Puzzler

Did I hear you guys say that there were 2 U S Presidents that serv 2 non consecutive terms? I so I think you will find that so far Grover Cleveland was the only one who did. There were 2 Harrisons but they were a Grandfather/Grandson team. Also they were separated by more than 1 term.

Later

Don Goldsbury

Minneapolis

Thanks, their answer didn’t make sense to me, but I didn’t remember the specifics.

It wasn’t that they served non-consecutive terms it’s that they “succeeded their successor”. So Grover Cleveland succeeded his successor when he was elected to his second term, but Benjamin Harrison succeeded Grover Cleveland, who would eventually be his successor so he also succeeded his successor.

It was pretty much all obfuscation. Worse than usual, IMHO.

OK, now I get it. They’re right, but a bit lame.

Now, which Presidents were elected because the vote for the opposition was divided by the unfair Plurality Voting System?

Example: George W Bush won in 2000 because Nader took enough votes away from Gore to give Bush Florida and New Hampshire.

Um, that isn’t why George W. Bush won. It [b]probably[/b] would have been the reason if the Supreme Court had let the Florida recount continue. The [b]real[/b] reason George W. Bush won was because the Supreme Court made a decision to stop the Florida recount and ruled in W’s favor.

Blaming Gore’s loss on Nader leads to a “what if” discussion that isn’t based on what really happened.

It should be a source of national shame that anyone can become President of the United States without receiving the majority of the votes. It is soooooooooo undemocratic.

Until we sanction run off elections between the two highest candidates , third parties won’t stand a chance and debacles like that are more likely to happen and many good people will continue to be driven out of politics.