Andrew Jackson

Presidential Nominees More Than Twice In American History

Ronald 30 Comments

The history of Presidential Elections shows a total of 13 individuals who have been nominated more than twice for the White House.

Seven of these individuals ended up in the Presidency, and six others never made it to the White House.

This includes four nominees of third or minor parties who were on the ballot more than twice in a Presidential election.

The all time “champion” is Franklin D. Roosevelt, nominated and winning four times–1932, 1936, 1940, 1944–before the 22nd Amendment, ratified by 1951, prevented any future candidate to have more than two terms.

Thomas Jefferson was nominated for President in 1796, when he lost to John Adams but became his combative Vice President, and 1800 and 1804, when he twice won the Presidency.

Andrew Jackson was nominated for President in 1824, when he won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College to John Quincy Adams. Then, he won the Presidency in the next two elections, 1828 and 1832.

Martin Van Buren was nominated for and won the Presidency in 1836, but then lost the Election of 1840, and later ran as the third party Free Soil nominee in 1848.

Grover Cleveland won the Presidency in 1884, but although winning the popular vote in 1888, lost the Electoral College to Benjamin Harrison, but then came back and defeated Harrison in a rematch in 1892, making him the first of two Presidents to have nonconsecutive terms of office.

Richard Nixon lost the Presidential Election of 1960 to John F. Kennedy, but came back and won the Presidency in both 1968 and 1972.

Donald Trump won the Electoral College in 2016, despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, and then was defeated by Joe Biden in 2020. In 2024, although not winning a majority of the popular vote, he finally accomplished winning the popular vote edge over Kamala Harris, and is now serving his second nonconsecutive term, sharing that distinction with Grover Cleveland

Two major party nominees were nominated three times, but lost all those elections—Henry Clay in 1824, 1832, and 1844—and William Jennings Bryan in 1896, 1900, and 1908.

Two Socialist nominees were nominated and ran five and six times—Eugene Debs in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920—and Norman Thomas in
1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, and 1948.

Ralph Nader ran as either the Green Party candidate, or as an Independent, in four consecutive elections—1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008, with his impact being significant in the Presidential Election of 2000, in “throwing” the election in Florida to George W. Bush over Al Gore.

Jill Stein ran as the Green Party nominee three times, in 2012, 2016 and 2024.

Of the seven Presidents who were nominees more than twice, five of these Presidents were elected twice (Jefferson, Jackson, Cleveland, Nixon, and Trump) with Van Buren only winning once, and FDR being the lone exception of four times being elected, which now can never happen again in the future.

Donald Trump Solidifies Worst Presidential Ranking In Second Term!

Ronald 129 Comments

President Donald Trump, in his tumultuous first term (2017-2021) managed to end up in the bottom three of all 44 Presidents through 2021.

In the C Span Presidential Survey of 2021, Trump ended up tied in points with Franklin Pierce, as third from the bottom of the rankings, only ahead of Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan, with those two Presidents, after and before Abraham Lincoln, only three points apart, with Buchanan as the rock bottom.

Trump ended up as between 40 and 44 in all ten categories, except “Public Persuasion” as 32; “Economic Management” as 34; and “Vision: Setting An Agenda” as 36.

In the Siena College Research Institute Survey of 2022, Donald Trump ended up as third from the bottom, with Andrew Johnson at the bottom, followed by James Buchanan, and then Trump at number 43, since Joe Biden after one year, is included in the rankings.

In 2018, when Trump was first ranked in an earlier survey, he was number 42, again third from the bottom at the time.

In the 2022 poll, Trump only avoided the “40s” in ranking in three of a total of 20 categories of the survey—32 in “Party Leadership”; 16 in “Luck”; and 32 in “Willing To Take Risks”.

In the 2018 poll, Trump only avoided the “40s” in ranking in three cagegories, as well—39 in “Handling of US Economy”; 10 in “Luck”; and 25 in “Willing To Take Risks”.

Finally, in the American Political Science Association Survey of 2024 (Presidential Greatness Survey), Trump is rated at the absolute bottom in points at 10.92, with James Buchanan at 16.71, and Andrew Johnson at 21.56.

In Ranking by Party Ideology, and including Joe Biden in the rankings, Trump is rated as the absolute bottom at 45 by: Democrats, Independents, Liberals, and Moderates; and ranked 41 by Republicans, and 43 by Conservatives.

Trump is also listed, by massive margins, as the most polarizing President, more than twice as much as Andrew Jackson and Barack Obama.

And realize, all of these rankings are BEFORE Donald Trump entered his second Presidency, and the events of the past 19 months will only solidify his ranking as, by far, the worst and most divisive President of the 45 men who have held that office!

