Lyndon Johnson
Regardless of where you might come down on the political spectrum, most people would have to admit that people who run for president of the United States are not really all that normal. Most normal folks wouldn’t have anything to do with politics never mind the grinding high stress life of a president.
All of the bluster and empty promises and outright lies being shot out by presidential candidates would seem to put them out of the running for the highest political office in the land. Not so, apparently, as a few former presidents didn’t seem all that normal and together either.
Harry S. Truman was?
Truman succeeded FDR after his death and ended up ordering the atomic bombings of two of Japan’s largest industrial cities in an effort to end the great Pacific War against Japan rather than to invade with over one million men. He was, also, a 33rd degree Mason and while everyone always speculated what the “S” stood for, it really stood for nothing. Truman just felt like adding an “S” to his name.
Grover Cleveland
Lyndon Johnson’s toilet interviews
Before becoming president, Johnson was John Kennedy’s vice president and a feared U.S. Senator from Texas. He was loud and brash and talked with curses punctuating many of his remarks. Johnson was always aware of his time and, in an effort to save time, he would often conduct meetings and interviews in his private bathroom while he was sitting on the seat doing his business.
Grover Cleveland married his daughter?
Cleveland met his wife, and future First Lady, on the day she was born as he was close friends with the father. After the father died, Cleveland was appointed care taker to the estate when young Francis Folsom was just 11 years old. Cleveland looked after her like a daughter but then developed a true romantic relationship with her and married her. Francis Folsom became the youngest First Lady ever at the age of only 21. Oh, and back in 1912, when Cleveland was sheriff of Erie County, New York, he hanged a man convicted of murder.
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge and his vaseline
He was Vermont and the country’s 30th president. He never talked much and always ate breakfast in bed. While he ate breakfast in bed every morning, he had a staff member lather his head with petroleum jelly. Seems he really believed that the jelly on his head would actually make him a healthier person.
PHOTO CREDITS: Wikimedia Commons / Biography.com / MarketWatch.com