Saturday, January 13, 2024

Presidential Tenure: Two Terms

There have been 45 presidents.  Of them, only 13 have served two full terms (or more, in one case).  Each was elected and then re-elected.  A few of them are unusual.

George Washington (1789-1797) served less than 8 years but is still a two-term president.  He was not inaugurated until April 30, 1789, which means his first term was less than 4 years.  Though he has the shortest presidency of the two-termers, his established a lot of precedents, including the informal two-term limit.

Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) had been Washington's secretary of state and Adams' vice president.  As the 3rd president, he made the Louisianna Purchase and dispatched Lewis & Clark to explore it.  It was during his presidency that the Marines went "to the shores of Tripoli" in the Barbary War.  He also established the United State Military Academy at West Point.

James Madison (1809-1817) had been Jefferson's secretary of state.  His presidency was dominated by the War of 1812, which gave us the National Anthem, Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans, and the White House (prior to being burned by the British, it had been the Presidential Mansion).  As the war was unpopular and started with a lot of US losses, Madison's re-election was the least enthusiastic of the two-termers at that time.

James Monroe (1817-1825) had been Madison's secretary of state before winning the presidency.  He was the last of the Revolutionary War veterans to be president.  Monroe presided over the Era of Good Feelings, a post-war period of unity.  He is best remembered for his Monroe Doctrine that warned European powers to stay out of the Americas.  He is the only president other than Washington who ran unopposed for re-election.

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) was the first general since Washington to lead the nation.  His was a tumultuous presidency, that saw Indian Removal, the Nullification Crisis that threatened Civil War, the Bank War, an assassination attempt, censure from the Congress, and the Texas Revolution.  Despite the divisiveness of the era, Jackson won re-election in a landslide in 1832.

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) had been President Johnson's secretary of war and the winning general of the Civil War.  Mostly remembered for reconstruction and the various scandals during his administration, Grant was nonetheless easily re-elected in 1872.  Following Washington's precedent, he did not run for a third term.  However, in 1880, he did attempt a third term but could not get enough delegates at the convention.

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 & 1893-1897) is an anomaly as the only president to serve non-consecutive terms.  He was first elected in 1884, but defeated for re-election in 1888.  However, he ran again in 1892 and won!  Donald Trump is currently trying to be the second president with non-consecutive terms.  Also noteworthy, Cleveland is the only Democrat to be president between 1869 and 1913.

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) had been the President of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey before his presidency.  He won election thanks to the split between Theodore Roosevelt and his chosen successor, William Howard Taft.  Roosevelt split the Republican party with his third party candidacy which allowed Wilson to win with 41% of the vote.  Wilson's presidency is most remembered for World War I and his press for the League of Nations (proto-United Nations) at its conclusion.  Prohibition and Women's Suffrage were passed during his presidency.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) was elected in 1933.  FDR broke Washington's precedent when he was re-elected in 1940, becoming the first and only president to serve more than 8 years.  Soon after, the 25th Amendment was added to the Constitution, limiting a president to a maximum of 10 years in office.  That ten years assumes that a VP took over at least halfway into another president's term.  FDR is remembered for the Great Depression and World War II.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1953-1961) was a West Point graduate who spent his life in the Army.  He served during World War I, World War II, and Korea.  Though not the first to golf while president, he popularized it as a presidential pastime.  His presidency is often viewed as an idyllic period, a combination of peace and prosperity.  Of course, there was the Red Scare/McCarthyism and Jim Crow still flourished.

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) was an actor turned politician.  He served as governor of California before winning the presidency.  Having a rare gift of gab, he was called the Great Communicator.  His wit and humor created the Reagan Democrat, a crossover voter who gave him landslide victories and even elected his VP to follow him.  At 77, Reagan was the oldest president ever at the time but has since been surpassed by Joe Biden, currently 81.

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (1993-2001) was an Arkansas attorney general and governor before winning the presidency.  He became the first president since Andrew Johnson to be impeached.  The end of the Cold War provided the 'Peace Dividend' which extended the prosperity of the 80s until the Tech Bubble burst.  Like the 50s, the 90s were a period of peace and prosperity, which benefitted Clinton when he ran for re-election; he won handily.

George W Bush (2001-2009) was governor of Texas and the son of former President George Bush.  His first election was decided in a contentious recount in Florida.  He had hardly begun his presidency when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred.  His presidency was defined by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along with a growing surveillance state at home.  He won re-election, but again there was some contention, this time in Ohio.  In both elections, a one state shift would have resulted in his defeat.

Barack Obama (2009-2017) is the most recent two-term president.  He had served in the US Senate for less than 1 term when he won his party's nomination for president.  With a financial collapse and years of war staining the Republicans, Obama looked to be a worthwhile change.  Change was his campaign slogan.  He won convincingly and was re-elected in 2012.  The signature achievement of his presidency was the Affordable Care Act, widely called Obamacare.

Only twice has there been a string of 3 consecutive two-term presidents: Jefferson-Madison-Monroe and Clinton-Bush-Obama.  There would have been other two-term presidents if not for assassinations or resignation, but those will be for another post.

No comments: