Twenty - Sixth Anniversary , Reagan Defeats Carter

( 4 November 2 0 0 6 , Saturday - -

This Is The 3 0 8 t h Day Of The Calendar Year ; Fifty - Seven days Remain )



INCUMBENT PRESIDENTS almost never lose .



Since the founding of the REPUBLICAN PARTY in 1 8 5 4 , only five ( 5 )

Republican Presidents have lost a re - election campaign .



BENJAMIN HARRISON was defeated by GROVER CLEVELAND in 1 8 9 2 ,

four years after himself usurping Cleveland ;




WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT , obliged to defend his Presidency against TWO

imposing candidates in THEODORE ROOSEVELT and THOMAS WOODROW

WILSON , lost badly in the election of 1 9 1 2 ;



HERBERT CLARK HOOVER , saddled with the disasterous STOCK MARKET

CRASH , the SMOOT - HAWLEY TARIFF ( which Hoover unwisely signed into

law ) , and the " Bonus Expeditionary Army " Incident ( wherein Army Chief Of

Staff DOUGLAS MacARTHUR had U . S . Army soldiers forcibly disperse

destitute World War One veterans from the site of a protest ) , was trounced

by FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT in the Election of 1 9 3 2 ;



GERALD RUDOLPH FORD JR . , successor to RICHARD NIXON when the

latter resigned on 9 August of 1 9 7 4 , lost a very close election to Governor

JAMES EARL " JIMMY " CARTER JR . of Georgia on 2 November 1 9 7 6 ;



GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH , like JOHN ADAMS before him both

the President AND the Father of a President , lost to WILLIAM JEFFERSON

CLINTON on 3 November 1 9 9 2 .

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During the same historical passage - - from 1 8 5 4 to the present , with Democratic

and Republican parties competing - - only TWO ( 2 ) Democrats have failed to win

a second Presidential term , have lost a re - election campaign . STEPHEN

GROVER CLEVELAND we ' ve already noted - - Cleveland , first elected in

1 8 8 4 over JAMES G . BLAINE , took the Popular Vote four years later butt

was nevertheless beaten by BENJAMIN HARRISON of Indiana in the

Electoral College tally . Cleveland , from Buffalo , New York and previously

the Governor of the Empire State , actually lost his home state to Harrison ,

who in turn was the GrandSon of the shortest - tenured President ,

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON ( elected 1 8 4 0 / died 1 8 4 1 . )



JAMES EARL CARTER JR . , mentioned heretofore as the candidate who

ousted GERALD FORD in 1 9 7 6 , can plausibly be described as the

Democratic Party ' s version of Herbert Hoover . President Carter was

beaten by RONALD WILSON REAGAN on 4 November 1 9 8 0 ,

twenty - six years ago . A numerical comparison is apt :



1 9 3 2 - - - - HERBERT HOOVER , 1 5 , 7 6 1 , 8 4 1 votes / 5 9 Electoral Votes

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT , 2 2 , 8 2 1 , 8 5 7 votes / 4 7 2 Electoral Votes



1 9 8 0 - - - - JIMMY CARTER , 3 5 , 4 8 1 , 4 3 5 votes / 4 9 Electoral Votes

RONALD REAGAN , 4 3 , 8 9 9 , 2 4 8 votes / 4 8 9 Electoral Votes



Among the ironies of President Carter ' s defeat : the AMERICAN EMBASSY in

TEHERAN was forcibly occupied on 4 November 1 9 7 9 , exactly one year prior

to the 1 9 8 0 Election .

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At the time of the 1 9 8 0 Election , I was a Senior at the UNIVERSITY OF

VERMONT . Among my Fall Semester classes was INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS , P S C I - 5 1 in the U V M course catalog . Professor

M . M . A . ( initials rather than his actual name , to protect his privacy )

was taken aback by the outcome of the Presidential Election , and

dispensed with his planned lecture in favor of some improvised talk .



Prof . M . M . A . told his class that President Carter met with

pollster PAT CADDELL on Sunday evening , 2 November 1 9 8 0 .

Caddell informed the President of a significant shift amongst

American voters during the final week of the campaign , and that

Mr . Carter was very likely to lose .



I myself , it pains me to admit , had not the slightest impact on the

voting . I foolishly declined to get myself an Absentee Ballot ,

did instead trust one of my underclassman Pals to give me a ride

to the polling place in BENNINGTON , Vermont . Actually ,

my Friend did drive me to Bennington - - only I got to the

polls some three - quarters - of - an - hour late .



I did meet up with an old Friend from Bennington , " The

Shiek " , who watched election coverage at the bar formerly

known as the FOUR SQUIRES . The Shiek , a loyal Democrat ,

was as morose as I ' ve ever seen him .



My Friend ' s partisan distress was appropriate . Not Only did

RONALD REAGAN win handily , so too did Republican

candidates wrest the UNITED STATES SENATE from

Democratic control , arguably just as dramatic an historical

occurance . Democrats had been the Majority Party in the

Senate since 3 January of 1 9 5 5 , some twenty - six years !



Republican victory in Presidential Elections held on the Fourth

of November was consistent during the Twentieth Century .

There were three such convergences of The Event with The Date :

JOHN CALVIN COOLIDGE of Plymouth Center , Vermont

defeated JOHN DAVIS of West Virginia on 4 November 1 9 2 4 ;

DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER , at the time a resident of

Morningside Heights in New York City , whipped ADLAI

EWING STEVENSON , former Governor of Illinois , on

4 November of 1 9 5 2 . Indeed , both Eisenhower and

Reagan were elected on the Fourth of November and

re - elected on November the Sixth .

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An item in to - day ' s paper alerted me to the Fifteenth Anniversary of the

RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY ' s grand opening .

Little did I realize - - the Reagan Library offocially opened on 4 November

of 1 9 9 1 , the eleventh anniversary of Reagan ' s first Presidential Election

victory . You may read about the Reagan Library at . . . .



http://www.reagan.utexas.edu



Allow me to be even - handed and provide the Link to the JIMMY CARTER

PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY as well . . . .



http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org



As a catch - all reference , see the National Archives Presidential Library

Web Site , at http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries .



None of the twenty - nine men who preceded Herbert Hoover as

President have Presidential Libraries , alas . The States that house

Presidential Libraries are ARKANSAS ( Bill Clinton ) ,

CALIFORNIA ( Richard Nixon , Ronald Reagan ) ,

GEORGIA ( Jimmy Carter ) , IOWA ( Herbert Hoover ) ,

KANSAS ( Dwight Eisenhower ) , MASSACHUSETTS

( John Fitzgerald Kennedy ) , MICHIGAN ( Gerald Rudolph

Ford JR . ) , MISSOURI ( Harry S Truman ) , NEW YORK

( Franklin Roosevelt ) , and TEXAS ( Lyndon Baines Johnson ,

George H . W . Bush . ) It is likely that Texas may yet have

a third Presidential Library , possibly in the town of

MIDLAND , perhaps CRAWFORD , maybe even ARLINGTON .



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