#post-presidency

[deadpresidents]

"All I could accomplish would be to make a fool of myself. I don't hold public office. I don't have a party position. I don't have a party platform. I don't have any troops. The only thing more impotent than a former President is a cut dog at a screwing match."

-- Former President Lyndon B. Johnson, when asked how involved he planned to be during the 1972 Presidential campaign.

[douxbebearchives]

Are there FFs that pick up where the show ended? I am just watching the series' end, and it left me disappointed.

Hi there. Yes, there are! Here are a few categories that might interest you:

Post-Presidency

Season 7

Post-Finale

Thank goodness for fanfic!

[deadpresidents]

Have you ever written a letter to a president and got a response?

I've been a Presidential history nerd since I was a little kid. I don't know when I first became interested in the Presidents or what specifically piqued that interest, but I know that I can't remember a time where it wasn't something I wanted to learn everything I could possible learn about it. So when we'd go to the school library in elementary school, my friends would check out age-appropriate kids books and I would check out full-fledged Presidential biographies.

So, yes, I absolutely wrote letters to Presidents and I still have some of the responses I received. As a kid, I sent a letter to the White House whenever there was a new President because I never forgot what happened the first time I wrote to a President. I was probably 7 or 8 years old and back when the phone companies would publish yellow pages and white pages, they would have sections with contact information for government officials. I saw that there was an address for the White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW), so I wrote a letter to President Reagan. I have no idea what I wrote at the time, but I remember that I got a big envelope from the White House with a little note written on fancy paper with the Presidential seal and a signed photo of the President, as well as a little booklet about the White House. I don't have that first letter from Reagan, but after he left office, I had learned about the Presidential Libraries and the fact that former Presidents had post-Presidential offices. I wrote to former President Reagan at his office in Los Angeles and received pretty much the same thing I had been sent while he was still in office. I do still have that:

I wrote to President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton when they were in the White House, too. President Bush sent a letter and photo and President Clinton sent a photo:

Those were the last incumbent Presidents that I wrote to while they were in the White House. I turned 13 years old when President Clinton took office in 1993 (and I mean that literally -- believe it or not, my birthday is Inauguration Day) and while I was still interested in Presidential history, I was also interested in girls, so I kind of grew out of the letter-writing. But when I was a teenager, I did also write to former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter at their post-Presidential offices. Sadly, I didn't get around to writing to former President Nixon before he died in 1994, so I never received anything from him. I regret that I didn't write to him in time because that's around the time I wrote to former Presidents Ford and Carter.

But President Ford and President Carter really made my nerdy letter writing all worthwhile. The letters and photos I received from President Reagan, President Bush, and President Clinton were all signed by an auto-pen, as you would expect for someone responding to as much mail as the President of the United States does.

However, President Ford and President Carter sent me photos with their actual autographs! I remember Ford sent some packets of information about himself and a copy of an interview where he answered a bunch of questions about stuff that kids might be interested in. Carter also sent something like that, as well as a folder with information about the Carter Center and the work it does around the world. But the coolest thing to receive were the photos with their genuine autographs on them. I took advantage of that and actually wrote to President Ford several times when I was a teenager (I don't know why I seem to have written to President Carter only once) in hopes that his office would send me more autographs and they did!

Looking back, I wish I never would have grown out of writing letters to Presidents because those are all really cool little souvenirs, especially for a Presidential history fanatic. It would have been fun to have similar things from other Presidents. But if you have a kid or if you are a kid (if you are a kid, I sure hope you have parental permission to read my blog because I say bad words sometimes) with interest in the Presidents/Presidential history, it's really fun to write to the President or former President and get something back. At one point, you could just drop a letter in the mail addressed to "THE PRESIDENT, Washington, D.C.) and it would be delivered to the incumbent in the White House, but I'm not sure if they do that anymore. But it's super easy to find the mailing address to the White House or to the post-Presidential offices of former Presidents online. Presidents and former Presidents have franking privileges, so it's also cool to get a big envelope with a President's signature in the place of stamps. If you're a teacher of younger kids who are learning about the Presidents or Presidency, it's also a cool little project to do. When I was running afterschool programs many (way too many) years ago, I did that with my students and they all received photos from the President at the time (George W. Bush), along with a letter that was addressed to the entire group as a whole.

[deadpresidents]

"You and I ought not to die, before We have explained ourselves to each other."

-- John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 15, 1813, during an exchange in their remarkable post-Presidency correspondence, which lasted until they died just hours apart from one another on the same exact day, which also happened to be the 50th Anniversary of Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826.

