Happy Zachary Taylor Day!

February 19, 2007


Zachary Taylor, this year's President of the YearIt’s President’s Day. Which really means nothing to most of us. It’s a day created from the hollowed hulks of two former, separate holidays – Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday. This joining of birthdays came from a decision by businesses and government agencies around the nation who assumed we didn’t need two days off in February. Rather, it should be more like one.

For those of us not in education or governmental positions, we don’t get the day off anyway. So whatever.

Regardless, I figured I’d better find a President to celebrate. I didn’t want to pick someone easy – like FDR or Lincoln – and I certainly didn’t want to alienate many of my readers (including a certain fellow Sioux Falls blogger over at Gadgetopia) by choosing my personal favorite, Bill Clinton (who wins the “personal favorite” title by default – he’s the only President I’ve voted for that has actually won).

I thought it would be fun to choose the last President to run under the Whig party. Unfortunately, I realized I’d be celebrating the life of Millard Fillmore, and I hate being associated with something so close to current conserva-comic Mallard Fillmore – a comic that seems to be around so newspapers can seem “fair and balanced” when running Doonesbury cartoons.

So, instead, I am here to celebrate the second-to-last Whig President of the United States: Zachary Taylor, a man who (if organized alphabetically by first name) comes last on the list of Presidents, whose name reminds most of us of famed child actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and who only spent 16 months as President of the United States of America before dying (the third shortest in history).

Taylor’s accomplishments are few. His cause of death is unknown, for the most part – it could have been cholera, or it could have been something very similar to cholera, or it could have been heat stroke. All we know is that his last words, “I should not be surprised if this were to result in my death,” were as uneventful as his presidency.

So take a moment and celebrate this man – a man of whom we barely know anything and of whom we could hardly care.

(Edit: Of course, after making this selection, I realized that Taylor’s Vice President was the aforementioned Millard Fillmore. Drat! Foiled!)

Tags: Random |

Comments

8 Responses to “Happy Zachary Taylor Day!”

  1. Deane on February 19th, 2007 447 pm

    A couple things…

    1. I didn’t mind Bill Clinton so much. I actually think he was a pretty good President. (I’m not a fan of W at all. Not one bit.)

    2. I think Mallard Fillmore is the stupidest cartoon on Earth. At least Doonesbury has some subtlety to it. Mallard Fillmore is like being beaten over the head with the conservative stick. Okay, okay, we get it: you’re conservative. Gosh, what sophisticated, finely-tuned wit you have.

    Stupid duck.

  2. Deane on February 19th, 2007 451 pm

    Another thing –

    Let’s celebrate Jimmy Carter. We can find common ground there, right? He was president when I just old enough to know what the president was, and I remember my parents liked him, and he seemed (and still seems) like an all-around good guy.

    Al Gore too, for that matter. He always seemed like a good man who got caught up in Bill’s libido issues. I would have voted for Al, I think…if I could vote, but that’s another story entirely.

  3. Corey Vilhauer on February 19th, 2007 519 pm

    Haha… I don’t think we’re as far apart as, say, you and Todd.

    I actually voted for Nader - a feat I’m not entirely proud of now.

    Yes - Jimmy Carter was a great guy, but I was alive for only the last one year, two months of his Presidency. My first memory of an acting President was Reagan.

  4. Deane on February 19th, 2007 537 pm

    I thought Reagan was a good man. His presidency got better as the years wore on after it. I don’t think everything he accomplished as president will be fully recognized and appreciated for 20 more years.

    And that’s the truth of a lot of it. Clinton took a lot of heat back in the day, but as the years have passed, I think people have grown to appreciate his leadership more. a few decades from now, history will treat him much more kindly than it does now.

    I wonder what history will say about W.

  5. Will on February 21st, 2007 257 pm

    “I wonder what history will say about W.”

    They will say he was the worst president of our lifetimes, and possibly the worst president ever.

  6. Deane on February 21st, 2007 357 pm

    USA Today’s On Deadline blog is just being ridiculous now in the topics they throw out there:

    “Magazine’s list of the USA’s 10 worst presidents”
    http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/02/magazines_list_.html

    Absolute, total comment troll bait. I’ve discussed On Deadline’s tendency to do this before;

    http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/5736

    Sorry, Corey — Mr. Taylor is on that list.

  7. Corey Vilhauer on February 22nd, 2007 841 am

    Let’s start a flame war on BMOWP!

    GORGE “W” BUSH IS TEH WORST PRESIDENT EVER! OMG YOU LIBS SUCK ASS! ROLF!

  8. Will on February 22nd, 2007 1037 am

    Dude, that was hilarious.

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