State Governors
Since the Civil war, it seems that Americans prefer a president who has some executive experience, particularly when the sitting president has seen his popularity go afoul. Every unpopular president that has been unseated since 1888 has been taken out by a State Governor. Governors, however, have not done so well when the office is open, however. For example, in 1988, Vice President George Bush defeated Governor Michael Dukakis. But when challenging a sitting president, when the opposing party picks a governor with at least 4 years in office and when the sitting president is struggling, they rarely lose.
Vice President
Usually when a Vice President becomes president, it is because he has taken over for a man who either has died in office or resigned. But that is not the case with the last two elected former Vice Presidents, Bush (Sr.) and Nixon. Before Nixon, the last one to do so was Martin Van Buren taking over for his former boss, Andrew Jackson. Nixon is the only man who because the President after his time as Vice President passed. In his case, it was 8 years. Vice Presidents have usually not been successful in their bid for a second term. Only Thomas Jefferson was elected in his own right twice.
US Senator
Of the two houses of Congress, America prefers the upper chamber as the more qualified to be President, even though the Constitution puts the lower house closer to the Presidential seat. (Who is in line to be President after the Vice President?) But most US Senators have not been lucky in office. Three have died of natural causes while in office, one was assassinated and only Andrew Jackson, the first man elected from the Senate to the Presidency ever won a second term.
US House of Representatives
Only two men whose highest office was in the House of Representatives were elected to the Presidency. Lincoln and Garfield. Others who served in the House, like John Quincy Adams, James K. Polk and Lyndon Johnson held other offices before becoming president. Lincoln and Garfield have one other creepy thing in common. They were both assassinated. (I wonder if Newt knows this?) Polk was the Speaker of the House when elected to the Presidency, but had also served as Governor of Tennessee.
The Cabinet
It used to be that when a President named his Secretary of State, he was naming his intended successor. This was the pattern of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. Other men have emerged from the cabinet to the White House. The most recent was Hoover. These men have all succeeded their boss, except for Buchanan.
Generals and Admirals
We have had four men move from being a high ranking US Army officer to the Presidency, like George Washington did. 3 of the four men served two terms and the other died in office.
Other officers
We have had no other offices succeed to the presidency, and many others have tried. We have seen in our history Supreme Court Justices and Police Chiefs win their party nomination, but get defeated usually by the sitting president. Perhaps when the president is Truly popular, like Woodrow Wilson was in 1916, then the other party capitulates and nominates a nobody.
Even if the polls are not favorable to Barrack Obama, it will take the most qualified person that the GOP can find to defeat him. Neither James Garfield nor Abraham Lincoln defeated an incumbent president. The last time a sitting president was defeated by someone other than a former or current state governor? The Election of 1888 when Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland. That election turned around in 1892 when Cleveland came back and defeated Harrison. If the Republicans want to defeat Obama in 2012, they had better chose a Governor.
This is a list of the highest office held by Presidents of the United States:
House of Representatives (2)
Both were assassinated in office
James Garfield (Ohio)
Abraham Lincoln (Illinois)
Generals/Admirals (Branch of Military Service) (4)
3 out of 4 served two terms, the other died in office.
Dwight Eisenhower (US Army)
Ulysses Grant (US Army)
Zachary Taylor (US Army) (Died in office)
George Washington (Continental Army)
Cabinet Members (Office--President) (6)
Herbert Hoover (Secretary of Commerce--Coolidge) (defeated in re-election attempt)
William Howard Taft (Secretary of War--T Roosevelt) (defeated in re-election attempt)
James Buchanan (Secretary of State--Polk) (did not gain his party's renomination due to north/south split.)
John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State--Monroe) (defeated in re-election attempt)
James Monroe (Secretary of State--Madison) (2 full terms)
James Madison (Secretary of State--Jefferson) (2 full terms)
US Senators (State) (7)
Barack Obama (Illinois) (Incumbent)
John F. Kennedy (Massechusetts) (Assassinated)
Warren Harding (Ohio) (Died in office)
Benjamin Harrison (Ohio) (defeated in re-election attempt)
Franklin Pierce (New Hampshire) (did not gain party's re-nomination)
William Harrison (Ohio) (Died in office)
Andrew Jackson (Tennessee) (Served two full terms)
Vice Presidents Elected to their own term (President) (9)
George HW Bush (Sr) (Reagan) (Defeated in re-election bid)
Richard Nixon (Eisenhower) (Elected twice but resigned during second term)
Lyndon Johnson (Kennedy)* (Decided not to run for second term)
Harry Truman (FD Roosevelt)* (Decided not to run for second term)
Calvin Coolidge (Harding)* (Decided not to run for second term)
Theodore Roosevelt (McKinley)* (Decided not to run for second term, then ran later as a 3rd party candidate and was defeated)
Martin Van Buren (Jackson) (Defeated in re-election bid)
Thomas Jefferson (J Adams) (Elected twice and served two full terms)
*(Became the President when the office was vacated and then were elected in their own right afterwords.)
State Governors (State) (10)
George W Bush (Jr) (Texas)
Bill Clinton (Arkansas)
Ronald Reagan (California)
Jimmy Carter (Georgia) (1 term)
Franklin Roosevelt (New York) (Died early in his 4th term)
Woodrow Wilson (New Jersey)
William McKinley (Ohio) (Assassinated during second term)
Grover Cleveland (New York) (2 non-consecutive terms)
Rutherford Hayes (Ohio) (Declined to run for a second term due to campaign promise)
James Polk (Tennessee) (Declined to run for a second term due to health) Note: Polk was the only House Speaker to serve as President and served as Speaker of the House immediately before his election to the Presidency.
"Caretaker" Vice Presidents--Ascended to office due to the death or resignation of the President, but never elected to their own term as President. Only Ford received his party's nomination afterwords but Millard Fillmore was later nominated for the third-party Know-Nothing party in 1856.(5)
Gerald Ford (Nixon) (Defeated in attempt at his own term.)
Chester Arthur (Garfield) (Declined to run for office due to health)
Andrew Johnson (Lincoln) (Impeached and acquitted, then failed to win his party's nomination)
Millard Fillmore (Taylor)
John Tyler (WH Harrison)
Posts
