Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/327492
JUNE 11-17, 2014 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM We Americans — at least some of us — are nothing if not passionate about our Presidential politics. The next election is more than two years away, and we are already talking about and handicapping the possible candidates. Will Hillary Clinton, the acknowledged Democratic frontrunner, take the bait and dive in? Will Chris Christie, a once promising Republican hopeful, survive the massive traffic jam now known as "Bridgegate?" Who else will emerge in the coming months hoping to become the next leader of the free world? As each of us settles on our Presidential favorite, and because few of us are likely to have met much less be friends with our choice, we have to base our decision his or her politics. We must believe our chosen candidate is a moral and ethical person who has compassion for other people and who wants the best for our nation first, and secondarily for the rest of the world. Beyond that, what gets us excited? As I pondered that question, it became clear that while American presidents may be all over the place in policy and personality, there are some common threads. We obviously like them to be men. We like our Presidents to be "mature." Theodore Roosevelt was our youngest, having been elevated at 42 after the assassination of William McKinley. John Kennedy was the youngest elected President. Ronald Reagan was our oldest elected President, taking the oath of office 16 days short of his 70th birthday. The average age upon taking the oath of office, though, is 54 years and 11 months. Since our Constitution requires a President to be at least 35, some may have thought Roosevelt and Kennedy were too young for the job, and others may have thought Reagan too old, especially since there were indications of Alzheimer's disease before he left office. A Pew poll released last month found that how voters feel about a candidate's age depends on who the candidate might be. Before the 2008 Presidential campaign, Republicans were less concerned about age than Democrats. Remember, John McCain, who would have been 72 when he became President, was on the ticket. As we move toward 2016, Republicans are more concerned about age and Democrats less so. Remember, Hillary Clinton, who would be 69 when she took office, is leading the Democratic pack at this point. Sounds like human nature to me. Partisan politics and age are far from the only factors which make us like and choose our particular candidate. We want them to be "like us," or we at least want to imagine them that way. We overwhelmingly want them to have families. Only one President, James Buchanan, never married. Of the majority who married, all but six had children. John Tyler had a whopping 15! Five Presidents remarried after their first wives died, and two of them did so in the White House. And in an example of "do as I say, not as I do," we apparently want our Presidents to stay married. Ronald Reagan is the only President ever to have divorced. Americans have a frugal streak, which comes through in what we expect of our "First Ladies," an unofficial title most of them are said to loathe. We expect the wives of our Presidents to be his (so far) partner in official business and to look good doing so, even though the "position" has no job description or salary. We like them to have candor — think Betty Ford, but not too much. I will not add a First Lady in that category. We want our Presidents to be people of faith, or at least to express a faith, and all but a handful have. Most have been Episcopalians followed by Presbyterians. Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon were Quakers, and John Kennedy remains the only Catholic to have served as President. We like them tall. We think of Abraham Lincoln as being tall, which he was at 6'4," but so was Lyndon Johnson. Just behind them were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton at 6'2." If they were measured correctly, 18 of our 44 Presidents have been at least 6.' James Madison — bless his heart! — was the shortest President at just 5'4!" No matter what we say, we really do like lawyers. Well over half our Presidents, 26, have had law degrees. We like to elect our Presidents by popular vote, and by and large we have. Four, however, lost the popular vote but became President anyway. They were John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. So what to expect in 2016? Let's look at just this hypothetical match-up. Both Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie have our favorite credentials. Both are in their first and only marriages. Both are parents. Both profess faith, Methodism and Roman Catholicism respectively. Both are lawyers. My guess is that Chris is taller, but if Hillary becomes the Democratic nominee, size may not matter. She probably puts on her pants suit just like all other Presidential hopefuls. The "It" Factors by MARGARET DICKSON MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com.. 910.484.6200. Contest&RequestLine: 910-764-1073 www.christian107.com KeepingtheMainThing...theMainThing. visitusonline FocusontheFamily 20Countdown Magazine Adventures in Odyssey Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Daily Specials • Fresh Seafood Hand Cut Steaks • Homemade Desserts Italian & Greek • Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests