Presidentially Speaking: The lighter side of America’s commanders in chief

The presidential election of 2016 is less than a week away. Campaign tactics on both sides have been anything but pleasant, leaving a rather bitter taste in the mouths of most American voters. As we wait out the last days before the decision is made as to the next occupant of the White House, here’s a chance to look on the lighter side of elections, the office and its previous occupants.

Presidential firsts

George Washington was the first president to be depicted on a postage stamp.

It was Andrew Jackson who was the first president to ride on a railroad train. Jackson was also the first president to marry a divorced woman.

First to be born a citizen of the United States was Martin Van Buren.

John Tyler was the first president to get married while in office and also the first whose wife died while still in office.

The first (and only) president to never marry was James Buchanan.

Abraham Lincoln had several firsts in his role as president, including the first to wear a beard, first to obtain a patent and the first to be assassinated.

It was Ulysses S. Grant who was the first president whose parents were still living when he took the oath of office.

First to visit a foreign country while in office, first to ride in an automobile and first to win a Nobel Peace Prize was Theodore Roosevelt.

William H. Taft was the first president to throw out the first pitch to open a Major League Baseball season.

Herbert Hoover was the first president to have a telephone on his desk.

First to appear on television was Franklin Roosevelt.

Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, was appointed by Lyndon Johnson.

Gerald Ford was the first president to release a full medical report to the public.

Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital. He was also the first president sworn into office using a nickname.

The country’s first president to have been divorced was Ronald Reagan.

Bill Clinton was the first president to be a Rhodes Scholar.

Election/Voting quotes

“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” — Mark Twain

“In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.” — George Carlin

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” — Winston Churchill

“A vote is like a rifle: Its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“Why pay money to have your family tree traced? Go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” — Author Unknown

“Somebody asked me about the current choice we’re being given in the presidential election. I said, ‘Well, it’s like two of the scariest movies I can imagine.’” — Dean Koontz

Did you know?

John Quincy Adams regularly swam nude in the Potomac River.

The presidential trend of wearing trousers rather than knee breeches was started by James Madison.

After his Mexican War victories, Zachary Taylor received a lot of fan mail. So great was the volume that he began refusing all postage-due letters. For this reason, it was almost a month before he heard that the Whig Party had nominated him for president.

John Adams spoke with a lisp because he refused to wear dentures.

A larger bathtub was installed in the White House after William Taft got his 300-pound self stuck while bathing. The new tub was 7 feet long and 41 inches wide.

Millard Fillmore’s wife, Abigail, had the first cooking stove installed in the White House. The cook couldn’t figure out how to use it, so the president went to the U.S. Patent Office, read the information on the patent for the stove, then went home and taught the cook how to use the new appliance.

In 1935, all airplane flights over the White House were barred. This was not for security reasons but because the noise disturbed the sleep of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Lyndon B. Johnson proposed to his wife, Lady Bird, on their first date, which was a breakfast. He then bought her a $2.50 ring.

Ringing the buzzer for the servants, then hiding, was Calvin Coolidge’s way of having fun.

Chester A. Arthur had more than 80 pairs of pants and insisted on changing several times a day.

Election Day

The Constitution does not state when Election Day should be, which meant that in the early 1800s, people could vote from April to December.

The only state where it is not necessary to register in order to vote is North Dakota.

Jehovah Witnesses don’t vote in presidential elections.

Democrats use a donkey as their mascot thanks to Andrew Jackson. When his critics called him a “jackass” because of his populist views, he embraced the image, even using it alongside his slogan, “Let the people rule.”

Cartoonist Thomas Nast created the Republican elephant. In a cartoon that appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1874, Nast drew a donkey clothed in lion’s skin, scaring away all the animals at the zoo. One of those animals, the elephant, was labeled “The Republican Vote.”

During the 1920 presidential election, a candidate from a third party, Eugene V. Debs, ran his presidential campaign from prison. He was in jail for opposing WWI. He ultimately won 3 percent of the popular vote.

American astronauts on the International Space Station can vote in elections from orbit by secure email.

In the 1984 presidential election, Ronald Reagan received both the highest number of popular votes and the highest number of electoral votes in the history of U.S. presidential elections. These numbers have yet to be surpassed by another presidential candidate.

The first U.S. presidential election was in 1789. Only white men who owned property could vote, a stipulation that prohibited 94 percent of the population from casting a ballot.

As of 2012, the United States was ranked 139th out of 172 countries in voter participation.

The state of Nevada allows voters to mark “none of these candidates” on the ballot. The option has been on the ballot since 1976 and plenty of voters have used it.