When was the last time a POTUS only served one term?

[yeswecanandwedid]

I mean, I really thought Kerry was going to smoke Bush, but as we all know that didn't happen. It seems as if an incumbent has some sort of inherent advantage. Or am I missing something? When was the last time (barring a scandal) that an acting POTUS was ousted before his second term? (I know it's probably on Wikipedia but I like the conversation)

[KansDem]

1. Poppy Bush

One termer...

[Rhiannon12866]

9. +1

:)

[Mnemosyne]

11. Kinda', but we know who really ran things when Raygun was in office.

:hi:

[KansDem]

12. I see your point...

So was he a "3-term POTUS?"

[Mnemosyne]

31. He sure was, though unofficially. We know Raygun had Alzheimer's. n/t

[Pirate Smile]

2. Poppy Bush

[ChandlerJr]

3. Jimmy Carter 1980

[RandiFan1290]

7. 0/10

[Pool Hall Ace]

26. I would say Chandler Jr's answer could be considered correct

Poppy Bush was probably running the show while Reagan was propped up.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. George H.W. Bush

Everybody initially thought he would be a shoo-in for re-election too because of the first Gulf War.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Poppy bush

[lame54]

6. most dems of the 20th century did not

[AngkorWot]

8. Really?

[JVS]

10. You gotta be shitting me. Just in case you need to know, we drive on the right hand side of the road

[Enrique]

13. here's how I came up with the answer

I thought, did W serve two terms? Yes. Who was before him, Clinton, did he serve two terms? Yes. Who was before Clinton? Poppy Bush. Only served one term. Our answer!

[xmas74]

14. Bush I.

He was the last one term president.

[dtexdem]

15. Bush senior -- but that depends on what you mean by "served."

It could be argued that Bush junior had two terms but didn't serve any term.

But, then, Dubya should be convicted and then serve a very long term. ;-)

[TroglodyteScholar]

16. A lot of people are going to say Bush the First...

...but that answer is based on the assumption that Reagan was actually calling the shots when he was in the Oval Office.

How likely is that?

The first Bush was a three term president who wore a silly mask for the first two terms.

[DesMoinesDem]

17. Wow.

What the hell do they teach in school nowadays? They don't even go back 3 presidents? Do you know who the last president was? Seriously, where does your knowledge stop? At W or Clinton?

[benld74]

18. DAmn kid, when were you born?,,,,,

[MilesColtrane]

19. Embarrassing

[OmahaBlueDog]

30. Hey - we all have to learn sometime. Better to learn these things on the streets than in a classroom

...or from your parents.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. Bush the Preppy

President Gore did not serve the term to which he was elected. The usurper Bush the Frat Boy served two terms, but it is questionable whether he was elected to either.

[MineralMan]

21. That is what Google is for.

Thanks for listening.

[Raine]

22. SHOCKING that anyone here didn't know this

:wow: hopefully you actually knew but had some kind of temporary brain fart. :yoiks:

[LeftyMom]

23. Bush the elder. How young are you not to know that?

Do they not have Wikipedia on your planet?

[WilliamPitt]

24. Jesus Fucking Christ.

(headdesk)

[Pool Hall Ace]

28. No, I believe the correct answer is Jimmy Carter.

Please read the entire thread. ;)

JFC would not be eligible to be President of the United States, anyway.

[yeswecanandwedid]

25. Thanks for the responses...

I read and post while at work, knee deep in other things. I do recall bush 1.0, but hell I was like 14 years old around that time. thanks for not being too harsh.

[Tx4obama]

27. Here's a link. You can study it and learn a bit more about our presidents :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Presidents

[OmahaBlueDog]

29. It's more interesting if you look at more than one

For the most part, there's a common thread -- "It's the economy, stupid!"*

George H.W. Bush -- after Gulf War I, he had an approval around 90 and looked like a lock to coast to reelection. it was all downhill from there as the Reagan years caught up with us, and we ended up with a recession, government gridlock, and unemployment. He lost to Bill CLinton in '92. His cause was not helped by a third party candidacy by H. Ross Perot.

Jimmy Carter -- Elected for his youth and refreshing sense of candor, the Carter administration had a recession that featured double digit prime interest rates. As if that weren't bad enough, the American Embassy in Iran was taken hostage, and an attempt to free the hostages went disastrously wrong. Carter lost to Reagan in an epic landslide. His cause was not helped by an independent candidacy by John Anderson.

Gerald Ford -- Maybe he doesn't quite belong on the list. Ford took office when Nixon resigned. The economy was never great during the Ford years (those of us over 45 might remember the W.I.N. buttons), but Ford really never quite recovered from pardoning Tricky Dick. He lost a squeaker to Jimmy Carter.

Break time - At this time in 1947, it was an article of faith, like the sun rising in the east, that Harry Truman would be a one-termer, but he went on to defeat Tom Dewey. OK - break over.

Herbert Hoover - Hoover was in the first year of his Presidency when the sins of Harding and Coolidge and eight years of reckless exuberance on Wall Street came crashing down. He wasn't a bad guy in many ways, and would later serve FDR (and, by extension, America) overseeing war production in the 40s. He just didn't have any answers and was swept out of office in '32 by FDR. An indirect secondary cause may have been a general sense of dissatisfaction among Americans with the gangsterism that took hold during prohibition, and a desire to repeal the amendment outlawing booze.

W. H. Taft - I concede not knowing a lot about Taft. I do know it was a wild four-way election with W.H. Taft (who would go on to the SCOTUS) running as the Republican incumbent against former President Teddy Roosevelt (on the Bull Moose ticket with Hiram Johnson as VP), Democrat Woodrow Wilson, and Socialist Eugene Debs. Wilson won, and would be re-elected in '16 on the platform "He kept us out of war", and would then promptly take us into WW I. Personally (and I'll get in trouble with Skinner for this), I'd have voted for TR.

100 years of one termers.

Note that I don't count JFK, as he was assassinated and we'll never know for sure how he would have fared in '64.

* "it's the economy, stupid" was a theme of Bill Clinton's campaign against GHW Bush.

[boston bean]

32. Herbert Walker Bush. nt