How many of the previously elected POTUS's would have actually been elected, or even gotten their party's nomination, had they been scrutnized as thoroughly as present candidates are? Going back to FDR, my answer is 3--Truman, Eisenhower, and Ford.  

FDR had a decades long affair, and the general populace was unaware that he had polio, JFK was more a womanizer than even Clinton. LBJ and Nixon were power mad nut cases, GHWB accused of having an affair, GWB accused, and admitted coke user and alcoholic, and Obama........

-- Modified on 11/30/2011 9:11:06 AM

I would have voted for Ford instead.

Ahhhh, the mistakes of youth------

Jim Pendergast and his 'saloon politics' probably was a part of Truman's life, as at one time, HST was a KC saloon piano player. However, the connections were not widely known until later in Truman's life.

JFK, on the otherhand was a well known skirt chaser from the gitgo, but that was not given much attention in the media until long after his death.

My premise is that most unsavory facts on previous candidates were not given widespread public dissemination until after the individual was out of office. The 'old boy political network was well entrenched back then.

One interesting fact...Truman had no pension as a former POTUS, as none existed until Eisenhower was in office, and Congress approved a POTUS pension. Truman had only his military pension from his service in the US Army as a Captain, about $12,500/year. He was given offers of remuneration for endorsing products and services, which he refused in all.

...20/20.  Are you still trying to prove your fair and balanced bonafides?

Snow, I'm in agreement with that. I could personally give a fuck about a candidate's sex life. I just want a leader....kind of hard to come by these days. Seems as if now, the POTUS makes decisions based on the consensus of his political advisors, or what the daily poll results are.

...we didn't know before the election?  Womanizer, alcoholic, born in Kenya?  Your post was about skeletons in the closet which would have prevented a candidate's election had they been known, not his performance after being elected.

& I have nothing to prove at all. My disdain & regret about voting for Carter goes back over 30 years. Quite sincere.

conected to the Pendercast mob in KC for many years. It was in the press all thru his political life.

I think we lose a lot of potential leaders who would be good at the job.

In regards to sex and leaders, we need to be like Europe. When the old guy finally dies, the wife and mistress both go to the funeral, and no one is surprised.

Well, you asked....Obama's social security number, SSAN 042-68-4425, was previously issued to a gentleman that immigrated from France in 1924, Jean Paul Ludwig, and was issued that number in 1957. Mr. Ludwig lived most of his life in Connecticutt, where SSN's begin with 042, but lived the last years of his life in Hawaii. He died in Hawaii, and the Social Security Admin was never informed of his death, and because he never received any benefits, there were no benefits to stop, so no questions were ever raised.

Seems a bit odd that, Obama, never having worked or lived in Connecticutt would be issued an SSN from that state. I was not aware that SSN's could be legally reissued to subsequent individuals, especially if the death of the original recipient was never reported to the SSA. So, how did Obama come by that SSN? Who knows?

He was appointed Vice-President and became President after Nixon resigned.
He was never elected to either position.  
I don't think he was ever even elected to a state wide office in his home state of Michigan.

...by Snopes.com. Unless, of course, you think Snopes is part of the conspiracy to put a foreign-born Muslim in the presidency.

no voting record other than "present" no college records (sealed) no on from his college even remembers him. The media other tyhan Fox wouldn't even try and then label anyone who had anything on Obama a racist.

4 more years of him... we are all f--ked./