[deadpresidents]

Just after the 2008 election, outgoing President George W. Bush invited all of the living former Presidents to the White House for a private lunch with President-elect Obama. A memorable Oval Office photograph shows the Bushes, Bill Clinton, and Obama chatting like old friends on the left, with Carter standing alone on the right. One of the Presidents confided later that the photo perfectly captured the chemistry of their meeting and lunch that day. The other Presidents gave Obama convivial advice on the peculiarities of the office, while Carter wanted to press his serious policy agenda. Carter later told Brian Williams of NBC News that the body language was deliberate because "I feel that my role as a former President is probably superior to that of other Presidents."

-- Jonathan Alter, writing about a lunch at the White House on January 7, 2009 with all living American Presidents and President-elect Barack Obama which highlighted the often-strained relationships that former President Jimmy Carter had with his successors, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO).

[deadpresidents]

I hope I'm not jinxing things, but do you see President Harris picking former President Obama for the next vacancy on the SCOTUS?

I'd be stunned if President Obama had any interest in being nominated to the Supreme Court. I think any former President would have a difficult time adjusting to being one of nine justices after the experience of being the most powerful person in the world during their Presidency. President Obama has a deliberative temperament, but I think the judiciary requires an entirely different form of deliberation and I imagine Obama would feel handcuffed as a member of the Supreme Court.

William Howard Taft was appointed to the Supreme Court after leaving the White House and spent nearly nine years (1921-1930) as Chief Justice, but he's the exception to the rule when it comes to former Presidents and the Court. Taft was a judge before he was an executive, and it was his lifelong dream to sit on the Supreme Court, not to be President. Taft had actively worked to be appointed to the Supreme Court as far back as 1889 when Benjamin Harrison was President, but the politics or the timing just never worked out in his favor until after his Presidency. If it had been up to Taft, he would have gladly traded his time in the Executive Branch (under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt) and four years in the White House for a seat on the Supreme Court.

Despite his background in Constitutional law, I think Barack Obama has always been an activist at heart, and while we now have a hyper-political Supreme Court, I don't see the judiciary as the place where Obama wants to spend the rest of his post-Presidency.

(Plus, if/when a President Harris fills a vacancy on the Supreme Court, it's probably best if she picks someone younger than Obama in order to lock down that seat for as long as possible.)

[deadpresidents]

Have any Vice Presidents later run for Governor or other office besides President after their terms?

Yes. Not counting those who served as President or ran for President following their time as Vice President, or the seven Vice Presidents who died in office (George Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, William R. King, Henry Wilson, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret Hobart, and James S. Sherman), here are the VPs who sought other offices post-Vice Presidency:

•Aaron Burr (1801-1805): Lost race for Governor of New York in 1804 during his Vice Presidency. •Daniel D. Tompkins (1817-1825): Lost race for Governor of New York in 1820 during his Vice Presidency. •John C. Calhoun (1825-1832): Resigned the Vice Presidency to join in the U.S. Senate from South Carolina (1832-1843); Served as Secretary of State (1844-1845) in the last stretch of the Tyler Administration; Elected again to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina (1845-1850) after serving as Secretary of State.

•Richard M. Johnson (1837-1841): Lost race for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky in 1842; Served two separate terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1841-1843; 1850) after his Vice Presidency. Died two weeks into his second post-Vice Presidential term in the state legislature.

•John Tyler (1841): After serving as Vice President and President, and following Virginia's secession from the Union in 1861, Tyler was elected as a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress. Tyler was also elected to a full term in the Confederate House of Representatives but died just before taking his seat in February 1862.

•George M. Dallas (1845-1849): Appointed U.S. Minister to Great Britain (1856-1861) by President Pierce and served under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan before being replaced early in the Lincoln Administration.

•John C. Breckinridge (1857-1861): Elected to a U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky while still Vice President. After administering the oath of office to his successor as Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, Breckinridge was immediately sworn into the Senate by Hamlin. Although Kentucky remained neutral during the Civil War, Breckinridge supported the Confederacy and joined the Confederate military while still a sitting Senator, resulting in treason charges in November 1861 and, a month later, unanimous expulsion from the Senate. Breckinridge became a general in the Confederate Army and served as Confederate President Jefferson Davis's final Secretary of War.

•Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865): Briefly served as Collector of the Port of Boston (1865-1866) after being appointed by President Andrew Johnson. Elected U.S. Senator from Maine (1869-1881). Served as U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1881-1882) under Presidents Garfield and Arthur.

•Andrew Johnson (1865): After his brief Vice Presidency and nearly four years as President, Johnson lost races for the U.S. Senate (1869) and U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee. Elected as U.S. Senator from Tennessee in 1875 and died in office.

•William A. Wheeler (1877-1881): Wheeler was considered as a candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York on several occasions following his Vice Presidency but never made a serious bid for election.

•Levi P. Morton (1889-1893): Served as Governor of New York (1895-1896).

•Adlai E. Stevenson (1893-1897): Lost race for Governor of Illinois in 1908.

