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11:23:00 AM EDT
Hearing Prayer Wheel -- Edie Reader
14 Years
Here's an interesting link for you presidential trivia lovers out there: An article which postulates The Rule of 14:
With only one exception since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, no one has been elected president who took more than 14 years to climb from his first major elective office to election as either president or vice president.
Under this rule, incidentally, the author suggests that the only people now running for President who have a chance at the seat are: Bush (who is President, but will be running for a second term), Clark, Dean and Senator John Edwards.
It's an interesting theory, and as it happens I do believe the person who will be elected President in 2004 is probably from that field of candidates. But I wouldn't be reading too much into the "Rule of 14" if I were you. I remember when I was a kid, there was this bit of Presidential trivia known as the "Zero Factor" which noted that since William Henry Harrison, every US President elected in a year with a zero in it dies in office. And indeed, from 1840 through 1960, the odds were pretty grim: Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Wilson, Roosevelt and Kennedy all died in office one way or another. And then of course Reagan was nicked pretty seriously. But he survived through his term of office. So there goes another one great bit of US Presidential trivia, which I would imagine Reagan, for one, was glad for.
Still, it's a nifty bit of coincidence, and what a rule like that implies (in terms of the "freshness" of politicians in the public mind) is rather a bit more interesting than the exact numbers. I'd be interested to know what y'all think of it.
(Link via VodkaPundit)
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Don't forget the "A Catholic will never be president" rule that Kennedy put to rest. Now what about a woman??
That Happy Chica,
Marcia Ellen
10/20/03 2:24 PM