fun facts and stupid stats about the presidency

UPDATE: I corrected a typo, in which I said that Johnson failed to run in 1988. I meant 1968.

With the presidential election season getting into full swing (OK, I know I could have said that a week ago or a month ago, and I will be able to say it in a few weeks from now as well. Bear with me anyway), I figure it's a good time for some fun facts and stupid statistics about the US presidency. Not that anyone really cares about any of the following, but:

• When President Obama leaves office next January, he will have been the third president in a row to have served two full terms. The only other time that happened was at the beginning of the 19th century -- Jefferson, Madison, Monroe.
• Other than the two triples (cited above), we have never had two presidents in a row who each got elected twice.
• Of all the presidents who served a full term (but only one term), John Adams (the father) served for the least amount of time. The others served for 1,461 days, while he only served 1,460 days. That's because his term included the year 1800, which wasn't a leap year.
• Eighteen of the 26 letters have been the last initial of a president. Those that haven't? D, I, Q, S, U, X, Y, Z.
• Q and Z are the only letters that have never appeared in a President's last name.
• Z is the only letters that have never appeared in a Vice President's last name.
• The last time the Republican party won the Presidency without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket was 1928.
• Since the passge of the 22nd Amendment (limiting the number of times a person can be elected President to two), there have been two times that an incumbent President was eligible for reelection but did not run -- Truman in 1952 and Johnson in 1968.
• Four years ago I was at a New York Libertarian Party luncheon, seated next to candidate Gary Johnson for the meal. To make small talk, I noted that we have had several pairs of Presidents with the same last name -- Adams, Harrison, Johnson, Cleveland, Roosevelt and Bush. If he were to get elected (spoiler: he didn't), he would complete the first triple.He suggested that that must be a good omen. I disagreed, noting three facts:
• Each prior Johnsons succeeded to the Presidency because of the death of his predecessor
• the first Johnson got impeached and the second dropped out of the race for reelection when it became clear he couldn't win the nomination
• Between the two, they won one presidential election

Clearly, I need to work on my people skills.