In 1968, when Richard Nixon was nominated by the Republicans for President, his running mate was Spiro Agnew. Shortly after the 1972 election, some charges of impropriety forced Agnew to resign. With the majority of his second term ahead, Gerald Ford was selected to become the V.P. He had been a congressman for twenty-five years.

Ford became the 38^th chief executive and had a difficult campaign against Jimmy Carter, the 1976 Democratic candidate. President Ford pardoned President Nixon before he could even be charged with any crimes from the Watergate Hotel break-in. This was considered by some as the biggest hit on his prospects.

Ford lost to Carter, and the party shift kicked in again. Carter served from 1977 to 1981. During his first term, the Shaw of Iran was overthrown, and a pro-Muslim government took power. The U.S. Embassy was attacked, and hostages were seized on November 4, 1979. The thirty-ninth President lost his second bid for the office in 1980.

The power shifted once again when Ronald Regan defeated the incumbent based on failure to solve the hostage problem and other fiscal problems attributed to his administration. Regan held office until 1989 after winning the 1984 election as well. The hostages were released before Regan was inaugurated as our fortieth chief executive.

“Read my lips, no new taxes” was the campaign promise that convinced many to continue a Republican Presidency under Vice-President George H. W. Bush. His term was from 1989 to 1993. When other Republicans convinced him to sign a tax proposal that Congress passed, the Democrats used it to their advantage.

They nominated Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton as their candidate, and he defeated the forty-first to become the forty-second President. Clinton’s administration featured a joint Presidency with his wife, according to the GOP. She had no official title or authority. They were in the White House from 1993 to 2001.

Do you remember the September 11, 2001, attacks on our country? Muslim radicals hijacked four passenger jets and crashed them. Two took out buildings in New York City, part of the Pentagon building in Washington, D C., and the last went down in Pennsylvania.

When our forty-third President, George W. Bush, the son of the forty-first, addressed us that evening, he launched an investigation to determine how this could happen. We were involved in wars in the Middle East to eliminate factions supposedly responsible for this attack. His administration ran from 2001 to 2009.

Are you getting tired of the constant flip-flop of power from one political party to the other for over one hundred years? In 2008, we elected our first African American President, Barack Obama, a Democrat from Chicago, as the forty-fourth man to hold the office. He served until 2017.

I will not make any comments about the last three Presidents. There are situations that I feel will have to be resolved before we know what should be said without hurting feelings. Both current parties have opposing opinions of what should and should not be commented on. I hope these columns have given you insights into who our leaders have been.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger