Poem: Autopsy of a President

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Editor

From Andy Rash's blog Iotacons - http://iotacons.blogspot.com/.  Used with permission.

Weak character coupled with an honored place
Half-baked knowledge with big plans

And limited reason with heavy responsibility
Will not escape disaster.

    ---o0o---

Weird Presidential pets

By Jack Brummet, Fauna Editor/Presidential History Editor

When Lewis and Clark were exploring the West, they sent two young bear cubs back East to President Tom Jefferson.   He kept the bears in a cage on the White House lawn and sometimes went on walks with them. 

President Calvin Coolidge owned a raccoon, a bobcat, a donkey, a wallaby, a pygmy hippo, a small antelope, and a black bear.

John Quincy Adams kept an alligator.

President Harry S. Truman had a boa constrictor for a pet. 

 James Buchanan kept an elephant at The White House.  

Not surprisingly, President Teddy Roosevelt had a zebra (although I'm surprised he didn't own a lion, hippo, or elephant, since he enjoyed plugging them so much).

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More favorite photos of the Presidents (and one First Lady)

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Editor

      President Gerald Ford greets Billy Preston, George Harrison, and Ravi Shankar at the White House

Not sure what point WJC was making here

A collage of President cut-outs

President Teddy Roosevelt laughs

President Dubyah

Two Presidents: Bill Clinton meets JFK on a Boy Scout trip to Washington D.C.

One of my favorites - Gerald Ford near the end of his life with Bill Clinton

JFK attempts to calm VP LBJ down

Dick Nixon gets The Johnson Treatment

LBJ's good friend Abe Fortas also gets The Johnson Treatment

A truly bizarre photo of Dick Nixon taken in the 1960 Presidential Campaign

Nancy Reagan, with creepy bunnies

Dick Nixon at one of the most exclusive bowling alleys in the world - at the White House

Supermodels invade the Reagan White House

Dance and song line at the Reagan White House with Shirley Jones and the late Marvin Hammlisch

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Potus 20: President James A. Garfield - President for 200 days

President James A. Garfield, (POTUS 20) is another short-timer, whose Presidency ran from March-September, 1881. He was President for about 200 days when he was shot by a deranged lawyer. President Garfield survived but was finally killed, 80 days later, by his team of doctors.

Garfield is probably best remembered today as one of the four assassinated Presidents. His assassin, attorney Charles Guiteau, believed that God had ordered him to kill the President. Guiteau stalked the President for weeks, and passed up one opportunity to shoot Garfield because his wife was present.

James Garfield was the first left-handed President. And--is this cool, or what?--he sometimes entertained friends by simultaneously writing Latin with one hand and Greek with the other (woah!). He was the last president born in a log cabin; farewell to our prairie days.
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Photograph: Jack & Bobby Kennedy deep in conversation

click Jack and Bobby to enlarge
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Three more photographs of LBJ

click to enlarge these photographs

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