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November 06, 2004

Trivia: Senators and Presidents

Trivia question: Many senators run for President, but few are elected. How many sitting senators have been elected President? Name them.

Answer: Warren G Harding and John F Kennedy.

Kerry is only the latest sitting Senator who failed in this pursuit. Recent failures have been Bob Dole (1996), George McGovern (1972) and Barry Goldwater (1964). While nearly every Senator thinks that s/he should be President, only 2 have actually won the office while still serving in the Senate.

Posted by Kevin Murphy at November 6, 2004 11:30 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Lyndon B. Johnson
John F. Kennedy
Harry Truman - To VP for 4 months,then President
Andrew Johnson
Franklin Pierce

Posted by: Frank Martin at November 7, 2004 10:42 AM

Sorry, only one of those was a sitting Senator when elected president. Andrew Johnson was never elected president.

Posted by: Kevin Murphy at November 7, 2004 12:19 PM

Thats it, Im moving to Canada.

Posted by: Frank Martin at November 8, 2004 04:10 PM

So when are answers going to be posted?!

Posted by: clark at November 9, 2004 03:12 AM

See the extended entry for the answers.

Posted by: Kevin Murphy at November 9, 2004 07:41 AM

Given this history, you'd think political-climbing senators would wait until they had padded their resume with Governorship before they attempted to achieve the ultimate prize.

Posted by: clark at November 9, 2004 11:20 AM