Presidential Election Of 1960

The Problem Of Age In The Presidency Made Clear!

At the end of his time in the Presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who left office in January 1961 at the age of 70 years and 3 months, was the oldest President in American history.

Eisenhower made the statement that no one older than himself as he left office should be in the Oval Office.

However, that was not to be, as Ronald Reagan entered the Presidency a few weeks short of 70, and had signs of Alzheimer’s Disease detected by his second term, although he was well protected by his staff who denied any issue, and left office nearly 78 years old. Only years later, was it made clear that he had dementia, and he lived on until age 93, but not even knowing his own wife, Nancy, in the last few years of his life.

And then, we had others even older when winning the Presidency than Reagan, becoming nominees–specifically Bob Dole at age 73 in 1996, and John McCain at age 72 in 2008.

Neither won the Presidency, but the age issue was still there, and then Donald Trump won the Presidency and was seven months beyond the age of 70 when he took the Presidential oath in 2017.

And then, Joe Biden won the Presidency, and took the oath at age 78 in 2021.

And finally, Donald Trump returned to the White House at age 78 in 2025, five months older than Biden was four years earlier.

So the issue of age has become a crisis, and not only for Presidents, but also for members of Congress, and sometimes Governors, who are serving in their 70s and 80s, avoiding retirement.

There is a dire need for some youth in the Presidency, like we had with John F. Kennedy at age 43 in 1961; Bill Clinton at age 46 (and his Vice President Al Gore at age 44) in 1993; and Barack Obama at 47 in 2009.

Sadly, Joe Biden displayed evidence of mental and physical decline, now being debated and published about, and Donald Trump, both in his first, and now his second term, has also shown great evidence of decline.

So in 2028, youth is likely to be triumphant, and all for the better, although one can be sure some political figures who are reaching higher ages, are likely to contend for the Presidential nominations.

Whatever “Honeymoon” Trump Had Is Gone, Based On Public Opinion Polls At End Of First Hundred Days!

Donald Trump supporters and the President himself love to say he has had a “honeymoon”, even though his 49.9 percent victory in the popular vote in the Presidential Election of 2024 was the worst since Richard Nixon in 1968 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.

But polls now coming out show Trump’s “honeymoon’, if it existed, is over, as he has the lowest public opinion rating after 100 days in office of any President since public opinion polls began decades ago.

Trump has 44 percent support in the Fox News Poll, down from 45 percent after the first hundred days of his first term!

Meanwhile, Joe Biden had 54 percent; Barack Obama had 62 percent; and George W. Bush had 63 percent at this point of their administrations.

This is a bad sign for Trump, who, one must recall, lost the popular vote by 2.85 million in 2016 and by 7.1 million in 2020!

Trump has never been able to gain majority support of the population at any time, despite his delusions that he is widely accepted!

And in The Economist poll after 100 days, Trump is rated even lower than in the Fox News poll, at 41 percent!

Donald Trump’s Victory In 2024 Fifth Lowest Since 1924!

Donald Trump and his loyalists continue to declare that he had a “massive” victory in the Presidential Election of 2024, when he most certainly did not, and including the fact that his Republican Party now has the barest margin in the House of Representatives that has occurred since the 72nd Congress in 1931-1932, losing the majority on October 22, 1931 to the Democrats and never regaining the majority again until the 80th Congress in 1947-1948.

Trump has the fifth lowest margin of victory by 1.7 percent, only higher than Richard Nixon in 1968 with 0.7 percent, John F. Kennedy in 1960 with O.2 percent, George W. Bush with MINUS 0.5 percent in 2000, and Trump with MINUS 2.1 percent in 2016, with the last two losing the popular vote, but winning the Electoral College.

And Trump did NOT gain the majority of the popular vote, ending up with 49.9 percent.

So Donald Trump does NOT have the mandate he thinks he has, and if Republicans lose one or two seats in replacement elections for members of the House that are joining the administration from Florida and New York, then the Democrats have the possibility of gaining control of the House of Representatives during the present 119th Congress.

Kamala Harris Being Judged Differently Due To Race And Gender

This entry is being revised from the original entry, which accidentally was deleted by the author, for which I apologize. I will be brief in summarizing my ideas on this entry with the same title, and anyone who had commented on the original entry, I would ask to submit a similar comment, and again, my apologies for the blunder, which has never happened before today, and will not happen again!

John F. Kennedy (Catholic); Barack Obama (African American); and Hillary Clinton (female), all faced discrimination and bias due to their uniqueness as Presidential candidates in 1960, 2008, and 2016, respectively.

In the first two cases, the issue of Catholicism and of race were overcome, while Clinton, although winning the popular vote by 2.85 million, was unable to win the Electoral College.

