Monday, February 18, 2019

“How many presidents have we had?” (Depends on how you count Grover Cleveland)



So who is "Grover Cleveland," and why does he complicate this answer?

In the presidential elections of 1888, the incumbent president Grover Cleveland actually won the popular vote; but he lost the election anyway that year, because Benjamin Harrison won the electoral vote. Four years later, Cleveland won his rematch with Harrison by both measures, and was thus elected to a second term in 1892. Grover Cleveland is thus the only president ever to serve two non-consecutive terms. Thus, this distinction makes him the 22nd and 24th Presidents of the United States.


Grover Cleveland

So how many presidents have we had in this country?

So how many "Presidents of the United States" have actually held office in this country? The answer is: "Depends on how you count Grover Cleveland." If you count him as two separate presidents, the answer is that Biden is our 46th President. But technically, only 45 individuals have actually served as president at the time that I write this; so the question is not as straightforward as it seems.


Grover Cleveland

Some of these presidents have been the subject of movies, such as:

However you answer it, I've blogged about 20 or so of these individuals. While I'm not a professional historian, I have as much right to an opinion as anyone else; and so I offer these posts to the world for anyone who is interested.




George Washington

George Washington (1789-1797)







John Adams (1797-1801)





Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)



James Madison (1809-1817)









John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)



Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)



Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)







Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)






James A. Garfield (1881 only)



Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)







Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)





Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945)




Harry Truman  (1945-1953)



Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)



John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)



Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)



Richard Nixon (1969-1974)




Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)



Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)




George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)



Bill Clinton (1993-2001)







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