# Historically, have any former presidents gone back to a "real job" after they served? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239 "2012-11-16T20:53:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/21 "2012-11-17T04:07:24Z")
> [@Turpentine](#): > > Lots of ex presidents have. Off the top of my head I know that William Howard Taft was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his presidency. Nitpick: Chief Justice of the United States: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2975/who-is-america-s-top-judge](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2975/who-is-america-s-top-judge) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/22 "2012-11-17T04:12:47Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I addressed this in the OP. Since they were wealthy aristocratic plantation owners, I didn’t consider that a “real job.” Why not? It’s work. You think he could sit on the veranda sipping mint julips, sending and receiving instructions and reports via cellhone back then? ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/23 "2012-11-17T20:43:39Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Why not? It’s work. You think he could sit on the veranda sipping mint julips, sending and receiving instructions and reports via cellhone back then? He was a wealthy and self-employed. He did as much work as he wanted to do. He could have hired a manager to do his managing. I don’t think of “real jobs” as ones that you CAN just quit a lunchtime if you want to and go sip mint julips on the veranda. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/24 "2012-11-18T04:14:24Z")
I see any legitimate job, regardless of its prestige status or wealth involved for the person performing the work, as a real job. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/25 "2012-11-18T04:38:10Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Not quite the same… Richard Nixon was a lawyer IIRC between his VP and P jobs. I’m sure any big law firm would be happy to add “former VP” to their list of partners. Buxib, Mudge… It’s worth notingt, too, that ‘rainmakers’ - ‘celebrity lawyers who attract clients – do play a ‘real’ role at major law firms. Their job is to land and schmooze the clients; the other senior partners’,v to work with the rainmakers and the junior partners/associates to assure that commitments are kept and the best advice given, and the junior partners’ and associates’ jobs are to carry out the actual work involved in what the others commit the firm to, Each has an important role in keep[ing it a financially sound, productive practice. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/26 "2012-11-18T05:35:55Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Not quite the same… Richard Nixon was a lawyer IIRC between his VP and P jobs. I’m sure any big law firm would be happy to add “former VP” to their list of partners. He did actual work, including at least one case where he argued before the Supreme Court. Nixon was never a wealthy man. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/27 "2012-11-18T08:49:04Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Why not? It’s work. You think he could sit on the veranda sipping mint julips, sending and receiving instructions and reports via cellhone back then? Of course not. Mint juleps weren’t invented until 1842. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/28 "2012-11-18T10:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Buxib, Mudge… Yhis should of course be Nixon, Mudge. (I gate developiing cataracts.)\_ ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/29 "2012-11-18T18:31:59Z")
I came in here to mention Jimmy Carter. Anyone who thinks Habitat for Humanity isn’t a “real job” should have their head examined. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/30 "2012-11-18T18:42:08Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Gerald Ford was on the board of several companies after his presidency, including the one my dad worked for. Hey, mine too! I’ve got a picture of my dad shaking Ford’s hand at a corporate event. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/31 "2012-11-19T15:43:39Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Taft, if you call being a Supreme Court Justice a real job. > > Not that it isn’t, I can just see where someone might pooh-pooh it. I’d call it a real job, but at the same time it doesn’t really fit the spirit of the OP. The fact that Taft was a former president almost certainly put him at the top of the Short Short Short List for potential Supreme Court Justices. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239/32 "2012-11-19T16:23:47Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > > [@suranyi](#): > > > > Gerald Ford was on the board of several companies after his presidency, including the one my dad worked for. > > Hey, mine too! I’ve got a picture of my dad shaking Ford’s hand at a corporate event. My parents have a photo of them with Ford taken at an anniversary event at the law school both he and my father attended. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-have-any-former-presidents-gone-back-to-a-real-job-after-they-served/641239.md?page=1)