Presidents’ Common Birth Years, And Death Dates, As Three Presidents Reach Age Of 80 In Next Eight Weeks!

Ronald 29 Comments

The year 1946 witnessed the births of three American Presidents, in reverse order of date of birth, and all three will reach 80 years of age in the next eight weeks:

Donald Trump June 14
George W. Bush July 6
Bill Clinton August 19

But there are other Presidents who share similar birth years, although no cases of THREE Presidents, rather TWO, who have the same birth year.

1767—John Quincy Adams (July 11) and Andrew Jackson (March 15), consecutive Presidents but reverse dates of birth.

1822—Ulysses S Grant (April 27) and Rutherford B. Hayes (October 4).

1913—Richard Nixon (January 9) and Gerald Ford (July 14).

1924—Jimmy Carter (October 1) and George H. W. Bush (June 12), non consecutive Presidents but reverse dates of birth.

At the same time, there are only three sets of cases of death dates of American Presidents dying on the same day of a year, with two in the same year:

July 4—John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (1826) and James Monroe (1831). But Jefferson died a number of hours before Adams on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and supposedly, Adams’ last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives”, which was not the truth!

March 8—Millard Fillmore (1874) and William Howard Taft (1930)

December 26—Harry Truman (1972) and Gerald Ford (2006).

Donald Trump Presidency Easily The Most Corrupt In American History, Bar None!

Ronald 86 Comments

If there was any doubt about the level of corruption of Donald Trump in his first term in the Presidency from 2017-2021, his one year and four months so far of his second term, with two thirds of the term still ahead of us, settles the issue. It has escalated to the certainty of a multitude of observers, that his Presidency is the ultimate level of corruption without any debate on other Presidents and their administrations.

It is also fact that there can be no debate that the Presidencies that stand out as corrupt are all Republican Presidents.

Richard Nixon’s Presidency was seen as the worst and most corrupt, but now Trump replaces Nixon at the top of the list, without any debate.

Once we get past Trump and Nixon, the remaining Presidencies with high levels of corruption, would include

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
George W. Bush (2001-2009)

No other Republican President comes close to the level of corruption and scandal of the above six Republican Presidents.

So Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush are not to be compared with the horrendous record of the six Republican Presidents who had large scale illegalities in their administrations.

And one would have to scrape very far to find any Democratic President since Andrew Jackson established the “Spoils System” in the 1830s to attempt to put any leaders of that party on the level of corruption being discussed here.

There is no such thing as perfection, but other than personal scandal, sometimes known in their lifetime, and other times not known, not one Democratic President—Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden—comes anywhere near the scandal ridden times of the six Republican Presidents.

Supreme Court Finally Upholds The Constitution, And Rebukes Donald Trump On Tariffs!

Ronald 22 Comments

After acting totally submissive toward Donald Trump in his first year of his second term, finally the Supreme Court majority, including two Trump appointees—Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and the three Democratic women justices–have delivered a solid rebuke to Trump on the subject of protective tariffs.

This is long overdue, as the Court has developed a reputation as the most extreme right wing Court in a century, and Chief Justice Roberts presides over a majority which usually has no desire to challenge executive power of the President.

This dangerous trend, hopefully, will continue to be challenged in future cases, particularly on birthright citizenship rights, which are contained in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War.

Donald Trump does not care about the reality that protective tariffs are a disaster, as they were in causing the Panic of 1893 and the Great Depression of the 1930s, because Republican Presidents Benjamin Harrison (prodded on by future President William McKinley’s promotion of high tariffs) and Herbert Hoover stubbornly imposed them on the American people, destroying the economy.

With the economy not doing well, despite Trump’s delusional statements, this repudation of Trump’s tariffs should be seen as a blessing by him, as well as the American people.

But instead, Trump is railing against his own Republican Justices who have “defied” him, and one wonders how it will show up in his State of the Union Address next Tuesday.

Will he openly condemn Roberts, Gorsuch, and Barrett in his speech, or will he be diplomatic and maybe just lightly tease them?

This should be a very interesting moment of confrontation between the Supreme Court members who show up and the President of the United States!

It reminds one of past clashes of Presidents and Supreme Courts, including under Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson with Chief Justice John Marshall; Abraham Lincoln with Chief Justice Roger Taney; Franklin D. Roosevelt with the majority conservative Court and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes during the New Deal; and other controversies involving Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Barack Obama and Supreme Court decisions!

The $175 Billion raised in tariffs this past year were a financial burden on the American consumers, and should be returned to the American people with a refund per taxpayer of $1700, as suggested by Illinois Governor JD Pritzker. However, it seems that Trump has no concern of the damage done to the average American, while constantly engaged in grift for personal gain, having enriched himself in the past year, a crime against the Constitution!

