PRESIDENT “WHO?”

By Edwin Cooney

Today marks the forty-fifth time Americans have celebrated President’s Day since it was proclaimed a holiday by President Richard Nixon on Monday, February 15th, 1971.  Under the Uniform Holidays Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, the day officially remained George Washington’s Birthday.  However, since Abraham Lincoln’s birthday comes nine days earlier and since Nixon sought to identify himself with great and near great presidents, he designated the third Monday in February as “President’s Day.”

Academicians have been evaluating and rating the greatest and least great presidents since President Kennedy’s Harvard professor friend and presidential assistant Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. conducted a presidential ranking survey back in 1962.  Most historians rank three presidents above the rest, categorizing them as “great” presidents.  They are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. (Note: Harry Truman, who was rated by many Americans as lower than whale droppings when he left office to make room for the popular Ike Eisenhower in January 1953, now ranks fourth, the first of six  “near great presidents.”) With all that background, I’m ready to proclaim a new category of president.  Before I describe this new presidential category, let me justify its relevance.

Most of the 43 men who have served as president have known some national political prominence prior to their service.  A few, however, have achieved the high presidential responsibility with comparatively little political legislative or executive experience measurable by the public.  My new category, which I call “Presidents Who,” knew limited national prominence before assuming the presidency.  I suggest we elect another President Who.  President Who has been president at least six times.  

President Who was first elected under the name George Washington back in 1789.  GW rates the President Who designation because no one had been president before him.  In the first eight months following GW’s inauguration, he put together the executive and judicial branches of the federal government.  Even more impressive was how carefully and cleverly he established precedence for evaluating the appointment procedures to the executive, judiciary and the diplomatic services of the federal government.

President Who took a nice long vacation after 1797. He returned to work on Monday morning, April 5th, 1841 when Fletcher Webster, the son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, rode up to the home of Vice President John Tyler to tell him of the death of President William Henry Harrison. Harrison had only been in office since Thursday, March 4th.  Many prominent and powerful associates of President Harrison insisted that a vice president, upon succeeding a deceased chief executive, could only be an “acting president,” a mere figurehead without any authority.  After all, President Harrison had agreed that all decisions made under him would be made by a majority vote of the cabinet.  Thus, the Harrison Cabinet certainly expected the same from John Tyler.  Tyler (John Who) had served in and resigned from both the House and the Senate on matters of principle. He refused to bow before the leadership of the Whig Party which had elected the 68-year-old Harrison.  Tyler let the “Whig-bigshots” know that if they were unwilling to cooperate with him, he’d demonstrate his authority by firing them.  Most of them, with the exception of Daniel Webster, proceeded to resign when Tyler vetoed a Whig Party-sponsored banking bill.  Amidst considerable resistance to his authority, President Tyler oversaw passage of the 1841 Preemption (or squatters) Rights Act. This law allowed poor but otherwise enterprising citizens to settle on unsurveyed public lands with the right to purchase those lands after five years of occupancy. In addition, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty permanently established most of the American and Canadian border up to the Oregon territory. Another legacy of Tyler’s was the annexation of Texas. Most of all, however, the tall, aristocratic Virginian violinist established the expectation of a smooth transition during a presidential vacancy, thus paving the way for strong presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson.

Millard Fillmore, the next President Who (“Millard Who”) became president nine years after Tyler.  Although he dismayed everyone including his beloved wife Abigail when he signed the Compromise of 1850, he had some successes.  Fillmore opened up trade with Japan by sending Commodore Matthew Perry to Tokyo in 1852 and he also improved relations with Mexico by financing the Tehuantepec Railroad which connects the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean across the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Another Presidents Who was President Chester A. Arthur. Although he was an excellent administrator, Arthur was originally pretty much a “hack politician,” unknown nationally, an appointee of the Grant administration as Collector of Customs at the Port of New York.  Chet Arthur was a tall, handsome, well-dressed, erudite man who was often referred to as “The Gentleman Boss.”  He acceded to the presidency on the tragic death of James A. Garfield in September 1881.  He was known largely for opposing President Garfield’s efforts to institute Civil Service reform even as he served as Garfield’s vice president.  Once he acceded to the presidency, he immediately saw it as his duty to carry on the Garfield legacy thus turning his back on his former political cronies.  Hence, President Arthur supported and signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883 establishing merit rather than politics as the basis for appointments to public office. Ironically, it was President Chester A. Arthur who signed legislation making George Washington’s birthday a federal holiday while presiding over the dedication of the Washington Monument on Sunday, February 22nd, 1885, just ten days before he left office.

President Who took another long holiday, not returning until January 20th, 1977 when “Jimmy Carter Who” took the presidential oath.  Jimmy Who shepherded more legislation through Congress since the New Deal than any other president except Lyndon Johnson.  His efforts in foreign policy included the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and the Panama Canal treaty. His emphasis on human rights has had positive lasting economic, and socio/political effects.  His deregulation of the airlines, telecommunications, and trucking industries have all benefited you and me.

For the past six years, Barack Who has occupied those famous 18 acres at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.  It’s clearly too early to evaluate Barack Who’s presidential tenure, beset as he is by ongoing matters of national importance. Today’s uncertainties have many looking to 2016 to see who might succeed him.

History doesn’t instruct us on the importance of executive or political experience necessary for a successful presidency.  Presidents John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon possessed considerable experience prior to their less than successful administrations.  The "President Whos" above, although not spectacularly successful, have left us some valuable legacies, so whether we should nominate a Bush or a Clinton rather than a Paul or a Warren is a pretty open question!  As for other Whos out there…

Well, let’s see now!  There’s Cruz Who, Walker Who, Christie Who, and Santorum Who!

They’ll have to do if we elect one of them, but I’d prefer Voodoo Who!

PROVOCATIVELY PRESENTED,

EDWIN COONEY