I have heard a lot of people complaining that if Hillary Clinton is elected President, then “we will have had the same two families in control of the White House for over 20 years! We are not a monarchy!”

True, but take a look at this nifty little list from Futility… Even though we style ourselves as a Representative Democracy, we still like to keep it in the family:

I’m sure you’ve hear about ol’ Taft being so fat that he got stuck in the White House Bathtub and had it replaced with one big enough for four men, but he’s another story that I ran across that illustrates Taft’s main weakness…This account is taken from Ira Smith, who handled mail for 9 U.S. Presidents:

The troubles of William Howard Taft, however, were not the usual presidential woes that became familiar to me. One of Mr. Taft’s troubles was food. He loved it, and the more food he could get, the more he loved it. The rub was that after he moved into the White House, his doctor and Mrs. Taft were constantly on the alert to enforce a diet that would get rid of some of his surplus poundage. Mrs. Taft might be reasonably described as a strong-minded woman. She took dieting seriously — for the President — and this led to a lot of talk that in a less famous household might have been called nagging.

The President dieted, all right, but not when he could escape supervision. I remember once when I accompanied him on a journey to Ohio. When we got on the train, leaving the doctor and Mrs. Taft behind, the President began to perk up. He also apparently began to think about food, although it was ten o’clock in the evening. Wilbur Hinman, a stenographer, and I were in the observation section of Mr. Taft’s special car going through telegrams and letters when the President appeared at the door of his sitting room. A pleasant smile turned the corners of his mouth. I took one look and knew what was on his mind.

“Anybody seen the conductor?” he asked.

The conductor came a-running.

“The dining car…” Mr. Taft began shyly. “Could we get a snack?”

The conductor looked surprised. “Why, Mr. President, there isn’t any dining car on this train.”

The President’s sun-tanned face turned pink, with perhaps a few splashes of purple. His normally prominent eyes seemed to bulge.

“Norton!” he called in a cold voice. “Mr. Norton!”

Charles D. Norton, a tall, good-looking, and well-dressed man, appeared from the next compartment. He was Mr. Taft’s secretary, and he probably had been given special instructions by Mrs. Taft in regard to the President’s diet on the trip.

“Mr. Norton,” the President said, “there is no diner on this train.”

Norton agreed that there was no diner. He reminded Mr. Taft that they had had dinner at the White House, and assured him that they would not go without breakfast. He recalled that the President’s doctor had warned him about eating between meals. The President brushed him aside, turning back to the conductor.

“Where’s the next stop, dammit?” he asked. “The next stop where there’s a diner?”

The conductor believed it would be Harrisburg. Mr. Taft glared at Norton and addressed the conductor:

“I am President of the United States, and I want a diner attached to this train at Harrisburg. I want it well stocked with food, including filet mignon. You will see that we get a diner.” He silenced the secretary’s protests with a roar. “What’s the use of being President,” he demanded, “if you can’t have a train with a diner on it?”

Norton gave up. The diner was attached at Harrisburg in the middle of the night, and the President had the newspapermen advised that it was open to them. He sat in his own car for a long time, partaking of refreshments.

UPDATE

Another little Taft tibit:

William Howard Taft once found himself stranded at a country railroad station and was told that the express train would not stop for a lone passenger.He wired the conductor: STOP AT HICKSVILLE. LARGE PARTY WAITING TO CATCH TRAIN.When the train stopped, Taft got aboard and told the conductor, “You can go ahead. I am the large party.”

Washington
+Washington was never actually appointed to be the first president in complete election. Everyone knew that Washington was going to be elected, but fierce political battles in the New York State legislature meant that not a single vote from New York was cast in 1789. The State Government of New York also could not agree on two senators to send to Washington, and so were not represented in the first session of Congress in the US Senate.

+Washington was far from a universally loved president until very recently. In his days, newspaper editors often described him in less that flattering terms:

“If every a nation was debauched by a man, the American Nation has been by Washington.”

“[on the news of Washington's death] Every heart in unison with the freedom and happiness of the people, ought to beat high in exultation, that the name of Washington ceases from this day to give a currency to political iniquity and to legalize corruption.” Philadelphia Aurora

+Washington was not a religious man. He did not go to church unless required to, was not fond of referring to Christ in correspondence, and went out of his way to avoid invocating God in political or public settings. Even in his dying hours, Washington never mentioned God or religion at all, and left no money for religious causes in his will.

+Washington liked dirty jokes and is on one occasion joked about a jenny that “like a true female” seemed to enjoy being penetrated by a disproportionally sized jackass. In the late 1920’s multimillionaire J.P Morgan bought letters that were written by Washington, only to burn them because they were “smutty.”

+Despite the legendary image of Washington as a poor farmer, he was one of the wealthiest men in the country at the time. His family motto? “Exitus acta probat – The end justifies the means”

+Washington had a wild temper that, as Jefferson’s states “was naturally irritable” and when “it broke it’s bonds, he was most tremendous in his wraith.” Jefferson also records an incident in which Washington bitched Alexander Hamilton out for being ten minutes late to a meeting for so long, Hamilton quit Washington’s staff in disgust.

+Washington was the #1 Whiskey distiller in the U.S. who had a whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon that at it’s height produced 11,000 gallons of corn and rye Whiskey as well as runs of fruit brandy. Want to know more? Go HERE.