President Who?
OCTOBER 1, 2007 (MONDAY) – The United States population is now 303 million. Of those, 116 million, or 40%, have never known a time when there wasn’t a Bush or Clinton in the White House, either as president or vice-president.
Makes me think of how I felt at age 13, about Franklin D. Roosevelt. I just never thought of any other name as president. He had been elected four times to a four-year term. “President” and “Roosevelt” were almost synonymous to my young mind. “Truman? Who? No way.” Well, I had a few things to learn. We’ve had eleven “non-Roosevelt” prez’s since FDR.
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We realize how young our country is when we consider the fact that only 43 people have been presidents. Forty-three out of how many? I have no idea of how many Americans have lived and died since George Washington was first sworn into office. In the year 2000, it was estimated that 96 billion people had been on the earth since the first one was created, and 6 billion were alive at that time. Maybe someone reading this knows how many of those were Americans. If so, please let me know.
It seems to me we are always in an election mode. As soon as a president is elected for his first term, he starts running again, in one way or another.
I for one am grateful for a two-party system. That statement is as far into politics as you will ever see me go. I just think that it’s always good to have someone around whose presence makes an elected official think twice about decisions. Power begets power, regardless of party.
Getting back to Truman. His stature as a president has continued to grow year after year. I recall a history professor who told his class one day in 1952, “Truman will go down in history as a great president.” I was in that class, and remember well how we all laughed loudly when he said that. He seems to have been right about it, although many will disagree.
When our forefathers were putting together our national constitution, and the office of vice-president was being discussed, Benjamin Franklin suggested the title, “His Superfluous Excellency.” Subsequent events have proved him to be somewhat in error, because several VP’s have become president in the place of one who died in office. Nevertheless, when Roosevelt died, Truman went to the back door of the White House to be informed, and learned at that time, for the first time, of the existence of the atomic bomb. That situation alone has accounted for greater involvement of vice presidents in security matters since.
This is the greatest country in the history of the world. We have begun the process of electing a new president. It’s going to get rough before election day. Let’s be nice, if we can.
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See the biographies and portaits of all the presidents.