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    Sunday, August 31, 2008

    Doris Kearns Goodwin is an idiot

    Doris Kearns Goodwin just said on MTP that "Nearly 1 out of 3 vice presidents have actually become president, mostly because of the death or assassination or the resignation of a president."

    Huh?
    • John Tyler succeeded WH Harrison, who died in office
    • Fillmore succeeded Zachary Taylor, who died in office
    • Andrew Johnson succeeded the assassinated Lincoln
    • Chester A Arthur succeeeded Garfield, who died in office
    • McKinley was assassinated and succeeded by TR
    • Silent Cal Coolidge succeeded Harding
    • Truman succeeded FDR, who passed in office
    • Johnson succeeded JFK, who was assassinated
    • Ford succeeded Nixon, who resigned

    So, Doris Kearns Goodwin, that exceptional presidential scholar and master of the obvious makes a statement that VP's succeed presidents on the heels of their death, assassination (isn't this death?), or resignation, then she demonstrates why she wasn't a math major by inflating the number of VP's who have succeeded Presidents for those causes, it's less than 1 in 4, not nearly 1 in 3.

    She's another Democratic partisan hack and always has been.

    2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Find a trusted adult and have them look up the word "mostly" in the dictionary. She included succession. Context is a bitch, huh.

    Jay said...

    Hey anonymous, the "context" of the discussion, which I left out in her quote, was with respect to the qualifications of Sarah Palin and she was commenting on how many vice presidents have had to assume the office unexpectedly, thus making their credentials on day one important.

    9 VP's have fallen into that category.

    Now, if you want to add the 5 VP's who were later elected President, that would bring the number to 13 and is pretty much right on 1/3. However, would we be arguing experience on those other 5?

    So, I guess she's technically right, and as a left wing partisan yourself (anonymous usually is), thanks for coming to her defense.