ADAMS and BUSH: Coincidence...?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I realize I had a similiar topic to this (albeit more seriously) on the old SDMB. Funny thing is I don’t know even what happened to all our old threads. Can we still get to them? I honestly don’t know. Anyways, I’ve chosen to share this story with you all again. Please notice that I have made a few additions to the story too. Enjoy!

THE ADAMS/BUSH COINCIDENCES. These were the only presidents to
follow one another as father-and-son pres.'s. Both couples were
differentia-
ted by a middle name ore initial. Both father-pres.‘s were VP’s of
charismatic conservatives that came before them, and were followed
by charismatic leaders of the opposing party(both w/a “Jefferson” in
their names)–ea. fath. serving just
one term. Both fath.‘s started into a new decade and had a son start
into a whole new century. Adams’ “A” is before Bush’ “B”. Both sons
had a VP whose last name began with a “C” and a wife whose
first…“L”. Fate must not like sons to follow their fathers as
pres., because neither son had a majority of the country’s
support–John Q. Adams was elected by our Congress!

MY PREDICTION: Both Adams only served one term. Both were then followed by a member of the opposing party too. John Q. Adams was followed by a Democrat from Tennesee whose first name began with an “A”–Andrew Jackson. Albert Gore is from Tennessee. Hey, stranger things have been known to happen.

BTW, I recently read on the internet that the so-called Tecumseh Curse is alive and well. That is when a president elected in a yr. ending in zero dies in office. If that is true, I wonder how that will fit in with the “curse” I have discovered. Oh, well. Wait and learn.

TTFN:D

2

BTW, I certainly support our present president and wish him good health and long life.

3

Also, Q and W both beat a Democrat from Tennessee in the electoral college but not in the popular vote. I’d say there was a corrupt bargain but I don’t want to turn this into another Election 2000 thread.

4

At last, a topic on which I’m an expert!

AGES ago, I wrote an article… well it wasn’t really an article, and I didn’t really WRITE much… but I submitted n ida t the Skeptical Inquirer, listing all kinds of “spooky” Presidential coincidences. My basic point was that you could find “eerie” parallels between all kinds of people not just between Lincoln and Kennedy.

Among my favorites:

  1. Washington and Eisenhower both have 10 letters.
  2. Washington and Eisenhowewere both generals in the U.S. army, and defeated the most powerful nation in Europe.
  3. Neither belonged to aplitical party before becoming Preident.
  4. Both gave famous farewell speeches warning the U.S. against unwise foreign policies.
  5. Both were succeeded by Harvard graduates named John, from prominent Massachusetts political dynasties.

And don’t get me started on the "eerie"parallels between Garfield and McKinley!

5

Also, George Bush and John Adams (not Goerge W. Bush and John Q. Adams) were both born in Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

As for the Tecumseh Curse, what about Reagan, elected in '80?

6

Simple. Brain death. :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Funny thing you should ask about Reagan, waterj2. Because I was reading about that very topic on the internet. I don’t fully remember the story. But it went something like this:

There was a chance astrological planetary alignment that saved Reagan! And–get this–Mrs. Reagan knew of the curse. But her astrologer told her how she could use astrology to avoid the curse! (In case you don’t remember, there was a controversy about the seemingly conservative Reagans having an astrologer).

I couldn’t make this stuff up.

8

No, the curse isn’t about dying in office; it WAS, until Reagan served his term, but now the curse is that a president elected in a 20-year year will either die OR have an assassination attempt while in office (recall Hinckley shooting Reagan).

And yes, I’ve seen many, many, MANY lists of “eerie” presidential similarities, including the Garfield/McKinley thing, and folks, please don’t put too much effort into these. It’s along the lines of the whole “Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz” thing a few years back; I haven’t tried it, but I’ll bet you even money you could do that with any movie and any album.

I suppose there would be general guidelines, of course; if the movie is fantastical, you’d want an album with lots of wild imagery, say “Houses of the Holy” or “Fragile”; if the flick is a love story, you’d want “Tapestry” or possibly the White Album. For a gritty Scorsese flick, maybe a Tom Waits album? Hmm, I see a thread in this…

OK, just riffing here. How the hell did I get from the Tecumseh curse (a term I’ve never heard before) to this?

9

How about dissimilarities!?

Both Adams were great men in their own right. Both Bushes were not.

10

I still think the Adams have been insulted.

11

Moderator’s Notes:
Given your proclivities, DPWhite and rjung, I’m gonna have to ask both you guys to not turn yet another thread into a Bushbash. If you wanna bitch about our president and his skills, or rather lack of them, you may either do so in the Pit. I won’t allow it in this this forum, however.

12

The whole “Star Wars”/SDI scheme was part of his deal with Saturn not to kill him. I had assumed that this was common knowledge.

13

Tonight, on SDMB…we demonstrate that you can balance eggs on the equinox! Tomorrow night, toilet flushing in reverse in the lower hemisphere! Thrill to the excitement as we talk about the dangers of flashing your headlights at gang members!

14

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White
House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both were shot in the head.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners.

Both successors were named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth,was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald,was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are comprised of fifteen letters

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here’s the kicker,
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

Courtesy of discovergames.com

15

No offense, abel, but I think we’ve pretty much all heard these.

By the way, I know a guy whose name–I swear this is true–is Lee Harvey Kennedy.

16

Hands down, the weirdest song I ever heard on “Cowboy Joe’s Radio Ranch,” erstwhile Saturday morning roots-music program on WKCR-New York:

(tuning up the old Martin and yodeling in a quavery voice)
“Lee Harvey was a friennnnnnnnd…of minnnnnne
He used to take me fishin all the timmmmmme
He used to throw the ball to me
When I was just a kid
They say he shot the Presidennnnnnt
But I don’t thinnnnnnnnk he did.”

17

But wait…there’s more!

If history repeats itself, Bush will get beaten by a Democrat iin 2004. The Democrat will serve 2 terms and be followed by his veep. The veep will, unfortunately, serve during a major depression in the economy. He’ll be beaten by a third party candidate in the next election, but this pres. will die in office and be followed by his own veep, who’ll so alienate everyone that he’s essentially a man without a party (let’s see…that gets us down to Tyler…). A series of mostly mediocre presidents will serve until…doing the quick math…2035.

We won’t have another Republican president until 2035. I say break out the champagne!

18

My apologies jackalope, nobody had mentioned them, and they seemed on topic to me. I thought in a thread dealing with coincidences between two presidents, it might be appropriate. Hopefully a few people at least hadn’t seen that list before, but next time I’ll just provide the link, and be less obnoxious.

19

And when Dubya leaves office alive, and without an attempt made on his life that anyone besides the Secret Service notices, the Tecumseh curse will become “die in office, or be near-victim of an assassination attempt while in office, or terrorists fly planes into large buildings during his term”.

It’ll be The Ever-Widening Curse. :smiley:

20

That’s assuming that Dubya does leave office unharmed. With all the enemies he’s made in the last year or so, I’d say that the likelyhood of something happening to Dubya is quite a bit higher than it was for, say, James K Polk.