Presidential Names

Looking over a recent list of Presidential hopefuls for 2008 I did not find many that had something in common with Presidents (and opponents and Vice Presidents) from the past: a truly comical first name. Now if you are actually named the names below, please understand I am not laughing at you; I'm laughing with you (in some cases, I'll be laughing for you) but I find these names comically wonderful (remember, this is all in good fun).

Who can forget these great Presidential names:

Millard Fillmore, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, and Herbert Hoover.

Or these guys that ran for President and didn't win or were Vice-President:
Elbridge Gerry, Winfield Scott, Horatio Seymour, Schuyler Colfax, Horace Greeley, Alton Parker, two different Adlai Stevensons (one a Veep and the other a losing candidate), Alben Barkeley (hailing from western Kentucky like yours truly), Strom Thurmond, Spiro Agnew, and Hubert Humphrey (not forgetting losing Veep candidate Sargent Shriver).

There's nothing wrong with these names of course. But you have to admit they are much more interesting than the names of potential 2008 candidates: John, Bill, George, Hillary, Al, Evan, Rudy, and Tom. However, there is hope on the horizon: rumor has it one potential candidate is named Mitt.

Of course no American President has a name quite like some great names from medieval and ancient history: Charlamagne, Ghengis, Atilla, Ethelred, Canute, Otto, Theodosius, and Alleric are just the beginning of a long list of political/military leaders with great comical names (did I mention just about every Roman Caesar). Maybe one day America will catch up.