Andrew Hagen

An interesting fact is that if George W Bush wins re-election on November 2nd and completes his term in 2009, it will be the first time in almost two hundred years that two or more US Presidents have served consecutive eight-year terms in office.

Thomas Jefferson’s presidency ranged from 1801 to 1809. Madison presided from 1809 to 1817. James Monroe served as President from 1817 to 1825. Since then, the US has not had consecutive eight-year presidencies.

Should Bush serve eight years, he will follow Bill Clinton’s eight year term in office.

There are interesting parallels. Bill Clinton’s middle name is “Jefferson.” Both were very smart men who suffered from sex scandals despite their many successes in office. During Madison’s presidency, foreign troops (British) attacked and burned down the White House and the Capitol. During Bush’s term, we have had the 9/11 attacks, where the White House and Capitol were both targeted by foreign terrorists. The Bush Doctrine has been compared, approvingly and disapprovingly, to the Monroe Doctrine.

In the election of 1816, when Madison was re-elected, his opponent was Rufus King, Senator from New York and member of the Federalist Party. Madison cruised to an easy victory. The Federalist Party opposed the War of 1812. As a result, the Federalist Party faded and never returned as a force in American politics. (*) Could the Democratic Party face the same fate as the Federalist Party? The Democrats have not been pragmatic enough on issues of national security, in my opinion. It’s possible that the antiwar, dogmatic approach could discredit the whole party. As a liberal, this concerns me.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 10th, 2004 at 11:26 and is filed under Election 2004, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.