Saturday, January 17, 2009

Presidential Polls

Beginning this weekend will be a number of polls of presidential rankings. Who's best, who's worst. All will respectfully conclude, probably correctly, that it is too soon to rate the most recent presidency, that time will tell, and its for posterity to decide, etc, wa wa wa.

One consensus you will likely find is that near the bottom of most polls is our 14th president Franklin Pierce. Franklin is credited with having almost as much to do to cause the civil war as anyone else in history. He was a drunk, warmonger, racist, anti immigrant tyrant. His domestic policy included keeping Irish, Italian and Catholics from immigrating, while attempting to ship those already here back. Jeff Davis served as his Secretary of War. His own party didn't nominate him for reelection.

Well, Franklin survived his one term presidency, and had a grandson. His grandson had a granddaughter who is still very much alive. She was born Barbara Pierce. Barbara's distinction is to be one of only two women whose husbands and sons were US presidents.

Perhaps you recognize Barbara (nee)Pierce better as Barbara Bush.

Is it nature or nurture? Perhaps even mediocrity is hereditary? The jury is still out.

Toad

3 comments:

Tammy B said...

I think she is underrated. I'm not a huge fan, but I like her better than some first ladies. My favorite is Lou Hoover. I think she was a fascinating woman...for her time. A lot of people nowadays need to follow Barbara Bush's father's example. He, a wealthy man, knew that it was tasteless to display one's wealth in hard economic times. He built a company (McCall's Patterns) in order to help women without great financial means have nice stylish clothes that they made themselves without a strain on their budgets. He promoted being practical, which is not something I can say about people of his calliber today.

Toad said...

I had no idea.

Brin said...

Ouch. Glad I'm not judged by the behavior of my Great Great Great Great Grandfather. He was probably a pistol-toting Texan, wicked as crap. :)

Cool blog.