Presidential ponderings

[Brent Burns]

I was reading my local newspaper early tonight and thought these would be worth sharing with you all. All of the sources are from Library of Congress, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, ad nauseum.

1. What does the "S" stand for Harry S. Truman? The answer is that it does not stand for a name although it is referred to his grandfathers' first names- Shipp and Solomon.

2. What did Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge keep in the White House for exercise? Are you ready for this? He had a mechanical bull in his dressing room.

3. Did Herbert Hoover really promise a chicken in every pot? No. A Republican party advertisement, not endorsed by Hoover claimed to put a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard.

According to the survey's top 10 presidential blunders which were announced Saturday during a Presidents Day weekend conference called "Presidential Moments." These top 10 presidential gaffes are:

1. According to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center, President James Buchanan topped the list for failing to avert the Civl War because there were some of the opinion that he did not do enough to oppose efforts by Southern states to secede from the Union before the Civil War.

2. Andrew Johnson's mistake was his decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery.

3. Lyndon B. Johnson earned third place by allowing the Vietnam War to intensify.

4. Woodrow Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

5. Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up.

6. James Madison's failure to keep the United States out of the War of 1812 with Britain.

7. Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a self-imposed prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.

8. John F. Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

9. Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair, the effort to sell arms to Iran and use the money to finance an armed anti-communist group in Nicargua.

10. Many scholars said that Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal belonged to number 10.

I am going to end with a question for you all:

Did Washington claim he had a vision at Valley Forge of an angel who foretold the American victory in the Revolution and a future Civil War over slavery?