Harper's Magazine homage

Last presidential election won by a sitting member of the House of Representatives: 1880 (James Garfield)

Last presidential election won by a sitting member of the Senate: 1960 (JFK)

Last time the powers of the presidency were conferred upon a sitting governor: 2000 (G.W. Bush)

Presidential elections recently won by sitting or former governors: 1996, 1992, 1984, 1980, 1976

Presidential elections where even the losing older party candidate was a sitting or former governor: 1988, 1980

Number of sitting or former governors running for the Democratic nomination: 1 (Dean)

Number of sitting or former governors appointed by G.W. Bush to his cabinet: 5 (Thompson HHS, Ridge DHS, Whitman EPA, Leavitt EPA, Ashcroft DOJ)

Number of sitting or former governors appointed by G.W. Bush as ambassadors: 1 (Cellucci, Canada)

Number of sitting governors interviewed by Dick Cheney under the color of a search for G.W. Bush's running mate in 2000, who reportedly had to go through a top-to-bottom disclosure of their past: 3 (Ridge of PA, Keating of OK, Pataki of NY)

Number of sitting Republican governors in 2000: 25

Percentage of then-sitting Republican governors appointed by G.W. Bush to Federal office: 20%

Last time a sitting cabinet secretary ran for president: n/a

Number of siblings of G.W. Bush who are a sitting governor and eligible to run for president in 2008: 1

Explanation

Ulrika says she thinks that Harper's Index post is bit too inscrutable on its own. So, to tell you what I mean by it:

* I have no idea why, but we're clearly in an era where the electorate prefers to vote for governors for president. Now, as Rene Dubos once said, trends are not destiny, but that's why I was saying back before the Iraq assault that Dean was the most likely nominee for the Democrats. He's the only governor running. It's not impossible for the rest of the field, but it's the way to bet. Interestingly, this also makes him the most "electable", at least going by recent trends.

* I'm not the only one who believes this. Jeb Bush is almost certainly going to run for president in 2008. He's already a governor. And the Administration has appeared to be almost single-minded in its pursuit of taking sitting Republican governors off the board by appointing them to Federal office, from where they're very unlikely to run. That greatly reduced the risk of any maverick primary challenges this cycle, and clears the way for Jeb next cycle.

The spooky part about this, of course, is that it's clearly been part of the plan all along. There was Dick Cheney, interviewing the VP hopefuls and getting all their dirt from them -- for purely "defensive" reasons, you understand, to rebut the press when they ran {cough} -- and then he pulls his switcheroo and becomes the Veep candidate himself. The shade of J. Edgar Hoover must've been so proud.

Tolkien's birthday...

...is today. 1892.

Interesting that weetanya hasn't mentioned it. {a scoop!}

Ten years earlier to the day, in 1882, Oscar Wilde landed at New York. Asked by Customs officials if he had anything to declare, he replied, "Nothing but my genius."