Monday, November 15, 2010

What Vice President was the first to be elected President after fulfilling the term of his predecessor?

Welcome back everyone, and hope you had a good weekend!  It's Monday, it's cold, what's a better way to get back to work than with a nice, hot, steaming glass of U.S. Presidential Trivia?

Well, actually, I can think of several, but you probably don't want to work yet, so let's just move right along.  Today's question comes off of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents.  What Vice President was the first to be elected President after fulfilling the term of his predecessor?  Was it Harry Truman, Chestur Arthur, John Tyler or Theodore Roosevelt?

All of these men were Presidents, and all of these men were Vice Presidents that became Presidents after the President died.  But, only two of these men actually were elected President in their own right.

It isn't John Tyler.  Tyler became President when William Henry Harrison died (after serving barely a month in office).  However, Tyler proved to be such an unpopular President that he was expelled from his own party.  Almost his entire cabinet resigned in protest of his actions.

It wasn't Chester Arthur either.  Arthur became President after the assassination of James Garfield.  Arthur unsuccessfully sought the nomination for President by the Republican party - that went to James Blaine, who would lose to Grover Cleveland.

It wasn't Harry Truman either, though you'd be closer.  Truman became President upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 and did win his own term as President in 1948.


Above:  Journalism fail.

Truman, however, was not the first.  That honor goes to Theodore Roosevelt.  Roosevelt was elected Vice President with William McKinley and became President when McKinley was assassinated in 1901.  Roosevelt was elected President on his own in 1904, but had promised not to run in 1908.  Instead, he helped elect his Vice President, William Taft. 

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