Barack Hussein Obama—a Good 1 Term President


The political cartoon below was published in the Peoria Journal Star on 2/5/2010, page A4. The cartoon, I believe, is a depiction of a TV broadcast of an interview with President Barack Hussein Obama. I did not watch the program but have heard about the comment being characterized.

The President declared “I’d rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre two-term President.” Does he even understand what he is really saying? Can he identify one instance in our history that a really good President was defeated when running for re-election?

The following Presidents were elected to the Presidency, served a complete first term and then were defeated running for a second term:

1) John Adams: elected in 1796 by 3 Electoral College votes over Thomas Jefferson and defeated in 1800 by Thomas Jefferson by 8 Electoral College votes.

2) John Quincy Adams: elected by the House of Representatives in 1824 (actually early 1825) after coming in second to Andrew Jackson in the Electoral College vote since neither received a majority of the vote as required by the Constitution. He lost to Andrew Jackson in the 1828 election by a 178 to 83 vote in the Electoral College.

3) Martin Van Buren: elected by 97 Electoral College votes in the election of 1836 and defeated by William H. Harrison, who lost to him in the 1836 election, by 174 Electoral College votes in 1840.

[NOTE 1: William H. Harrison died in office in 1841 and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler who did not seek reelection in 1844.]

[NOTE 2: James Polk was elected in 1844 and did not seek reelection in 1848.]

[NOTE 3: Zachery Taylor was elected in 1848 and died in office in 1850. He was succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore who did not seek reelection in 1852.]

[NOTE 4: Franklin Pierce was elected in 1852 by 212 Electoral College votes and did not seek reelection in 1856.]

[NOTE 5: James Buchanan was elected in 1856 by 60 Electoral College votes and did not seek reelection in 1860.]

[NOTE 6: Abraham Lincoln died in office in 1865 and was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson who did not seek reelection in 1868.]

[NOTE 7: Rutherford Hayes was elected in 1876 by 1 Electoral College vote although losing in the popular vote and did not seek reelection in 1880.]

[NOTE 8: James Garfield was elected in 1880 and died in office in 1881. He was succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur who did not seek reelection in 1884.]

4) Grover Cleveland: elected by 37 Electoral College votes in the election of 1884 and defeated by Benjamin Harrison [although Benjamin Harrison lost in the popular vote] by 65 Electoral College votes in 1888.

5) Benjamin Harrison: defeated Grover Cleveland by 65 Electoral College votes in 1888 and then was defeated by Grover Cleveland by 132 Electoral College votes in 1892. Grover Cleveland did not seek reelection in 1896. Grover Cleveland is the only President in history to win the Presidency, lose the Presidency, and then win the Presidency once again.

[NOTE 9: William McKinley was elected in 1896 and reelected in 1900 but died in office in 1901. He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt who was elected in 1904 but did not seek reelection in 1908.]

6) William Taft: elected by 159 Electoral College votes in 1908 and defeated by Woodrow Wilson by 427 Electoral College votes in 1912. [Note: Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third party candidate in 1912 and came in second in relation to Electoral College votes.]

[NOTE 10: Warren Harding was elected in 1920 and died in office in 1923. He was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge who was elected in 1924 but did not seek reelection in 1928.]

7) Herbert Hoover: elected by 357 Electoral College votes in 1928 and defeated by Franklin Roosevelt by 413 Electoral College votes in 1932.

[NOTE 11: Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1944 to a fourth term and then died in office in 1945. He was succeeded by Vice President Harry Truman who was elected in 1948 but did not seek reelection in 1952.]

[NOTE 12: John Kennedy was elected in 1960 and died in office in 1963. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon Johnson who was elected in 1964 but did not seek reelection in 1968.]

[NOTE 13: Richard Nixon was reelected in 1972 and resigned in 1974. He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford who was defeated in the election of 1976.]

8) Jimmy Carter: elected by 57 Electoral College votes in 1976 and defeated by Ronald Reagan by 440 Electoral College votes in 1980.

9) George H. W. Bush: elected by 315 Electoral College votes in 1988 and defeated by Bill Clinton by 202 Electoral College votes in 1992.

Why did I go through all this Presidential history? To show that a one term President isn’t that unusual. We have had 44 different Presidents in our history with Barack Hussein Obama being the 44th. (Grover Cleveland is counted twice—as the 22nd and the 24th Presidents.) 9 of the 44 Presidents won their first election and then lost when seeking reelection. That’s just over 20% of all Presidents. Another President was elevated to the Presidency—Gerald Ford—and then lost the first time he ran for the Presidency. 4 more Presidents were elected to their first term of office and then, for whatever reason, decided not to seek reelection. Another 8 Presidents were elevated to the Presidency by first being the Vice President and then taking over for the elected President who died in office. All of them at one point could have run for another term of office and decided not to do so. Consequently, fully one half (22) of all Presidents (9 + 1 + 4 + 8) were either defeated in a reelection bid or decided not to run for office when they could have.

Here’s an interesting question. Do you thing all those previous Presidents were “really good Presidents” who were either defeated by an unknowing voting public or who did not choose to serve for another term although the public would have gratefully returned them to office?

Why does President Barack Hussein Obama seem to believe that he is more likely to be defeated for a second term if he is a really good President than if he is only a mediocre President? Is that what he is saying when he declares “I’d rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre two-term President?” Does he have that low of an opinion of the voting public?

Well, come to think of it. It’s the same voting public who voted him into office in the first place. As President Lincoln is credited as saying, “You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”

Do you think that Barack Hussein Obama is realizing he is losing his pied piper charm? Thus, he intends to cram down the throats of the American people as much of his obscene policies as possible during his first term, realizing now that he may not have a second term. Then he can declare: “I was a really good President for one term! Then those ingrates voted me out of office!” How often has that happened in our history? I guess Barack Hussein Obama thinks he will be a President of many firsts.

Goal 1: Return some sanity to government by ending the Democratic Party’s majority control of the House and Senate.

Goal 2: Make Barack Hussein Obama the tenth one term elected President!

Goal 3: Return this nation to the Judeo-Christian values of the Founding Fathers.

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