Who's Your Favorite Obscure President?

[THUNDER HANDS]

Don't feel bad if you don't know what each person is known for. That's why they're obscure. ;)

My vote goes to Chester A. Arthur. Gotta love any president named Chester. I once had a stuffed rabbit named Chester.

[ComerPerro]

1. William Henry Harrison

died within 30 days of being sworn in

[Aristus]

11. WHH was a arrogant tough-guy showoff.

He delivered the longest inaugural address ever in an icy downpour, without bothering to wear a hat or coat. Thirty days later, BANG! Dead of pneumonia. Oh well, as ye sow........

[terrya]

2. Grover Cleveland. The fact that he was named "Grover" AND...

that he is the only President to serve two non-concurrent terms.

A big Woo Hoo to the 22nd and 24th President of the United States!

[LynneSin]

3. I'll vote for the single guy from Pennsylvania

BTW, when GOPisEvil and I saw his picture at the Smithsonian - our gaydar went off immediately. There might be a reason why Jimmy B was a single guy

:shrug:

[Ediacara]

4. Well it isn't exactly a secret

He was dating a (male) Senator that had a nickname like "little missus" or something, or so the gossip went.

[libertad]

13. Were they not also referred to as "the siamese twins" because

they were so inseparable?

[JohnLocke]

21. "Uncle Fancy and Aunt Nancy."

[dryan]

5. Garfield fact

James Garfield's Secretary of War was Robert Todd Lincoln who was Abe's son. Robert was present when Garfield was murdered.

[terrya]

6. We all know that * is distantly related to Franklin Pierce, right?

On his mother's side (Big Barbara was Barbara Pierce when she married George I)

Franklin Pierce was a failure as a President AND was an alcoholic.

Sound familiar?

[Kolesar]

7. Garfield is not obscure around here

Reading the placards at his historic home in Mentor, one realizes that he was one of the greatest presidents ever (lol).

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

8. Who voted for Polk??

Like Bush and 9/11, Polk was waiting for an incident to start a war with Mexico so he could annex it.

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. actually

Bill Clinton once called Polk one of the top-5 presidents ever in an interview I saw on CSPAN once.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

15. Then Clinton was wrong

IMHO

[Kolesar]

24. Wasn't Me!

Honest!!

[JAbuchan08]

10. I voted Buchanan, because he was not as bad a president

as he is usually precieved, and we share a last name.

[mobuto]

17. Civil War, Civil Schmore

What's a little secession between friends?

Like Herbert Hoover, Buchanan wasn't evil, but he was incompetent. And in 1860, incompetence was unforgiveable.

[MAlibdem]

23. He let the South WALK away

And arm themselves as they raided all the armories.

He was the shittiest.

[noonwitch]

12. Gerald Ford

I always kind of liked him, being from Grand Rapids and all. I never understood why those crazy women wanted to kill him so badly.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

14. Mercy Vote for Franklin Pierce

1) Natanial Hawthorne wrote his campaign biography, thus occupying Hawthorne's time in what would have inevitably lead to another novel.

2) The character of Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H was named after him.

[Ediacara]

16. Pierce County Washington was named after him too

Home of Tacoma :-)

King County (home of Seattle) was named after his very short lived Vice President, Rufus Devane King, who was a gay slave owner that became Vice President while in Cuba and died before returning to Washington.

There has been a push to redesignate the county as being named after Martin Luther King, but it's been stalled on purely logistical grounds... ie, where are we going to get the money to design and buy new stationary, design and buy new flags etc...

Plus, the revelation that King was gay, has made his slave ownership less repulsive for some reason....

[11 Bravo]

22. I believe Hawkeye's full name was Benjamin Franklin Pierce.

I think he was named for Ben Franklin rather than Franklin Pierce.

[Beware the Beast Man]

18. Chet Arthur, for those bitchin' mutton chops

Damned if I know what he did during his presidency, yet I believe his administration was during the Gilded Age.

[mobuto]

19. James K. Polk

With mad props to James A. Garfield.

Polk was something of a political progressive, who pushed for major land reform initiatives, including what would, twenty years later, become the Homestead Act. He sided with the poor against the rich.

He set up the independent Treasury, reformed the civil service, created the Department of the Interior, settled a major dispute with Great Britain, oversaw the greatest period of economic expansion to date, and conquered California, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, South Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. That last bit is certainly an accomplishment - you make judge it unjust (although Mexico's government at the time was horrifically oppressive), but it was certainly a heck of an accomplishment.

[Fenris]

20. I voted for our first gay President: James Garfield

;)

[blindpig]

25. Ben Franklin!

"the only President of the United States who was never President of the United States." Firesign Theatre