Ok, my friends are having a party this friday and they requested everyone go dressed as a president. (I doubt many will, but it would be neat if I could.) I am female and do not want to shell out a huge amount for props. Does anyone have any ideas who I might possibly go as that is not the usual Lincoln and Washington, and does not require a tremendous outlay of time or money?
I don’t know if this is any sort of answer to your question, but back in the Golden Age of Radio, there was a long-running schtick. Someone would be asked if he did impressions, and he would say he could do Millard Fillmore, then proceed to do him. Of course, no one knew what Millard Fillmore sounded like. Big joke. Haha.
So, go as Millard Fillmore. You can at least sound just like him.
Zachary Taylor – dress as a corpse. (He died after a month in office.)
Grover Cleveland (you could go twice). Short stocky guy with a walrus mustache. To avoid confusion you could wear a name tag: HI! MY NAME IS GROVER.
Or maybe Warren G. Harding. Balding, clean shaven, baggy double breasted suit, bottle of Bourbon and an Ohio accent.
Or Harry Truman. Slight, bespeckled, wearing Harding’s suit, battle ax of a mother-in-law.
If you’ve got a few pillows to stuff in your suit, you could go as Taft.
You’re thinking of WH Harrison. Taylor served for about a year and a half.
Taft. Always Taft.
Chester A. Arthur: Muttonchops are always awesome.
Taft: Fat, of course.
Nixon: easy, and masks are readily available.
Millard Filmore: talk about how much you hate Catholics maybe.
U.S. Grant: you get to drink to excess.
Reagan: wander around confused.
I think you’re conflating Taylor (an admittedly short tenure president.) with the winner: William Henry Harrison. (Who’s my specific suggestion, btw: Go in a nightshirt, he was laid up with pneumonia most of that month.)
Oh, and if you DO go as Fillmore, don’t forget to wear a Whig.
That could work for either Bush, too.
T. Roosevelt: Wire-rim glasses, walrus mustache, and walk around baring your teeth at everyone. If you’ve got anything like this hat, you’re golden.
Wheelchair and a cigarette holder: Franklin Roosevelt.
Make passes at all the other women at the party: Bill Clinton or Eleanor Roosevelt.
Was Teddy’s broad enough to be considered a walrus moustache?
Chester Arthur; very few people seem to remember him from US history, so you can probably get away with wearing whatever. The only reason I remember him is because my history book said that he owned over eighty pairs of trousers. I think it would be amazing if you could somehow work that tidbit into your costume.
Go as Taft. Add a few pillows for padding, and see if you can rig up some sort of cardboard bathtub (I’ve heard he got stuck in the White House bathtub…)
Or go with an identically-dressed friend to represent his two terms.
Go as Dwight Eisenhower or Gerald Ford and carry around a golf club.
Go as Hoover and carry around a portable vacuum cleaner.
If you don’t want to make conversation, go as “Silent Cal” Coolidge.
Go around bumping into people, exclaiming “Pardon me!”
Get a red dress, put a spot on it, buy a brunette bouffant wig and go as Monica Lewinski.
Wasn’t it blue?
Anyway, go as my boyfr, um, President Clinton. You’ll get lots of chicks and maybe enjoy a little McDonalds as he did back when he was President.
I like the idea of a William Henry Harrison zombie. But really …
How could you possibly go wrong with this one? 
Calvin Coolidge. That way you can wear a sharp black suit, and not be expected to do or say anything the whole night.