Diverse presidential campaign could produce some historic 'firsts'
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A look at the history-making potential of the 2008 field.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Field of firsts
The still-emerging 2008 presidential field might end up being one of the most diverse in American politics, presenting the possibility of some important 'firsts' — and a few 'seconds' — in White House history:
First female president
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York would not be the first woman to seek the presidency. That distinction belongs to Victoria Claflin Woodhull, who was the nominee of the National Radical Reformers in 1872. But Clinton is the first woman to be the acknowledged front-runner for the presidential nomination of a major political party.
First former first lady president
Clinton, the wife of former President Clinton, could make history as the first former first lady to be elected president. With her election to the Senate in 2000, she became the first former first lady to be elected to public office.
First African American president
African American presidential candidates are no longer the political rarity they were in 1972 when Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York ran for the Democratic nomination. But few have generated the kind of excitement as Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama's father was black, an immigrant from Kenya; his mother is white and from Kansas.
First Hispanic president
The growth of the Hispanic population in the United States is dramatically changing American politics, so much so that a Hispanic, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, is on nearly every list of potential presidential candidates for 2008. Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, 14 percent of the total population, compared with 12 percent for African Americans. Moreover, the Western states, where Democrats see growth potential, have high concentrations of Hispanic voters, a point Richardson has been making to Democratic audiences.
First Mormon president
Mormons have run for president before. In fact, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, a three-term governor of Michigan, made one of the strongest runs, in 1968. But the elder Romney dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination two weeks after the New Hampshire primary that year, having been dogged for months by his remark that he had been 'brainwashed' into supporting the Vietnam War. The younger Romney has avoided such gaffes about the war in Iraq, and he started distancing himself from President Bush's war policies nearly a year ago.
First Vietnam veteran president
Nearly every American war has produced presidents. Not so Vietnam. The last American troops left Vietnam on April 30, 1975, but in the more than three decades since, not one Vietnam veteran has been elected president, although two have been nominated by the Democratic Party: then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000 and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in 2004. But there are five possible candidates in 2008 who could change that: Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and Democrats Gore, Kerry and former NATO commander Wesley Clark.
First 70-something at first inauguration
Ronald Reagan was 69 at his first presidential inauguration. McCain, if he is elected president, would take over the presidency seven months shy of his 72nd birthday. Reagan was 73 at his second inauguration and 77 when he left the White House. McCain, if he serves two terms, would leave office at the age of 79.
First president born after JFK's inauguration
John F. Kennedy was the first American president born in the 20th century; his inauguration in 1960 is an appropriate milestone for measuring new generations of politicians. Everybody thinking about running for president in 2008 remembers Kennedy's inauguration except Obama. He wasn't born until six months after Kennedy declared that Americans should ask what they should do for their country.
First converted Catholic president
Kennedy was the first Catholic president. But either Clark or Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas would be the first president who converted to Catholicism.
Clark, whose father was Jewish and mother was Southern Baptist, was raised Southern Baptist. But the future NATO commander converted to Catholicism while serving in Vietnam. During his campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2004, he explained that he was drawn to the structure, balance and durability of the Catholic Church.
Brownback was a Methodist when he was elected to the Senate in 1996. But in 2002, he converted to Catholicism. He has not discussed the reasons for the conversion, but in his political career he has worked closely with Catholics and evangelical Christians in opposing abortion, stem cell research, human cloning and capital punishment.
First former mayor president
Rudolph Giuliani is trying to become the first former mayor elected president without serving in another office before his election to the White House. Grover Cleveland, the 22nd president of the United States, served as mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., but was governor of New York before winning the presidency. Giuliani served two terms as mayor of New York, from 1994 through 2001, earning national stature by leading the city through the tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
First orphan president since Hoover
Gov. Tom Vilsack, the two-term Democratic governor of Iowa, was orphaned at birth and adopted from a Catholic orphanage a few months later. If he is elected president, he will not be the first orphan to occupy the White House, however. Herbert Hoover, the 31st president, was orphaned by the age of 9.
First former House speaker president since Polk
No sitting senator has been elected president since Kennedy in 1960, but if the Senate is a difficult springboard to the presidency, it's still easier than the House. Even the speakership, a position that is now second only to the vice presidency in presidential succession, is not a great stepping stone. If Republican Newt Gingrich of Georgia is elected president, he would be the first former speaker to become president since James Polk, the 11th president. Polk served as speaker between 1835 and 1839, but he left the House and returned home to Tennessee to serve as governor before running for president. Gingrich, on the other hand, has not held elected office since leaving the House in 1999.
—Scott Shepard
statesman.com
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