Prime-number Presidents

[jaunthie]

After getting stuck in traffic this morning, fisherbear and I stopped for coffee before heading into the office. While chatting away, we came to the disturbing realization that neither one of us could name the first 10 presidents of the United States. This came up because I started wondering who all the prime-number presidents were. Our current president is a prime-number president (43), as was his father (41) and Nixon (37). In fact, the list of prime-number presidents is pretty fascinating:

• President #1: George Washington. 2 terms (declined to run again).


• President #2: John Adams. 1 term (lost reelection).


• President #3: Thomas Jefferson. 2 terms.


• President #5: James Monroe. 2 terms.


• President #7: Andrew Jackson. 2 terms.


• President #11: James Polk. 1 term; health broken by office, died shortly after leaving the White House.


• President #13: Millard Fillmore. Never elected (came to office on the death of President Taylor), 1 term (lost nomination).


• President #17: Andrew Johnson. Never elected (came to office on the death of President Lincoln), 1 term (nearly impeached).


• President #19: Rutherford B. Hayes. Winner of the first hugely disputed presidential election, he served 1 term by choice, declining to run again.


• President #23: Benjamin Harrison. 1 term; first President to lose the popular vote but win the electoral vote. Lost reelection.


• President #29: Warren G. Harding. 1 term; died in office.


• President #31: Herbert Hoover. 1 term, lost reelection.


• President #37: Richard M. Nixon. 2 terms; resigned in face of impeachment.


• President #41: George H.W. Bush. 1 term (lost reelection).


• President #43: George W. Bush. 2 terms, not yet completed.

Look into their individual histories, and it becomes even more interesting a list. I wonder if you could graph them on a scandal scale with any degree of accuracy?

Comments

[fisherbear.livejournal.com]

Being a "prime president" wasn't much of a distinction early on, since more presidents were than weren't through the Fillmore administration.

Since then, though, it's a pretty distinguished list - the only two to reach office cleanly and make it through a term without massive scandals were Hoover (and his record does have a minor blemish on it) and His Majesty Bush the First, who's probably the top performer on there... which says a lot, really.