Local Presidents Questions

1. Local Presidents Questions Junior/Senior Divisions #25-44

2. #1 25-35 (6 points) My predecessor appointed me as his Secretary of War. After becoming president, I formed my cabinet in some degree to part from my predecessor’s progressivism. I named an anti-progressive, Philander Chase Knox, as my Secretary of State. Nevertheless, my Rule of Law background resulted in my filing 80 antitrust suits during my administration compared to 54 such suits by my predecessor. (4 points) One of my key policies was known as Dollar Diplomacy. I sent marines to Nicaragua to help protect American business interests in that country. As a young man, I played baseball and became the first president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the season. (2 points) I was the heaviest person ever to be president, weighing in at over 330 pounds. I lost much of that weight before I was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court seven years after leaving the White House.

3. 32-42 #2 (6 points) When I appointed California Governor Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, I thought I had appointed an uncontroversial middle-of-the-road justice. To my surprise, Warren led a civil rights revolution in the courts. He wrote the majority opinion in the Brown v. Board of Education which overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine. He stated that segregating white and black students in public schools was unconstitutional. (4 points)After the high cost of the Korean War, my Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and I followed a policy of “massive retaliation.” We believed the Soviets wouldn’t attack the United States or our allies if they thought we would respond with nuclear weapons. Therefore, I ordered cutbacks in army ground troops and invested in nuclear war heads. (2 points) I threatened to drop my running mate, Richard Nixon, from the ticket when the New York Times reported Nixon had a slush fund of campaign contributions that he used for personal expenses. Nixon denied the allegations in his famous “Checkers” speech on national television.

4. #3 25-35 (6 points) I was well aware of the role that women would soon play in politics since I was the only president who taught at a women’s college. I taught government at Bryn Mawr College outside Philadelphia. In less than three years, I went from a citizen who had never held public office to President of the United States. (4 points) After returning from Europe, I had a stroke that left me partly paralyzed. My second wife, Edith, took over many routine duties and details of government. Edith also strongly opposed allowing my Vice President Thomas R. Marshall to assume my presidential powers. (2 points) I was the last president born in a slaveholding household.

5. 30-40 #4 (6 points) During my administration the country suffered the worst inflation and unemployment rates since the Great Depression. My solution was the “Whip Inflation Now” campaign. WIN buttons were created. When the program failed, I admitted it was probably too gimmicky. I was born and died in two different states, neither one in the South. (4 points) When I became president, I promised to heal the nation. My wife, Betty, took on this theme as she became an outspoken advocate of women’s rights and the Equal Right Amendment. While I served as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Lyndon Johnson joked that I couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time, although that is a sanitized ver-sion of what he actually said. He also accused me of “playing too much football without a helmet.” (2 points) People viewed me more as an honest caretaker than as a leader since I had never been elected either president or vice president.

6. #5 31-41 (6 points) I chose my Vice President not because I liked him, but because I rea-lized that I could not be elected without him. He helped me solidify the support of traditional Southern Democrats. My Vice President confronted my brother Robert, my Attorney General, in front of friends and officials. Halfway through my presidency, there were rumors in Washington circles that I was planning on dropping my vice president from the ticket for the upcoming presidential election. (4 points) My glamorous wife is remembered for reorganizing entertainment for White House social events and restoring the interior of the presidential home. She was extremely popular in America and throughout the world. (2 points) I was the first Catholic to be elected president. My presidency was cut short by the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald.

7. 34-44 #6 (6 points) A new soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power during my presidency. Gorbachev introduced two new programs to the Soviets: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reconstruction). Finally, in the middle of my second term, I signed a treaty with Gorbachev, the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Agreement. We both agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in our arsenal. (4 points)I viewed all government spending except the defense budget as wasteful. I lowered taxes on the wealthy, cut deeply into social programs and raised the defense budget. I believed if the wealthy had more money to invest, prosperity would “trickle down” to everyone. During the campaign for the Republican nomination, my future Vice President called this plan “voodoo economics”. (2 points) My wife, Nancy, was criticized for spending almost two million dollars redecorating the White House. Her expensive taste seemed out of place when social programs for the poor were being cut.

8. 27-37 #7 (6 points) During my administration, the notori-ous gangster Al Capone was convicted of in-come tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years in prison. The first Academy Awards were presented, and the Star Spangled Banner officially became the national anthem. (4 points) When my wife Lou and I wanted to communicate with each other and not have anyone understand what we were saying, we would speak in Mandarin Chinese, something we picked up during our stay in that country during the Boxer Re-bellion. My election continued my party’s control of the White House. (2 points) Lou was once the national president of the Girl Scouts while I served as Secretary of Commerce under two previous administrations. She was also the first First Lady to receive honorary degrees before entering the White House.

