BARACK OBAMA, 44TH PRESIDENT - On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be inaugurated as our nation's 44th President. He will be the first African-American and individual born in Hawaii to be elected President. With a beautiful and gracious wife, Michelle Obama, and two beautiful young daughters, he should bring the same youthfulness and sense of opportunity that John Kennedy brought to the White House. See you at the inauguration and look for future blog posts about his presidency!!!

GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD PRESIDENT - George W. Bush was sworn in as our 43rd President on January 20, 2001 after a contested election against the Democratic candidate, Vice President Al Gore. Ultimately, the election was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court which stopped a recount of the votes in Florida. In his first year in office, Bush was confronted with the tragedy of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center towers in New York and against the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C. area. In response to these terrorist attacks, President Bush declared a war on terror and ordered the invasion of Afghanistan and later of Iraq. With popular support as a war-time President and a conservative shift in the mood of the country, Bush was re-elected to a second term of office four years later. In his second term, however, Bush faced increasingly low rankings in the public opinion polls as support for the war in Iraq diminished and the economy worsened. At the end of his two terms as President, Bush had one of the lowest public opinion poll rankings of any President since such polls have been conducted as the financial and banking system in the country went into a melt-down as a result of a collapse of the housing market, and as mortgage-backed securities increasingly became illiquid. President Bush was the second President to be elected that was the son of a previous President, with his father George H.W. Bush having been the 41st President of the United States. The only other President that was the son of a previous President was John Quincy Adams. As an outgoing President, Bush made a commitment to make the transition of his successor, Barack Obama, the easiest of any President-Elect.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT - On January 20, 1993, Bill Clinton was inaugurated as our nation's 42nd President. Four years later, he was re-elected to a second term. He was the second President, along with Andrew Johnson, to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. Like Andrew Johnson, however, the motivations for impeachment were primarily political and thus Clinton was not convicted and removed from office by the Senate. At the end of his presidency, Clinton continued to enjoy strong public support. As President, Clinton presided over the greatest peace time economic prosperity in the history of the country. After his presidency, Clinton has gone on to become one of, if not, the most influential world spokesman raising funds and working for world humanitarian causes. Meanwhile, his wife and former First Lady Hillary Clinton was elected as a U.S. Senator from New York, the only former First Lady to run for political office. In 2008, she ran for the Democratic nomination for President, but lost the nomination to Barack Obama. She and former President Clinton then compaigned for Obama in the general election. After Obama's election as President, he announced that he would appoint former First Lady Hillary Clinton to the position of Secretary of State.

JAMES EARL CARTER, 40TH PRESIDENT - After the Nixon/Watergate scandal, Carter was elected as a Washington outsider who promised to always tell the American public the truth. He was sworn in as President on January 20, 1977. Two Bibles were on the lectern at the swearing in - one, a family heirloom, and the other, the Bible used at the swearing in of George Washington as our nation's first President. After the swearing in, Carter and his wife were the first President and First Lady to walk from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. His inauguration was also the first time that the departing President, Gerald Ford, departed by helicopter from the Capitol. His inauguration was also the first time that special provisions were made to accommodate the handicapped in order to be able to view the inauguration parade. Carter was one of the most brilliant individuals to be elected to the office of President. Unfortunately, he had difficulties with Congress given both that he lacked national experience and the fact that even within in his own Democratic party he faced significant opposition from a faction led by Senator Edward Kennedy. He also had the unfortunate luck of being President when OPEC was created and the Arab oil-producing nations decided to impose an embargo so as to drive up the prices of oil. He also had the unforuntely luck of being President after the Shah of Iran had been driven out and Iran had taken American hostages for allowing the former Shah to receive medical treatment in the U.S. Despite these setbacks, two of the most important accomplishments of his administration was the negotiation of the Middle-East Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel and the investment in smart weapons and other advanced technologies for the military that were later to be invaluable to help bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union and in the winning of the Gulf War. After his presidency, Carter went on to become involved in world peace and humanitarian efforts. He also became a successful writer of multiple books and received the Nobel Peace Prize. Looking back, one of the most farsighted initiatives taken during his presidency was his support of conservation and alternative energy initiatives. Unforunately, most of these initiatives were abandoned by President Reagan when he took office as the nation returned to a mentality of cheap oil.

GERALD FORD, 39TH PRESIDENT - Gerald was sworn in as President on August 9, 1974 in a ceremony at the White House after the resignation of Richard Nixon. He had previously been appointed Vice President after the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew. As such, Ford was the only person to assume the office of President who had not been elected to that post or to the position of Vice President. He also was the first Vice President to assume the office of President under the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which specifies that upon the resignation of a President, the Vice President shall become President. One of Ford's first actions as President was to pardon former President Richard Nixon. He did this to end what he described as our long national nightmare dealing with the Watergate scandal and to allow him, s President, to focus on matters other than Watergate. Today, most people understand that Ford was acting in the national interests, but at the time there was concern about a potential behind the scenes pre-arranged deal for him to pardon Nixon in return for his becoming President. As such, this one action probably cost Ford the election when he later ran against Jimmy Carter for a second term as President. Ford was also responsible for ordering the withdrawal of all American troops from Vietnam, thus ending our involvement in the Vietnam War. Even though never elected to the office, Ford stands out as one of our most honorable, decent and respected Presidents.

JOHN F. KENNEDY, 35TH PRESIDENT - Sworn in as the 35th President on January 20, 1961, Kennedy was the first Catholic-American to be elected President. His was the first inauguration to be broadcast on color television. His was also the first inauguration to have a poet read a poem, and was the coldest of all inaugurations, with army flame throwers having to be used to clear the route of the inaugural parade. Along with his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, he brought a youthfulness, optimism and sophistication to the presidency and the White House. He inherited plans for the invasion of Cuba which resulted in the failed Bay of Pigs incident. Accepting full responsibility for the failure, the public excused the incident. During the subsequent Cuban Missle crisis, President Kennedy is credited with showing more restraint and judgment than his aides who recommended a military attack on Cuba, and thus averting a nuclear war. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union have documents come to light revealing how close we were to experiencing a nuclear war. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, were his proposed social reforms, including the introduction of the Civil Rights Act. Unfortunately, he was assassinated in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald before his legislative agenda could be enacted, with the Civil Rights Act and bills passed only later after his death. Despite the short term of his presidency due to him being assassinated, in public opinion polls he is often ranked as our greatest President. One of his best known accomplishments was the creation of the Peace Corps. In the 2008 presidential election, his daughter, Caroline Kennedy, was one of the leading supporters of the presidency of Barack Obama. If you are visiting Washington, D.C., be sure the visit the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts which is named in his honor, and which is the jewel of cultural activities for the nation's capitol.

HERBERT HOOVER, 31ST PRESIDENT - Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1929. His was the first inauguration to be recorded by a talking newsreel. Soon after becoming President, the country experienced a collapse of the stock market and entered into the Great Depression. For this reason, he is often associated with the Great Depression. In fact, however, as Secretary of Commerce under Calvin Coolidge, Hoover had warned of the financial market excesses that led to the Stock Market Collapse and the Great Depression. He also was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, humanitarian in our nation's history. Having used his mining engineering education to make himself a multi-millionaire at a young age, during World War I he spearheaded and personally financed much of the Belgium relief effort for civilians displaced by the war. He was also an organizational genius so that, even after his presidency, future presidents sought him out for his advice and help. Unfortunately, he was not a great public communicator with the result that with the beginning of the Great Depression he was unable to provide the public, morale leadership that the nation's needed at the time.