The Total Preposterous And Outrageous “Prager University” Presidential Rankings Survey!

Ronald 20 Comments

The Right Wing Propaganda Organ known as “Prager University”, which is NOT a university, but a well financed attempt to distort the reality of American history, extol the virtues of unbridled capitalism, work against “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion”, and undermine science, has come out with a 2026 Ranking of American Presidents.

Anyone who would believe the virtues or veracity of this listing needs their heads examined, as it is a total distortion of the office of the Presidency to the extreme imaginable!

All Presidents except William Henry Harrison (one month) and James A. Garfield (6 months) are included, but with the decision NOT to include Donald Trump, even though he finished his first term five years ago, but using the excuse that he is presently in office, so not to be placed in the listing for now.

One can be certain when a later version of this so called “Ranking” is published in the future, Donald Trump will end up very high on the list, probably in the top five, based on the crazy order of the Presidents compiled by the propagandists promoting this pure trash of a listing.

So without listing every President, let’s look at the most significant cases of total distortion.

The survey starts off with George Washington Number 1 and Abraham Lincoln Number 2, but after that, the listing goes totally awry.

Ronald Reagan is Number 3, which is a major distortion of reality, but then is followed by, of all people, Calvin Coolidge at Number 4. That is an example of how wacky this survey is, when examined in detail. No one who has any intelligence would rate Coolidge as anything more than in the bottom third of the Presidents.

The rest of the top 10 are in order—Thomas Jefferson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Monroe, James Madison, John Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. Monroe, Madison and John Adams in most cases would be in the middle of the second ten, not the top ten, but otherwise, not terrible, except to put Coolidge above the Founding Father Presidents and Theodore Roosevelt, as well! How crazy can one get?

Harry Truman is rated Number 12, behind Grover Cleveland at Number 11, which seems ridiculous, followed by Andrew Jackson as Number 13 and James K. Polk as Number 15, both who have otherwise collapsed to lower than Number 20 with recent reevaluations that have caused their rapid decline. Ulysses S. Grant is Number 14, higher than the rise he has gained in legitimate rankings.

John F. Kennedy ends up Number 18 and Franklin D. Roosevelt as Number 20, with of all people, William Howard Taft in between as Number 19, clearly totally lacking in reality.

The Two Bushes, HW and W are Numbers 21 and 22, with Bill Clinton behind them as Number 23, followed by the largely unimpressive many Presidents that have been ranked low for many decades in surveys.

But once we reach the 31-42 range, the bottom of the list, we discover Lyndon B. Johnson Number 35 behind Herbert Hoover Number 33, as well as behind Gerald Ford Number 27 and Richard Nixon Number 29. How crazy can one get to come up with such rankings?

And it gets worse, as Woodrow Wilson is Number 37, followed by Barack Obama Number 38, Jimmy Carter Number 39, and then followed by two Presidents who belong in the bottom, Andrew Johnson Number 40 and James Buchanan Number 41. One might be harshly critical of Wilson, who has declined in rankings in recent years, but to put him in the bottom six of all Presidents is preposterous! And placing Obama and Carter in this bottom group is outrageous beyond belief and reality!

But one might ask, well, who is the absolute bottom at Number 42, and it is, unbelievably, Joe Biden! Whether one admires Joe Biden’s Presidency or not, to put him dead last is the height of craziness, not based on facts!

Notice that the three recent Presidents who demonstrated compassion, empathy, common decency and humanity, morals, ethics, and had no corruption—Obama, Carter, Biden—end up in the bottom five of these listings, which is testimony to how disgraceful this listing of Presidents really is!

This so called “Prager University” Poll is total garbage, and no serious scholar or intelligent citizen would accept the presposterous and outrageous compiling of this propaganda organ, that deserves to be disposed of as extremist and lunatic in nature!

Presidents Day 2026: Need For Updated Assessment, And One Scholar’s Viewpoint!

Ronald 30 Comments

Presidents Day is tomorrow, Monday, February 16, a good time, after a full year of the second Presidency of Donald Trump, and one retirement year of Joe Biden, to reassess rankings of Presidents, particularly recent Chief Executives.

C Span is likely in process of reassessing its rankings of Presidents, last done in 2021, as Joe Biden became President, and Donald Trump became, at the time, a former President who had been defeated for reelection, but mounted an illegal, unconstitutional attempt to overthrow the results of the Presidential Election of 2020 through the US Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021.

