackson (then a sitting senator; like Al Gore, 1st in popular vote, also led in EV's, but JQ Adams chosen by House of Reps. In smoke-filled deal) and SecTreas Crawford .... what a mess! Imagine the mini-series!
- Incumbent Pres. Monroe vs. .....well......basically nobody --- "Era of Good Feelings" and all that
- Former SecState Monroe vs. Sen. King (got only 31% of popular vote...Senators Can't Win, See?)
- Incumbent Pres. Madison vs. NY Lt. Gov. Clinton (yup, Lt. Gov.!)
- SecState Madison vs. Former Amb. CC Pinckney
- Incumbent Pres. Jefferson vs. CC Pinckney
- Incumbent VP Jefferson vs. Incumbent Pres. Adams
- Incumbent VP Adams vs. former SecState Jefferson
- Geo. Washington...duh
- Geo. Washington pretty much unanimously.
So, there you have it: only two sitting Senators, despite a few close calls, have been elected directly to the Presidency, until this year, when two more of them are facing off in just a few weeks for the privilege and heavy-hearted duty, in this critical moment in our nation's history (corny, but, alas, too true!). One of them (whose first initial is NOT J.!), with our help, will be the third to break the jinx.
Of all the things that are Killer Awesome Unique about this election, it may not be the most dazzling – in fact, I had not heard of it on the media waves, nor even diaried here in the sage pages of DailyKos, so how dazzling could it be? -- but I find it amazing that here we are, 220 years into Presidential Election History, and,
for the first time ever, two sitting US Senators are facing off in the finals
.
What astonishing things might happen in 2016? The first sitting Mayor versus the first sitting Talk Show Host? The first woman vs. the first Muslim or Jew? Stephen Colbert versus his former financial advisor, Gorlock?
First things first. Less than seven weeks to work for the election of the 44th President of the United States, that amazing "sitting" Senator who is constantly in motion for the people, Barack H. Obama of Illinois!
Ed. Note: I decided not to clutter this with too many links and footnotes. All the juicy Poli. Sci. trivia is from sources readily available at your favorite series of tubes.