Thursday, March 06, 2008

Presidential Trivia

This political season, I've heard speculation a few times that John McCain might serve only one term if elected, because of his age. That got me to wondering. Who was the last president to say, "Nah, four years is enough. I'm outta here."?

The answer...Rutherford B. Hayes. Every other one-termer since 1880 has said, "Nah, I think I need another four." I found that surprising, but something to keep in mind. Now, we've never had a first-termer as old as McCain, so maybe he'd be different. But 132 years is a lot of precedent.

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