I have a genuine fascination with the office of President of the United States. I'm working my way through all the major biographies. Here are some things I find interesting about the Presidents from my lifetime:
Richard Millhouse Nixon
People forget that Nixon lost the 1960 presidential race to John F. Kennedy. And then lost the California Governors race two years later. Nixon's mother wanted him to become a Quaker missionary; Nixon wanted to be an FBI agent. His letter of resignation was as follows: "Dear Mr. Secretary: I hereby resign the office of the President of the United States. Sincerely, Richard M. Nixon."
Gerald Rudolph Ford
He was born Leslie Lynch King, never won an election on the presidential ticket. Also, two women tried to kill him as President: Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, and political activist Sara Jane Moore. Ford was once a male model.
Jimmy Earl Carter
The first President ever born in a hospital is also a speed-reader (he's been clocked at 2000 words a minute.) Though he is regarded as having a terrible economic record, he made himself a millionaire with his family's peanut farm. He was one of only three presidents to attend one of the Unites States military academies (Annapolis) and he has just one nut (testicle).
Ronald Reagan
Reagan, the oldest president in history (69-77 years old), was the first president who had been divorced (he married Oscar winner Jane Wyman at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, CA). Reagan was the only president to be a head of a labor union (SAG), was the only president to be wounded and survive an assassination attempt, and was the only president to have ever worn a NAZI uniform. (He wore it as an actor in a movie.) .
George Herbert Walker Bush
Bush was the only President to be: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Chairman of his political party, and Ambassador to the United Nations. Bush is related to Benedict Arnold and Marilyn Monroe and is also distantly related to Presidents Pierce, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ford, and to Winston Churchill.
William Jefferson Clinton
Clinton, the only President ever to be elected twice without ever receiving 50% of the popular vote, was mauled by a sheep when he was about eight years old. Bill Clinton was the first and only president to have been a Rhodes Scholar. He was born William Jefferson Blythe, 4th, after his late father. He legally changed his last name to that of his stepfather when he was 16.
George Walker Bush
Bush, the first president to hold Little League baseball tryouts on the White House lawn, invented the word "strategery." He likes to call himself "43" and his Dad "41", though there have only been 42 Presidents (Cleveland won two, non-consecutive terms.) He, President Hayes, and President Harrison, lost the popular vote. He was once fell to the ground, unconscious in the White House, after choking on a pretzel.