•Charles W. Fairbanks (1905-1909): Fairbanks was the Republican nominee for Vice President on a ticket alongside Presidential nominee Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 but they lost to incumbent President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas R. Marshall.

•Charles G. Dawes (1925-1929): Served as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain (1929-1931), appointed by President Hoover.

•Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945): After being dumped as Vice President in favor of Harry Truman when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a fourth term in 1944, FDR appointed Wallace Secretary of Commerce where he served from 1945-1946 under Roosevelt and Truman

•Alben W. Barkley (1949-1953): Elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky after his Vice Presidency and served from 1955 until dying in office in 1956.

•Richard Nixon (1953-1961): After losing his first bid for the White House in 1960, Nixon also lost a race for Governor of California in 1962 after leaving the Vice Presidency before making a remarkable comeback to win the Presidency in 1968.

•Hubert H. Humphrey (1965-1969): Elected to his former seat in the U.S. Senate from Minnesota and served until dying in office (1971-1978).

•Walter Mondale (1977-1981): U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1993-1996), appointed by President Clinton. In 2002, Mondale lost a race for U.S. Senate from Minnesota when he was the last-minute replacement on the ballot after Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash.

[deadpresidents]

Is it true that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have an uneasy relationship?

I'm sure everything has mellowed over the years since Clinton left office, but they absolutely had a frosty relationship. They had issues dating back to when Clinton was Governor of Arkansas and Carter was still the incumbent President and they seemed to pick up where they left off once Clinton was in the White House.

In fact, there was tension between Carter and his four immediate successors (Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43). While most former Presidents of the post-World War II era have largely avoided criticizing the incumbent Presidents, Carter was often very candid about certain policy or political issues after leaving office. Carter's work around the globe with the Carter Center was also sometimes seen as influencing or interfering with White House initiatives or events for several different Administrations.

As Jonathan Alter wrote in his excellent 2020 biography of Carter, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO):

Carter traveled to more than 140 countries after leaving office -- returning to several of them more than a dozen times -- and he said he always kept the State Department apprised of his trips. But the notifications were often pro forma, as if he merely had to check a box before going off on his own. It was no secret that Carter was not a member in good standing of the ex-Presidents' club, in part because he never accepted their code. The unwritten rules aren't complicated: former Presidents are expected to build their libraries and at least try to hold their tongues about the incumbent, not complain -- as Carter often did -- that the policy is wrong or they are underused by the President. No one sitting in the Oval Office likes the idea of a freelance Secretary of State. At the same time, five of the six Presidents who succeeded Carter (all except Reagan) recognized the usefulness of his vast knowledge and high-level contacts. The challenge for them was managing their high-maintenance predecessor. When Carter was President, he took care to cultivate relationships with his living predecessors -- Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford -- and he welcomed their support on China, the Panama Canal, and other issues. After leaving office, he got along exceptionally well with Ford, who joined him on several post-Presidential projects. Ford and Carter promised that each would deliver the eulogy if the other died first. Ford did, and Carter remembered him warmly at his funeral in 2006. George H.W. Bush believed the Ford-Carter bond "set a wonderful example of cooperation and friendship" between old rivals. Carter's successors were a different matter. He said he had "okay relations" with the Bushes -- especially George H.W. Bush -- and Donald Trump in his first two years. It was the Democratic Presidents, Clinton and Obama, whom he found "cooler and more aloof." No one who watched their interactions over the years would be left to wonder why.

Regarding that relationship between Carter and Clinton, Alter also wrote:

During the 1992 Presidential campaign, the tensions between Carter and Bill Clinton of a dozen years earlier resurfaced. "People are looking for somebody who is honest and tells the truth," Carter said in a remark that took on added meaning because it came amid the first national stories of Governor Clinton lying about sex. Clinton, for his part, worried that Carter's failures as President would rub off on another southern governor and hurt his chances. After the election, Clinton wouldn't take Carter's calls. He finally handed him off to Warren Christopher, his transition director and choice for Secretary of State. "Chris" quickly grew tired of Carter, too, and fobbed him off on his undersecretary, Peter Tarnoff. Carter felt snubbed. Clinton's basic problem with Carter was that he too often crossed the line from expressing his views on a subject to saying the President "should" do something. Carter admitted later that while he didn't intend to be personally critical, "I may not always have succeeded.".... ....As Carter moved around the world, the Clinton White House had no confidence that he would limit himself to his assigned mission without making concessions that the President never approved. The White House knew that Carter understood that recalling a former chief executive like some errant ambassador was difficult if not impossible, which meant that he could hog glory and operate outside the President's control. This happened twice in 1994 [in North Korea and Haiti], a year that was simultaneously the peak of Carter's success as a peacemaker and the nadir of his forty-year relationship with Clinton.