9. 33-43 #8 (6 points) My election marked the first time in twelve years that Congress was controlled by the same party as the presidency. This did not last long. Mid-term elections saw control of both the Senate and the House change to the opposing party. Even the Speaker of the House, Thomas Foley, lost, and Newt Gingrich (pictured) became the new speaker with “Contract with America” promises. (4 points) Controversy and scandal plagued my two terms. Affairs with women, accusations of draft dodging, smoking marijuana, and the Arkansas land deal known as Whitewater kept my popularity on a roller-coaster ride. (2 points) During my first term, I won two big trade victories with Congress: the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. I was not as successful with health care. Even though my wife, Hillary, chaired the commission, their proposal to guarantee all Americans a minimum package of healthcare benefits was rejected by Congress as too expensive.

10. 28-38 #9 (6 points) It all started when a white police officer arrested a black man for reckless driving. When the patrolman drew his gun, a crowd of blacks attacked him. Rioting in the black section of Los Angeles known as Watts erupted. Damage covering 500 square blocks cost over $40 million. It was one of many riots that broke out across the country during my last full year in the White House. (4 points) My two pet beagles, Him & Her, became controver-sial when I was photographed picking them up by their ears. I refused to apologize stating, “It’s good for them.” That’s the way we handle them in my home state in the South. (2 points)My domestic program theme was “The Great Soci-ety.” Medicaid and Medicare were developed. I also won pass-age of serious environmental and consumer legislation as well as the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to help African Americans.

11. 34-44 #10 (6 points) While famous for my leadership in foreign policy, I faced numerous domestic crises during my presidency. Los Angeles was torn by days of rioting following the acquittal of policemen who had been tried for beating an African American man, Rodney King. A high point came when I appointed Manuel Lujan to be the Secretary of the Interior, the first Hispanic to hold a cabinet level position. (4 points) My presidency saw two high profile events at the end of the Cold War. The first was in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where the Chinese used tanks and armored cars to suppress a developing pro-democracy movement. The second was when the Berlin Wall fell after nearly 40 years. (2 points) I lived long enough to see my son become president.

12. 32-42 #11 (6 points) I had the lowest approval rating of any president in the 20th century with 22%. There was even a bill of impeachment against me as several high officials in the White House and Treasury Department were convicted of corruption. Of particular concern to the public were my takeovers of the steel mills and firing of General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination. (4 points) In spite of the opposition of my own state depart-ment and Secretary of State George C. Marshall, I became the first head of a major country to recognize the new state of Israel. Congress passed the National Security act creating the National Security Council, the CIA, and Department of Defense. (2 points) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for espionage during the height of the Red Scare. They were later executed during the admini-stration of my Republican successor. I lived to an older age than both my predecessor and successor.

13. 25-35 #12 (6 points) After four years of marriage, my wife Ida suffered a breakdown following the death of our two infant daughters. She never recovered and spent the rest of her life as a tormented epileptic at the borders of sanity. Even my opponents were amazed at my devotion to her. (4 points) I appointed Russell Alger as my Secretary of War. He was criticized for the inadequate preparation and inefficient operation of the department during the Spanish-American War. (2 points) Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot me twice in the stomach on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. I died eight days later from gangrene caused by the bullet wounds.

14. 26-36 #13 (6 points) During my presidency, Jeannette Rankin from Montana became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. I set up the Federal Reserve banking system during my presidency and worked hard to put restrictions on child labor. (4 points) During my term, the Federal Trade Commission was established to regulate business conglomerations. My Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo served as an “ex officio member” on the first Federal Reserve Board in Washington D.C. (2 points) Following my attendance at the Paris Peace Confer-ence, I began to campaign for Senate approval of the peace treaty and the League of Nations Covenant. However, the United States never did ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor join the League of Nations. I was still awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for my peacemaking efforts.

15. 34-44 #14 • (6 points) My second term as president was highlighted by several free trade agreements. I also pushed the Energy Policy Act and for offshore and domestic drilling. I nominated Justices John Roberts (left) and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and pushed for Social Security and immigration reform. (4 points) I selected Condoleezza Rice, the first African Ameri-can woman as the Secretary of State. Rice championed my goal to advance democratic reform and support basic rights through-out the Middle East. (2 points) The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the thwarted flight against the White House on September 11, in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed, transformed me into a wartime president.

16. 25-44 Answers #27 William Taft #34 Dwight Eisenhower #28 Woodrow Wilson #38 Gerald Ford #35 John Kennedy #40 Ronald Reagan #31 Herbert Hoover #42 Bill Clinton #36 Lyndon Johnson #41 George H. W. Bush #33 Harry Truman #25 William McKinley #28 Woodrow Wilson #43 George W. Bush