There can be disagreement over many Presidents and their rankings, but with the reality that in recent years, the following Presidents have seen their stock rise in assessments of scholars, in chronological order:

Ulysses S. Grant
Harry Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lyndon B. Johnson

At the same time, the following Presidents have seen their stock fall lower in assessments of scholars, in chronological order:

Andrew Jackson
James K. Polk
Woodrow Wilson
Ronald Reagan

In the view of this scholar, author, and blogger, the thought is that the following recent Presidents will be likely to benefit the most in the future in rise in rankings from where they are presently, in chronological order:

Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Barack Obama
Joe Biden

But the debate over Presidential performance will continue, certainly, to be heatedly debated for the long term future.

Presidents With Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Ronald 37 Comments

Many public figures have the psychological condition known as “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”, as well as do millions of ordinary citizens, wanting constant attention and adoration.

Among them are a substantial group of American Presidents, nearly one of every four Chief Executives.

The list would include, in chronological order:

Andrew Jackson
Andrew Johnson
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin D. Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Bill Clinton
Donald Trump

The most destructive Presidents with this syndrome, clearly, are Donald Trump, Richard Nixon, Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Johnson in the long run of history, in that ranked order.

The other six listed here, while possessing NPD, can be seen as having a greater, overall, positive influence on their time in office, despite their shortcomings and weaknesses.

Of course, this above list and the judgment on these Presidents is subject to debate and discussion, which is welcomed in comments!

Unchecked Presidential Power Without Accountability!

Ronald 21 Comments

Donald Trump has, in a multitude of ways, and with the assistance of Republicans in Congress and the states, and the majority of the United States Supreme Court, gained unchecked Presidential power without accountability.

By comparison, Richard Nixon was a “choir boy”, and other Presidents who have been objectionable in different ways, such as Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and George W. Bush, pale by comparison!

Trump has horribly abused executive orders and issued outrageous pardons and commutations to law breakers, not only those from the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection, but also others who have committed other kinds of criminal acts.

Trump has incited the most extreme of MAGA Republicans to threaten lives of politicians who speak out or oppose him in any way.

Trump has worked to fix the elections in 2026, by outrageous interference promoting extreme gerrymanderins.

Trump has become an abuser in foreign policy, and totally alienated foreign nations and their leaders, and is very willing to undermine Ukraine, and promote the aggression of Vladimir Putin, as well as other authoritarians all around the world.

Trump has demonstrated extreme racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, nativism, and consorted with antisemites, while supposedly working with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Every day for more than ten months, Trump has worsened and undermined the lives of Americans, and instilled fear in people who are not white Christians.

And the problem is that his followers and his Cabinet and other top figures around him are only too willing to do his evil deeds with glee!

So even when and if Trump leaves the scene, the fear is that the cancer he has introduced into American government will be pursued beyond his lifetime!

Kamala Harris Memoir Burns Bridges, Likely Insures End Of Political Career!

Ronald 2 Comments

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, by publishing a memoir with strong statements about many political leaders she has worked with, is likely burning her bridges, making it highly doubtful that she will ever again hold public office.

History records that once a Presidential nominee has lost election to the White House, the odds are extremely high that such individual will never be President.

There are only six cases of a defeated Presidential nominee going on to be elected President–three before the Civil War, once in the Gilded Age, once in the mid 20th century, and finally, Donald Trump.

Two of the cases–Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump– won the Presidency, then lost, and then returned, so unusual and special cases. In the case of Cleveland, he won in 1884, lost in 1888, and won in 1892. Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won in 2024.

The three before the Civil War were Thomas Jefferson, who lost in 1796 and won in 1800; Andrew Jackson, who lost in 1824, and won in 1828; and William Henry Harrison, who lost in 1836 and won in 1840.

Finally, Richard Nixon lost in 1960, but then won in 1968 and 1972.

So the odds of Harris coming back are very low, but additionally, by being critical of Joe and Jill Biden and the Biden Staff, and stating her reasons for not selecting Josh Shapiro or Pete Buttigieg as her Vice Presidential running mate instead of Tim Walz, has caused controversy and a sense of anger by those individuals and others.

And it is generally well known that Kamala Harris was not an easy person to work for, losing staff regularly in the Senate and the Vice Presidency.

One gets the feeling from her appearance on Rachel Maddow, and on “The View”, that she does not seem to have the “fire in the belly” to compete in another strenuous Presidential campaign.

It would have been easier for Harris to have run for California Governor, with assurance of an easy victory, and a major role in the largest state’s impact in reaction to Donald Trump and the Republican Party, just like Gavin Newsom is now waging.

So it seems clear this is the end of any serious “comeback” by Kamala Harris to national politics.

Instead, she is on a major speaking tour to promote her book, and to spread the argument of strong opposition to the horrors of Donald Trump, but not a formal national or state role in that effort.