Friday, January 16, 2009

The Miseducation of AC

Here are some facts that I'm pretty sure only I find interesting, as I, for entirely no reason, completed my needlessly unexhaustive research into the life of President James Buchanan:



1) Buchanan is generally regarding as one of the worst Presidents due to his lack of action in the years leading up to the Civil War. Huh, nowadays historians think George W. will be remembered as a horrible President for getting into a war, and (out of the other side of their mouths) they claim that Buchanan was one of the worst for staying out of a war. It looks like the historians and the liberal media elite are in bed together, so to speak. Probably having tea, I'd say.

2) Buchanan was considered a "doughface," which at the time meant a northerner who was sympathetic with the south. Nowadays, calling someone a doughface would probably be misinterpreted as calling them a doughboy, though I think some similarities could be argued about between James and Mr. Pillsbury.



3) Due to the facts that he never married and that he lived for many years with a man named William Rufus DeVane King (whom Andrew Jackson referred to alternately as "Miss Nancy" or "Aunt Fancy" [I'm not sure why he didn't choose one nickname and stick with it; I presume he broke out different slurs based on the occasion]), many have speculated that James Buchanan was our first gay President. Nevertheless, due to some investigative journalism on the part of this writer (ie, assuming the domain "jamesbuchanan.com" would be about the 15th president, and not, as it is, about a ranching couple), I may have found someone who may be trying to close the gap in this regard. You see, in referencing himself and his wife on his webpage, the latter day James Buchanan says "Jim and Barb are both horsemen who enjoy the back country." I think you see my point. The only other possible reading I can come up with is that these people are centaurs, which seems to gain credence when I consider that their picture only shows them from the waist up.

4) There is a President Buchanan fan club online, which is located at jamesbuchanan.net. Here you can find fun facts and videos, though the videos are likely not of Buchanan (as he was dead at the time of the invention of moving pictures).

5) He wrote the first Presidential memoir, which was the awesomely titled Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. If that book is halfway as interesting as the title is long, well brother, that's probably a mighty fine book.

P.S.: Entirely unrelatedly, we can now know for certain that cats are jerks (with thanks to The Modern Gal).

2 comments:

Jen said...

I'm curious as to what initiated the informal research on this particular president...and fascinated by your train of thought...and amused by the cat video, which (though unrelated to your topic) was pretty darn funny! :)

Analyst Catalyst said...

As far as where I got the idea, I think that I was reading something about President Bush's legacy, and it said that Bush wouldn't be regarded as as bad of a President as some of the pre-Civil War Presidents like Buchanan. I realized I didn't know anything about him, so I felt the urge to look him up. It's still pretty random, I'll admit that.