I know there was supposed to be a curse where every president elected in a year 60-80-00 would die in office.
I also know Reagan foiled this but only by minutes.
You think this president might get shot also?
What happens if Bush dies, then Cheney dies?
Thomas Jefferson was elected in 1800 and nothing happened to him.
Very funny. He’s still alive then?
The “curse” is actually a little more precise than that: every president elected in a year ending with ‘0’ since 1840 has died in office. The list is as follows:
1840: William Henry Harrison (pneumonia)
1860: Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)
1880: James Garfield (assassinated)
1900: William McKinley (assassinated)
1920: Warren Harding (stroke, I think)
1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt (another stroke)
1960: John F. Kennedy (assassinated)
Then, of course, the chain is broken 140 years later by Ronald Reagan.
If Bush and Cheney both die in office, then of course the Speaker of the House becomes president, according to procedural rules - is this set up in the Constitution? Anyone? Help me out here. At this point, AFAIK, that would be Dennis Hastert, the guy who replaced Newt.
Will Bush die in office? I can’t say as I honestly wish for the death of any man, much as I may find him severely distasteful personally and politically. But I wouldn’t shed a tear if the curse chose to visit him, say, with an unending series of highly painful and mildly infected paper cuts.
An autopsy revealed that Garfield probably would have survived the bullet wound had the doctors done nothing. It was unsanitary medical procedures that from all the poking, prodding, digging and spelunking for the bullet (which they never found while he was alive) that led to the infections that ended his life a month after he had been shot.
I have heard the same argument for Lincoln, also…without the whole month part.
Lincoln was shot in the head, and died a few hours later without ever regaining conscousness. It’s doubtful that he could have been saved.
Frankly, I think both Cheney and Lieberman would make better presidents than their running mates. Anyone else feel like this?
I’m a bit concerned for Lieberman, though. Given how bad things are in the Middle East, I woudn’t be a bit surprised if he gets assassinated by a Muslim fundie.
I don’t think Cheney will die anytime soon. He’s had small heart attacks before, so everyone knows to watch for them. It’s the guys that have never had any trouble before that just keel over dead one day.
Even worse than that. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, and died September 19, 2 [sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub] months later. Alexander Graham Bell tried to help the doctors with his new metal detector. Trouble was, they didn’t take Garfield off of the bed with metal springs. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Anyone who seriously believes in such “curses” should also consider this:
On the one hand, it does appear that Reagan disproved the curse’s existence. On the other hand, it is very well known that Nancy consulted astrologers when making his appointments.
A curse is not necessarily invincible. It might simply create a strong predisposition to certain events. Perhaps by working within the “rules” of such phenomena, Reagan was able to overcome that predisposition.
Not that I believe in any of this, but it’s rather interesting…
Nah. The Indian chief who handed down the curse a century and a half earlier just hadn’t accounted for the advances of modern medicine.
Were there any other presidents elected in “non-0” years, who died in office?
Diceman, I do not Al Gore will be a better president. He is concerned only with himself and his ego, wants us to spend our loves countin and recounting votes, because he thinks that the rules were wrong. I’d like to have a president who puts the country a bit higher.
But if you think he is better, you deserve him. After all, he invented the Internet.
quote:
Posted by: Olentzero
If Bush and Cheney both die in office, then
of course the Speaker of the House becomes
president, according to procedural rules -
is this set up in the Constitution? Anyone?
Help me out here.
The 25th amendment spells out how the line of succusion goes. http://www.bigduck.com/AMMENDM.html here is a copy of the amendments. It also goes into information about if the president can not continue being the president, sick, mentelly ill, etc. I hope this helps
Zachary Taylor, elected in 1848, died in office 1850. The Master has spoken on this very subject here. That’s what, 8 out of 42? Now I don’t wanna be president any more. What other job in the U.S. has a 19% mortality rate?
Additionally, in the search to answer peace’s question, I find that Uncle Cecil has also answered vanilla’s question. So there you have it.
Re: muppetsoup
Civil War Times Illustrated had an article on the treatment of Lincoln’s head wound about 2 or 3 years ago (I looked and the article is not one of those they have put on the net 
) The jist of the article was that Linclon may have survived IF a battlefield experienced surgeon had treated him. By that time the experienced surgeon knew that the best treatment (for the time) was to put a bandage on the external wound and leave it alone. Instead the treating surgeon was a “senior officer” and his first action was to stick his dirty finger in the wound. Next he fished around “unsuccessfully” with a probe to see if he could find the bullet. The article goes into tests that were done recently that determined that just putting his finger into the wound probably would have raised the intercranial pressure enough to cause further damage. Reminds me somewhat of the autopsy on President Kennedy, RHIP.
It’s called Tecumseh’s curse, since supposedly it was a curse laid by the Indian leder Tecumseh on his enemy William Henry Harrison. We discussed this in an earlier thread. The 20 year curse. I stand by my post in that thread
peace: Where, exactly, did I say that I thought Gore would be a good president? I think Gore would make a terrible president. I mean, he worked with Bill Clinton for Christ’s sake! I said that I think both Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman would probably make better candidates than the guys they’re paired with.