Who will be known as the "Millard Fillmores" of the 20th century?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Carter was the first president since Andrew Johnson who did not nominate any Supreme Court justices.

Carter won’t be remembered like Fillmore because he was fairly prominent after leaving office. You know, such as winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

However, no 20th Century president will ever be as insignificant as Fillmore (whom I don’t think was all that insignificant if you ever read what he did in office). The 20th Century saw a dramatic increase in presidential power and the size of the Federal government. Anyone holding the office of POTUS got it because they were important. Even Ford, even Carter.

As for Fillmore, he did sign into law the Compromise of 1850, which his predecessor Taylor probably would not have done. That Compromise served to delay the Civil War for 10 years.

It was also Fillmore who sent Commodore Perry to Japan in an attempt to open up some sort of trade with that nation. It’s just that by the time Perry got there, Pierce had become president.

And Fillmore had enough standing to run for President again in 1856, albeit on the Know Nothing party ticket.

Granted, being connected with an Anti-Immigrant Party and signing a beefed up Fugitive Slave Act as part of the Compromise of 1850 may not be the greatest legacy to leave, but he did do things that were significant. They just may not have been good things.

22

Are you people kidding me? Clinton’s chapter is going to be the only part of the U.S. history book that uses the word “blowjob.” You’d better believe all those junior high students are going to sit up and take notice of that one. Personally, I nominate Ford. Besides the Nixon pardon, I still have no idea what the heck he did.

23

What’s with all the talk of Clinton being impeached? He wasn’t.

24

Impeachment is a trial before the Senate with the Supreme Court Chief Justice presiding over. Which Clinton did go through. He was not, however, found guilty and removed from office.

A. Johnson was impeached, Clinton was impeached, Nixon was not (contrary to what an idiot middle school teacher told me).

25

Yes, he was. It must have been difficult to breath under the rock you lived under in 1998.

26

The Chief Justice though only presides if the President is on trial, otherwise it’s the President of the Senate. But, but because of potential conflicts, it’s not good to have the VP presiding over the trial of the Pres.

It must have been tough for Rehnquist to sit there because he really didn’t get to preside or make a lot of rulings. I believe any ruling he made from the chair was subject to being voted on by the whole Senate.

27

FabioClone writes: "Clinton’s chapter is going to be the only part of the U.S. history book that uses the word “blowjob.”

And Nixon’s will be the only chapter in which “Deep Throat” is mentioned.
Both Nixon and Clinton were brilliant, but based on what little I’ve read about him, Nixon was a visionary, he stood for something. I hope history remembers that more than it remembers the scandal.

28

Interestingly, the potential conflict-of-interest went the other way when the Constitution was first drafted. Don’t forget that back then, the VP was the guy who came in second in the presidential race (i.e. the guy the President just defeated).

Zev Steinhardt

29

My most forgettable presidents of the 20th century-

1- Warren Harding- Only lived for a bit more than half a term. Remembered for Teapot Dome and general corruption and incompetence.

2- Gerald Ford- A man of little action who will mainly be remembered for being the first unelected president (until GWB)

3- William McKinley- Only president for 8+ months of the 20th century. Remembered for the Spanish-American War and for being assassinated.

4- Calvin Coolidge- Famous for doing nothing and saying little more for his term and a half.

5- Herbert Hoover- A one termer that quickly found himself over his head as the Depression began

The 21st century race has just begun, and GWB has a HUGE lead now and may not be overtaken. Despite the fact that Clinton only served 19 1/2 days of the 21st century, those days will be remembered with more fondness than Shrub Lite’s whole single term.

30

Either way, having the VP preside over a trial of the president is a conflict. Either the VP will want the guy out because he’s the wrong party or he will want to keep the guy in because he’s very loyal.

Both make a bad combination.

31

Ford, however, was never even elected by the Electoral College (or ran for office for that matter). When Spiro Agnew resigned as VP, Ford was appointed VP by Nixon. Then when Nixon resigned, Ford became President, all without being a candidate.

32

I think Clinton will be roughly equivalent to Cleveland, without the trivia distinction of winning non-sequential elections; famous becaue he was elected twice, but didn’t really do anything.

I would guess, for 20thC Presidents:

Millard Fillmores:
Ford
Taft
Harding
Carter
Bush 1.0
Hoover

Minor Presidents:
Wilson
Coolidge
Kennedy
Clinton

Not Minor, But Not Quite In the Big Time:
Reagan

Major Figures:
Eisenhower
Theodore Roosevelt
Nixon
Johnson
Truman

The Big Enchilada:
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Note; I didn’t count McKinley as a 20th C. President. If you did I guess he’d be a Minor.

I know a lot of people will disagree with my classification of Kennedy as a minor figure; I’m convinced it’s true. Eventually, once nobody alive at the time is around to remember him, Kennedy’s celebrity will wear off, and he’ll be remembered by his legacy - which, frankly, amounts to almost nothing. Kennedy’s superstardom is a product of the generation that remembers him and his soap opera family; it will not survive into the same level of historical regard, the way that Rosoevelt et al. had actual legacies. Kennedy will end up like Garfield and McKinley - famous because they were shot.

And the conservatives, I know, will scream about Reagan. Well, I suspect Reagan will eventually be sort of remembered as an important President, but well below the level he’s currently regarded as; he could still slip to Clintonian levels. I think his historical impact will eventually be seen as being less than his bigger fans currently think it was. I suspect that Reagan will not get the historical credit for ending Communism he’s being given now, partially because in retrospect he will be seen - fairly or unfairly - as an observer of those events, not a catalyst, and partially because the USSR fell during Bush’s administration, and as a learned historical event, people will just tend to remember the year it happened, not the leadup.

33

I’m not a Kennedy fan by any stretch, but I think he will be remembered for a few things:
Cuban missile crisis
Bay of Pigs
Commitment to putting a man on the moon
Civil rights advances

34

Actually, I was also going to compare Clinton to Cleveland, but in a more favorable light. Cleveland, like Clinton, was the subject of a number of scandals and attacks on his personal life. But decades later, after the contemporary heat had died off, historians look back at what actually occurred during his administration and the consensus is that he was an effective president. Does anyone really believe that in seventy or eighty years anyone will still be outraged that Clinton cheated on his wife?

Kennedy is my bet for the president whose memory will fade the most. The only reason his assassination seems so shocking is because it occurred within the lifetime of people now living. Once it becomes a historical occurence, it’ll be no more significant than the assassinations of Garfield or McKinley. And the fact is, except for his assassination and personal charisma, there’s not a lot to remember about the Kennedy administration. The Cuban missile crisis was just a single event in the history of the Cold War (which will itself fade in importance as time passes from the collapse of the Soviet Union) and the lunar landing and civil rights were realized under Johnson and Nixon, not Kennedy.

35

FWIW, in Utah there is a town named Fillmore (in fact, it was the original territorial capital), and a Millard County, both named after Millard Fillmore, who was president when the Mormon pioneers settled Utah in 1847.