PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA: OLD QUESTIONS, NEW ANSWERS

For those of us who enjoy presidential trivia questions, there are some standard questions. Many of these old questions have new answers due to changes and events in recent years. This election and the previous administration have changed a number of them. In the past quarter-century, a number of others have changed. What follows is a primer so that you can be prepared in case you get some of these in a rousing game of trivia.

The most obvious classic question with a new answer is the one about father and son presidents. It used to be asked who was the only son of a president to become president, or who was the only president whose son also became president. Now, as we have all heard from various “talking heads” on TV, there are two sets, and both with the same first names to complicate matters. Of course there is George Bush, Sr. (or George H. W. Bush) and George W. Bush. The first was John Adams and John Quincy Adams. It has been said that George Sr. jokingly has started referring to his son as Quincy.

In the last year or two, the most famous presidential trivia question got a new answer. A favorite was always to name the only president to be impeached, or how many presidents have been impeached. (The answer was Andrew Johnson. Nixon was never impeached.) Of course, there are now two impeached presidents, thanks to William Jefferson Clinton and Monica Lewinski.

Another standard question, but for more advanced players, concerned re-elected Democrats. One version of the question asked either how many Democrats have been re-elected or asked you to name the four who had (for the record, Jackson, Cleveland, Wilson and FD Roosevelt). A more common version would be how many Democratic presidents, or name them, had been re-elected in this century (which would now be the last century, so lets say “during the 20th century”). Clinton changed the answer to all forms of this question in 1996, when he was re-elected. (Presidents serving part of someone else’s term such as Truman or LB Johnson don’t count since they were not elected to their first term; their second term is not technically a re-election. This confusion is sometimes avoided for the sake of trivia newbies by asking which Democratic presidents served two full terms.)

Another question involves the popular vote, about which we have all learned so much in recent months. The question involved which presidents, or again how many, were elected to two terms without ever winning a majority of the popular vote. (The answer until now was Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson.) Again, William Jefferson Clinton changed that answer when he was twice elected without winning a majority of the popular vote in either election.

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