Now, Kamala Harris who is the second woman to seek the Presidency and has Asian Indian and African-Jamaican heritage, is facing critics who are claiming she is unqualified on intelligence and on abilities and knowledge, to occupy the Oval Office.

Harris has had more government experience than most Presidents, more than all Presidents since 1900, except for Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, and Joe Biden.

Harris is also much more intelligent than some Presidents, including Warren G. Harding, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump since 1900; and also more qualified to be President than some Vice Presidents who succeeded to the Oval Office, including Andrew Johnson and Calvin Coolidge.

So the negativism around Harris in some circles should be seen as not worthy of being considered, and hopefully, she will break the barrier as the first woman President in American history!

One Year To Presidential Election Of 2024, And Joe Biden Looks In Bad Shape!

With one year to the Presidential Election Of 2024, President Joe Biden looks in bad shape, based on a New York Times-Siena College poll.

According to the poll, Donald Trump is ahead of Joe Biden in five of six swing state—4 points in Pennsylvania; 5 points in Michigan and Arizona; 6 points in Georgia; 10 points in Nevada; and with Biden ahead of Trump in Wisconsin by 2 points.

These statistics are stunning and worrisome, but one must realize that the history of polling shows one year out is no judgment of what will occur on Election Day.

One year ahead, there were no predictions that Harry Truman would win a full term in 1948; or that John F. Kennedy would win in 1960; or Richard Nixon would win in 1968; or Jimmy Carter (an unknown) would win in 1976; or Ronald Reagan would win in 1980; or Bill Clinton would win in 1992; or George W. Bush would win in 2000; or that Barack Obama would win in 2008; or that Donald Trump would win in 2016.

Also, one must realize that never has a President lost reelection to an opponent he had first defeated since Benjamin Harrison lost reelection to Grover Cleveland in 1892.

And with Donald Trump likely to be convicted on some of the 91 charges over four indictments in the next year, to believe that he will be able to defeat the man who defeated him, for the first time in 132 years, is to be living in an era of delusion.

Assuming that the economy will continue to do better, and with international crises a major factor, the President in office is, historically, highly likely to win reelection, particularly against someone who represents chaos, corruption, and incompetence, and as a threat to the American democratic system and to international stability!

But it is also clear that the message and the efforts to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and insure a Democratic controlled House of Representatives and Senate must move full scale ahead, as there is no time for any sense of relaxation about the future of the nation and the world at large!

If Donald Trump Announces For President Soon, The Presidential Campaign Of 2024 Has Begun!

Presidential campaigns used to begin about a year before the election.

For instance, John F. Kennedy formally announced for President at the beginning of January 1960.

But with the development of primaries and some caucuses over time, it has become customary that once the midterm elections take place, that early in the third year of the Presidential term, we see candidates announcing for President.

But it is now indicated that Donald Trump may announce as early as this month, July 2022, four months before the Midterm Elections of 2022.

Supposedly, he is trying to divert attention from the January 6 House Committee, and the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, which makes clear that Trump was engaged in treason and sedition on January 6, 2021, when the US Capitol was attacked.

The potential exists for up to 25 Republicans becoming candidates for the White House.

And if Joe Biden chooses not to run, or even if he does, there is also the potential for an equal 25 Democrats to engage in the Presidential campaign, although the number proabably would be lower than the number of Republicans.

Presidential Losers Who Ran Again, And Donald Trump!

It has been reported that a former Trump advisor is planning to convince Donald Trump NOT to run again in 2024.

According to the report, this person has, or will tell Trump, that he would not wish to be a two time loser for the Presidency, amidst the belief that Trump’s ego could not handle that idea.

Former two time Democratic Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson (1952, 1956) is mentioned as the example of the most recent two time nominee who lost twice for the White House.

One would think that this advisor would have more knowledge than just mentioning Stevenson, as five other Presidential candidates lost either twice or three times.

These include Republican Thomas E. Dewey (1944, 1948); Democrat William Jennings Bryan (1896, 1900, 1908); and Whig Henry Clay (1824, 1832, 1844), along with Democrat Martin Van Buren (elected in 1836 but losing in 1840, and 1848 (Free Soil Party), and Federalist Charles C. Pinckney (1804, 1808).

All six of these two or three time losers had real credentials and validity, unlike Donald Trump, who will go down as the worst or near worst President in American history!

But also, Andrew Jackson lost the Presidency in 1824, but won in 1828 and 1832, and William Henry Harrison lost in 1836 but won in 1840.

Also, there is the example of Richard Nixon, who lost in 1960, but came back successfully in 1968 and 1972.

And finally, there is Grover Cleveland, elected in 1884, but losing reelection in the Electoral College in 1888, and yet coming back to a second nonconsecutive term in the White House in 1892!

