Dear Editor
Dear Editor Tyler Gus Tyler's analysis of the changing electorate ("Nixon vs. the Zeitgeist," NL, February 7) was excellent. However, his historical statistics were somewhat misleading. He states...
...Of the remaining 25, 14 did not choose to run for the office a second time...
...six others who were reelected??Johnson, Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, McKinley, Cleveland, Lincoln??served more than one term but did not complete two consecutive full terms...
...Then he develops his cyclical thesis and suggests the latest Democratic cycle is not over...
...The dominant party complexion of the country, which I described in my first column, is of course just one of a multiplicity of factors that go into determining how a candidate will fare...
...He states that since 1836 there have been only four genuine two-term Presidents, the others having been "denied a full repeat performance either by the electorate or by death...
...For the period since the Founding Fathers held the office (1824), the figures are roughly the same??seven of 13...
...Since 1836, 29 men have held office, of whom four never faced the electorate, havinj ascended due to the death of the elected President and having retired from the scene at the conclusion of the term...
...Finally, if I knew who will win the election, I would gladly end the suspense...
...De-late's computation of 56 years is correct, and while we are setting the record straight, I should note that Wilson was elected twice as a minority President...
...Furthermore, Republicans occupied the White House for 56??not 60??of the 72 years from 1850-1932, a period that saw four Democratic Presidents serve full four-year terms...
...Since this is only the first of a series, I can appreciate his not wanting to take all the suspense away at the beginning...
...other important considerations will be examined in the coming weeks...
...Daniel Delate Gus Tyler replies: The four Presidents who actually completed a second consecutive term after Jackson are Grant, Wilson, FDR, and Eisenhower...
...Aside from these matters of fact, the article leaves me wondering who Gus Tyler (or is it Taylor...
...Engelwood, N.J...
...Of the 11 men who did seek a second consecutive term, six succeeded...
...Toward the end he reconsiders once more, saying the GOP needs to discover "some vast new class" for support...
...thinks will win this year's election...
...Even if we ascribe this modesty to pressure from the electorate, there seems little such threat to Nixon...
...At this point, I can only invite you to reckon and reason along with me...
...But first he tells us that the polls are "behind" Nixon...
...Tyler in 1848" was a misprint for Taylor: It is true that Tyler was also a Whig President, but only by virtue of Harrison's death in office...
...Burns can rest assured that I will be discussing Spiro Agnew and the significance of the Vice Presidential candidacy later in the series...
...Columbus, Ohio David C. Burns The Whig President elected in 1848 was Zachary Taylor??not John Tyler, who succeeded William Henry Harrison in 1841, when the latter died in office...
...And in his final summation he indicates that, though he doesn't know who will win, he is confident that once someone does emerge triumphant he will know America's political fate "for the next generation or more...
...the second Whig to defeat a Democrat in a Presidential election was Taylor...
...Thus, on the basis of historical precedence alone, it would seem that Nixon has a slightly better than even chance of being reelected this fall...
...No matter who wins, I promise not to say "I told you so...
...The real question is: If Richard Nixon has a 50 per cent chance of reelection and only a 14 per cent chance of acquiring and finishing out a second term (Tyler's figures), what are the chances that Spiro Agnew will be our 38th President...
...I am more interested in understanding and explaining than in establishing prophetic infallibility...
...A little later he again implies a Nixon victory by showing how crucial the South is and how poorly Humphrey did there in 1968...
Vol. 55 • March 1972 • No. 5
