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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

How many US presidents served more than two terms?

In case anyone else is curious, I was debating this with Tom. I was absolutely sure that at least one president had served an extra term or two and I kinda thought that FDR and maybe one early president had served extra terms. Here's the answer:

How Many US Presidents Served More than One Term?
The simple answer to this question is that almost half of the United States presidents to date have served more than one term as president. In fact, 20 presidents in all have served more than one full term in office. They were: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Washington, Harry Truman, George W. Bush, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Richard M. Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, William McKinley and Abraham Lincoln.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is the only us president in history that served more than two terms in office. In fact, FDR was elected to 4 full terms in office. Unfortunately Roosevelt died during his 4th term and the remainder of the term was served by his Vice President, Harry S Truman.
In 1947 the Twenty-Second Amendment of the United States Constitution was passed. This amendment stated that a President cannot serve more than 10 years or two consecutive terms in office.
However, not every us President that served more than one term served them consecutively. Grover Cleveland was the only president that served two terms that were not in a row. Cleveland goes down in the American history books as both the 22nd and 24th President of the USA.
Out of the 20 us presidents that served more than one term as president, 11 individuals served two full terms. These presidents included: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Washington and George W. Bush.
There are also a handful of leaders that were originally elected as a Vice President and ended up serving part of a previous President’s term. Of these leaders 4 went on to be elected to their own term. This President’s include Harry Truman, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Lyndon B. Johnson.
These US presidents are not the only American leaders who served more than one term but less than two terms. Richard Nixon resigned during his second term after the Watergate scandal, while William McKinley and Abraham Lincoln were both assassinated during their second terms in the presidential office.

1 comment:

Sue said...

I just want to say I watched the president last night and I thought his conference was really good. People have come down on him for not following thru on what he promised during his running for the president. Well, to those people, he has only been in office for 60 days. I think he has a lot that was handed to him from the previous president to deal with and, so far, I think he is doing a fine job.

I would like to see if any of his complainers can do any better.

Yes, he has BIG shoes to fill, but let's give him a chance to see if his feet can grow to fit those BIG shoes.