Donald Trump’s Criminal Conspirators: All Republicans Who Deny Joe Biden Victory One Year Later!

It will be one year next weekend since the victory of Joe Biden in the Presidential Election of 2020 was declared on November 7, 2020.

And yet, all of the Republicans who deny Joe Biden’s victory even today, one year later, are, in effect, criminal conspirators in a “Big Lie”, that is causing massive tensions and divisions in America, with nothing quite like it since the Civil War!

Donald Trump has loads of criminal conspirators, and by all rights, all of those members of Congress who refused to certify that the election was resolved in the Electoral College count on January 6, 2021, even after the Capitol Hill Insurrection on that day, should be summarily expelled from Congress, and face prosecution as traitors, conspirators, and seditionists!

And all those around Donald Trump, including his three older children, and all Trump aides or former aides who conspired to promote the January 6 Insurrection should also face prosecution and prison time!

There is no case for believing otherwise than that Joe Biden won the election, interestingly by the same Electoral Vote margin as Donald Trump did in 2016, and yet there IS evidence that the election of Trump was false, and created through Russian Collusion, while Biden won by 7 million votes.

In the past, Richard Nixon in 1960, Al Gore in 2000, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and further back Samuel Tilden in 1876, along with all other election losers, saw the defeated candidate graciously concede. But now we face an endless constitutional nightmare with no end, and the danger that Donald Trump might run again!

The Possibility Of A Short Term President Mike Pence

The possibility now exists of a short term President Mike Pence, as the rumors are spreading that Donald Trump will move to pardon his own family members, including his three older children and his son in law, Jared Kushner. Also, a slew of others who have committed crimes and abuses, including Rudy Giuliani as the top of such a list, but including cabinet officers and others involved in law breaking and corrupt actions in his name, are likely to be pardoned.

But likely, Trump realizes that to pardon himself would be declared illegal by the Supreme Court after the fact, despite his three appointments to that court, and a 6-3 Republican appointed majority .

So the deal may be that Trump resigns, and Vice President Mike Pence becomes briefly the 46th President, and proceeds to pardon Donald Trump, although that will not affect charges in New York State and New York City.

The question arises whether Mike Pence, who has been a total sycophant, unwilling to open up his mouth or express doubts about any of Trump’s utterances or actions, will have the desire to pardon Trump, as that would destroy his own credibility and end his career, although realistically, it is ended on January 20, 2021 anyway.

Being part of the most corrupt administration in American history, and being a totally corrupt phony as a so called “good Christian” with his anti gay and anti woman’s basic human rights stands, Mike Pence has zero chance of being the Republican nominee in 2024 or after, even without a possible pardon of Trump.

Trump is planning to run for President in 2024, which if that happens, ends any slim chance of Pence being able to run, in any case.

There is still the job of counting the electoral votes in a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, the duty of the outgoing Vice President, not a fun job when on the losing end of an election.

However, Richard Nixon did just that in 1961; Hubert Humphrey in 1969, and most famously, Al Gore in 2001, and they all did their duty with dignity, but will Mike Pence do the same, or will he entertain doubts and open up to a Congressional vote, which most certainly will fail, to try to make Donald Trump the winner of the Electoral College?

So, as one thinks about it, Mike Pence would have to remain Vice President at least until January 7, but we are therefore imagining a Pence succession after that date, probably no more than a week at most, but in theory, could be just one day or even less than 24 hours!

It would be a mockery of the Constitution for such to occur, but is anyone surprised that this might happen?

And if it does happen, and Mike Pence goes down in history as the 46th President, would he be entitled to a Presidential Library and Museum, and this is not a joking matter, as he should go down as a villain, not a hero, and be denied anymore than brief mention as a crooked President who collaborated with the most disgraceful Presidency in American history!

Ohio, The Buckeye State, May Again Be Instructive On Presidential Election

Ohio, the Buckeye State, may again be instructive on the Presidential Election of 2020, as it has been 45 out of 54 times in the past, and only twice on the losing side since 1900–1944 and 1960!

No Republican President has won the White House without winning Ohio.

Ohio is 34th largest of the 50 states in land area; 10th most densely populated; and seventh most populous; and it has been losing electoral votes steadily over the decades, as the Sun Belt states have grown larger in population.

But it still matters greatly, and recent polls indicate Joe Biden taking a lead in Ohio over Donald Trump.

As I wrote on this blog on September 15, 2018, Ohio historically has been the most predictable state in the Electoral College results, followed by Illinois, Missouri, Nevada, and New Mexico.

If Donald Trump cannot win Ohio, there is no path for him to win the Presidency for a second term in 2020. The public opinion polls as I write, indicate troubles for Trump also in Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, so the Midwest heartland is not for him, as things stand now.