The Harrisburg Patriot-News Election Special
November 4, 2008
With the election only a few days away, every media source is going to be pounded by poignant opinions, haberdashery, endorsements, and threats. In a change of pace, let’s do a bit of presidential trivia. Can you name the:
- Last time a Republican ticket won an election without a Bush or a Nixon on the ticket?
- Year and candidates that brought out the highest percentage of Americans to the polls?
- Number of consecutive elections had taken place with a sitting President or Vice President on the ballot (2008 excluded)?
- Territory of land purchased by the first Republican administration (and was dubbed “Seward’s Folley”) but is now represented on the Republican ticket.
- Only President elected to two non-consecutive terms was who?
- President who was never elected as a president or vice president by the American people?
- First President to lose in a bid for re-election?
- Party who had more Presidents, Democrats or Republicans?
- Last President elected that was neither a Republican nor a Democrat?
- Future President collected the most electoral votes and most popular votes in 1824, yet still lost the election (in the Corrupt Bargain)?
- How many of the 55 presidential elections did the winner NOT receive a majority of the national vote?
- Answer: True or False – young Barack Obama was legally old enough to consume alcohol when John McCain was first elected to Congress?
- Dominant religious domination of the 43 elected presidents?
- University that has produced the most presidents?
- Amount of children Sen. McCain has?
- Preferred game of admitted gamblers Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama?
- Number of Presidents from the 11 since the end of World War II that have been left-handed?
- Answer: True or False – A majority of the Presidents were Freemasons?
- Year that, adjusted for inflation, the President made more money – 1908 or 2008?
- How many Presidents have a military background?
1a. 1928 – Pres. Herbert Hoover
2a. 1876, when Pres. Rutherford Hayes lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden, but won the Electoral College. The turnout has stymied since.
3a. Thirteen straight elections, from 1956 until 2004.
4a.
5a. Pres. Grover
6a. Pres. Gerald Ford
7a. Pres. John Adams lost to his political rival, Pres. Thomas Jefferson
8a. The Republicans have elected 19 Presidents, while the Democrats have fielded 13.
9a. Pres. Zach Taylor, a Whig, was elected in 1848 but died just 16 months into office.
10a. Future Pres. Andrew Jackson lost to Pres. John Q. Adams.
11a. Sixteen.
12a. True – but Sen. Obama was a mere 11 years old when his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate.
13a. Twelve Presidents have at one time or another identified themselves as Episcopalian (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, W. Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Pierce, Arthur, F. Roosevelt, Ford, G.H.W. Bush). If Sen. McCain is elected, he would become the thirteenth.
14a. Harvard had a hand in educating six presidents (both
15a. Sen. McCain has seven children (Sydney, Doug, Andy, Meghan, Jack, James, Bridget)
16a. Sen. Obama prefers five-card stud, while Sen. McCain enjoys craps.
17a. Five (Truman, Ford, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton; both McCain and Obama are left-handed, making ½ of the most recent presidents left-handed even though only 1 in 10 Americans are a “southpaw”)
18a. False. Only fourteen (Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, A. Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, both Roosevelts, Taft, Harding, Truman, and Ford) of the 43 were Freemasons.
19a. 1908. In 2008, Pres. Bush was paid $400,000. In 1908, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, made $75,000, which would have been $1.7 million in today’s figures.
20a. Thirty-one presidents have had a military background. All of them, sans Pres. Buchanan, served as an officer. Sen. McCain would become the thirty-second.
