Evan Smith: Presidents’ Day Thoughts

COMMENTARY / Evan Smith

A couple of random thoughts on Presidents’ Day morning:
• Barack Obama is the 44th president, but he is only the 43rd person to be president.

That’s because we count Grover Cleveland twice. He was both the 22nd president (1885-89) and the 24th president (1893-97). 

Cleveland was elected in 1884, lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and defeated Harrison in 1892. That made him the only president to serve non-consecutive terns.

• When George W. Bush left office after eight years, following Bill Clinton’s eight years, it marked the first time that we have had consecutive eight-year presidencies since the presidencies of James Madison (1809-17) and James Monroe (1817-25).

• Madison and Monroe were second and third in a string of eight-year presidencies following that of Thomas Jefferson (1801-09)

• George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush made up the second father-and-son pair of presidents. The other pair was John Adams (1897-1801) and John Quincy Adams (1825-29). Benjamin Harrison (1889-93) was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. who died a month after his 1841 inauguration.