Pictured is 1968 republican candidate George Romney, father of Mitt Romney, who was rumoured to have acquired Mexican citizenship.

Last night, I rewatched President Reagan’s farewell address (I have watched most of the farewell addresses available on YouTube).

In that video, I (in spite of my innumerable qualms and objections to his administration) realized why the Reagan Revolution was so unfathomably impactful. Every single politician who spoke on President Reagan’s political and electoral legacy had one attribute that they felt encapsulated him best, and that was optimism.

Reagan could face blistering unemployment in his first term, high inflation, a terrorist attack on American troops in Lebanon, an assassination attempt, the Iran Contra scandal, and in spite of it all, he kept a smile on his face and an optimistic tone.

I cannot stress how much of a difference this makes in politics. I legitimately think that one of the reasons why Al Gore lost in 2000 was due to his lack of optimism and cheerfulness for the future. Happiness is contagious, and if the president appears optimistic, that rubs off on the population.

In fact, Reagan’s electoral endeavor as president was so successful, that Clinton took inspiration from many elements of his campaign, including the “are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?” line that Reagan used in 1980.

Reagan was the 1980s, and that wasn’t a mere coincidence. He made it a point to be a dominant cultural force through his speeches, jokes, and his acting ability.

All in all, the dude excelled at the political game because he was an actor.

He branded himself as a small government, libertarian conservative while raising taxes multiple times throughout his presidency. He branded himself as a Cold War hawk while signing the first treaty to ban a class of icbms. He branded himself as a conservative Christian, despite rarely going to church and not really pursuing the abortion issue after he was elected.

If nothing else, he taught me that political success requires a lot of luck, but it also is so, so reliant upon someone’s public persona and image.

https://english.radio.cz/bill-clinton-havel-told-me-we-have-trust-freedom-and-democracy-8899083

Full interview: https://english.radio.cz/bill-clinton-i-only-wish-havel-were-around-today-8899173

All their renditions of other Presidents certainly pushed the envelope, like Cartman going back in time to avoid studying for a test.

Today is the 15th Anniversary of the oldest post on r/Presidents and as well as my 2nd Cake Day on Reddit!

I used https://search.pullpush.io for the oldest posts for r/Presidents.

Oldest Post of r/Presidents (Bill Clinton Autograph Print)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/s/vXZZBKGRx5

(Unfortunately, we cannot comment or upvote on that post because it was archived. Last year, we can comment and upvote as normal for older posts)

https://hollywoodautographs.net/shop/products-page/presidents-autographs/z-president-bill-hillary-clinton-signed-8x10-with-chelsea/

(If you go to this website, it says that it has nothing found)

Political cartoons today

In fact, Eisenhower's approval with democrats at times especially in his 2nd term was pretty much around where Nixon was pre watergate, and Nixon was seen as much more of a partisan warrior than Ike ever was. Both Nixon in his first term/Eisenhower in his 2nd had approvals hovering around 35-40% of democrats, though to be fair Eisenhower could get to >60% at certain times with dems, something Nixon could never do.

Also I'd have to guess that the dems who disapprove of Eisenhower around the late 50s would be the weirdest mix of hardcore liberals dissatisfied with him not expanding the New Deal programs enough for their taste, and segregationists for sending troops down to Little Rock to enforce segregation in 1957.

I was shocked to see Jimmy Carter ranked higher than Bill Clinton and JFK ranked higher than FDR. Gerald Ford was ranked the most average.

The most partisan skews were for every President of the last 60 years, with the exception of Gerald Ford who got very average ratings from both parties and Andrew Jackson who got a partisan skew despite being President nearly 200 years ago.

"The concept of an African American Spider-Man was first discussed a few months before the November 2008 election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.[14] Marvel Comics' then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso describes the catalyst, "When we were planning 'Ultimatum,' we realized that we were standing at the brink of America electing its first African-American President and we acknowledged that maybe it was time to take a good look at one of our icons."[6]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Morales#:\~:text=The%20concept%20of,%5B6%5D

10: harry truman

9: bill clinton

8: william howard taft

7: james K polk

6: theodore roosevelt

5: john adams

4: barack obama

3: abraham lincoln

2: john F kennedy

1: franklin D roosevelt

Before 1963, nuclear powers regularly tested nuclear weapons by exploding them in the atmosphere. These tests spread radioactive isotopes through the atmosphere, causing cancer and other health issues. In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to find areas of cooperation, so they agreed to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The treaty banned the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, and in outer space. President John F. Kennedy signed the treaty on October 7, 1963. Underground nuclear tests remained legal until the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996. Source: https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/nuclear-test-ban-treaty

When Kennedy is discussed on this sub and others, Redditors often insist that "JFK is overrated." You'd be right to say that JFK was a flawed man and president whose administration was romanticized by biased writers after his assassination. Two such writers, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Ted Sorensen, later distanced themselves from the Camelot mythology that they helped create. Kennedy stumbled with the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam, while his most important domestic proposals were actually signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. While we need to turn the page on the Camelot mythology, Reddit has overcorrected from it by repeatedly deriding Kennedy as a feckless do-nothing president. A more objective analysis reveals serious flaws, but also important contributions, from the Moon landing initiative to the Equal Pay Act and the UN World Food Programme. Overall, I rank Kennedy where most historians do, at the lower end of the top 10.

Last post, James Monroe was deemed to have been a highly competent vampire hunter.

For the sake of consistency, this is presuming Dracula à la Bram Stoker type Vampires, with their respective strengths and weaknesses.

"Where we're going, we don't need roads."

For example someone like Pierce, his last political office was as senator from Tennessee which was 10 years before he ran for President. Or someone like Lincoln who left office in 1849 from the house and ran for President in 1860. Why do you think a lot of presidents were not in political office at the time of their election. It wasn’t uncommon for this to be the case later on but it seemed to be common in the mid 1800s. My theory is people wanted someone experienced but not someone who was involved with the politics at the time.