Presidential Fathers
Presidents often have complicated relationships with their dads. Ronald Reagan certainly did. And Bill Clinton never really knew his own father. And Obama? Don't get him started.
So did Gerald Ford. From Newsmax:
At the other end of the scale ranks Leslie Lynch King Sr., Gerald Ford’s father. He fares badly for his heavy drinking, for leaving Ford’s mother just weeks after Gerald was born, and for refusing to pay child support. It was so bad that Gerald took his stepfather's surname and met his biological father only once.
And what about the dads who had a good impact on their White House-bound sons?
Teddy Roosevelt Sr. ensured greatness for his son — bringing him up with trips to the Amazon, private foreign language tutors, taxidermy instruction and a set of weights after an unpleasant physical altercation with a bully.
Prescott Bush, father of the first President George Bush and John Adams, whose son John Quincy Adams followed him into the presidency also rank highly.
People often say that you have to have something wrong with you to want to be president. I'm not sure that's true. But it does seem -- at least for a lot of American presidents -- that the kind of father you have matters.
True for us all, I guess.
Happy Father's Day.
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Comments:
Feb '12
Re: Presidential Fathers
'People often say that you have to have something wrong with you to want to be president.' Couldn't be more father from the truth..
Re: Presidential Fathers
Nicely done.
Feb '12
Re: Presidential Fathers
Rob, your snappy, witty posts deserve nothing more.. Cheers.
Feb '12
Re: Presidential Fathers
..or less Cheers.
Jun '10
Re: Presidential Fathers
Or...the great father of a plausible but unwilling President:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19dtVJTmzQ
Oct '11
Re: Presidential Fathers
John Adams loved his own father, as well. Coincidentally, John Adams's father's name was John Adams. He was a farmer. Apparently, John Adams, Jr, was somewhat upset when John Quincy Adams named his first born son George Washington Adams. He named his second son John Adams, though.
Sep '10
Re: Presidential Fathers
Apparently tomorrow would have been Barack Sr.'s 76th birthday.
Also, looking at that same Wikipedia page we see his son referred to as Barack II.
Re: Presidential Fathers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19dtVJTmzQ · 3 hours ago
I agree. I like her a lot.
Nov '10
Re: Presidential Fathers
Didn't Romney's great grandfather take multiple wives? But both his father and paternal grandparents were monogamous.
Feb '12
Re: Presidential Fathers
The Founding Fathers and the Charters of Freedom..
Nov '10
Re: Presidential Fathers
So --if I understand you correctly-- you might become president if you had a bad father. Or a good one. Thus fatherhood matters. Huh?
Jan '11
Re: Presidential Fathers
It's been awhile since I read the book, but in The Political Animal, by the BBC's Jeremy Paxman he takes on various Prime Ministers' relationships with their fathers. He found that a surprising number of them had lost a parent (mainly the father) before reaching adulthood. The ratio was at around 10 times that of a normal British subject. Paxman suggests that this may engender an identification with the parent who died and an attempt to take their place.
The same factor may be at work if the relationship with the father is poor or if he is absent.
Take the conclusion with a grain of salt, but I found the numbers fascinating.
Oct '11
Re: Presidential Fathers
No, I think his great-great-grandfather had multiple wives. Of course, Obama's own father had multiple wives.
Mar '11
Re: Presidential Fathers
Having been abandoned by my own father as a young child, this makes sense.
There is a tendency for fatherless sons to need to be loved by everyone around them, which can be very useful when gathering votes. At the same time, being rejected by your own father hurts a man more than almost any other type of rejection, probably making it easier to bounce back from an electoral loss and keep going.
Finally, there is something, I'm still not sure what, about growing up fatherless which gives one a unique insight into human nature. People of all stripes have long told me that I have a knack for knowing what they are thinking or about to say before they say it or even think it. This is probably what allows some candidates to "feel your pain" and make you think they understand you, the voter, better than any of the other candidates.
Heck, maybe I need to run for office. On second thought, no.
Edited on June 18, 2012 at 5:31pm