History on parade

Tonight we watched the Biography Channel, which was running profiles of JFK, Ted Kennedy, and Barack Obama. Mrs. bee is reading a book about the personal life of JFK, so she was interested in seeing the program about him. As we watched, I started thinking about the presidents who've served in my lifetime, and the historically significant events in the terms of each.

Kennedy was elected in 1960, when I had just entered my teenage years. I hadn't paid attention to Truman and Ike (too young to give a shit), so I tend to think of JFK as the first "real" president. He was the first Catholic elected to the office (historic event) and got shot dead in 1963 in Dallas (major historic event). LBJ assumed the office, won in a blowout in 1964, then chose not to run again as an incumbent in 1968. That opened the door for a Nixon win, and the country was controlled by a pair of criminals for a few years. Spiro Agnew resigned (historic event), followed a short time later by Big Dick himself, a few steps ahead of the posse (major historic event).

Gerald Ford serves as an appointed president to finish out Nixon's term (minor historic significance), loses in 1976 to Carter, who loses in 1980 to Reagan, whose main claim to fame was that he spent so many years in front of movie cameras without ever perfecting the craft of screen acting. Eight years of Ronnie, followed by four years of Bush Sr. No overwhelming historic significance there. Then Clinton in 1992, who gets impeached for fucking around on his wife (historically significant), followed by G.W. Bush, who loses the popular vote but takes office following a 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court (historically significant). Bush II wrestles the title of Worst President Ever from the disgraced Richard Nixon, starts an unprovoked war, and still wins a second term (historically significant from my prejudiced viewpoint). W's eight years are so fucking terrible the country turns its back on 300 years of history and elects a black dude with an Arabic-sounding name to replace him (huge historic significance).

So all factors considered, I'd have to say that I've been an eyewitness to some fairly significant historic events involving the presidency, most of them bad.