The Average Joes

Continuing my categorization of the 42 (43 if you count Cleveland twice) presidents. These are the Average Joes. They did not do a bad job, but were not great either. As a result, they are lumped together here. Once again, they are listed chronologically.

1. John Tyler (1841-1845): Tyler took over when Harrison died after one month. He had two major accomplishments. Firstly, Tyler was the first Veep to assume the presidency upon the death of his predecessor. He asserted the right of a Vice President to be President and not just serve as an interim president. This was highly controversial. Second, he annexed Texas on his way out of office. On the downside, Tyler ran as a Whig, but was really a Democrat. When the Whigs passed legislation and sent it to him, he vetoed it. His cabinet resigned and he became a man without a party. After leaving office, he supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.

2. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850): Taylor did not do much in office. He died about a year and a half into office. When California wanted to enter the Union a free state, he supported their petition which caused a firestorm. Despite owning slaves, he opposed the expansion of slavery and the Compromise of 1850. Taylor also threatened to hang anyone that threatened secession from the Union.

3. Rutherford B Hayes (1877-1881): Due to the nature of his elevation to the presidency, he did not get much done and promised to serve only one term. He ended Reconstruction as part of the deal to get the White House, busted the Railroad Strike of 1877, signed a bill to allow women to argue cases before the Supreme Court, and arbitrated the end of The War of Triple Alliance between Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay against Paraguay. His decision made him a hero in Paraguay.

4. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929): After the corrupt administration of Warren Harding, Coolidge was a breath of fresh air. He kept spending down and cut taxes. Coolidge also signed immigration reform measures. Additionally, he gave citizenship to American Indians and oversaw the first regulations on transportation and radio. Coolidge's Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg, negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact which renounced and outlawed war. He was elected in his own right in 1924, but declined to run again in 1928.

5. Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977): Ford entered office as a result of Watergate. He started out with a very high approval rating, but decided to pardon Nixon which ended his honeymoon. His rationale was two-fold. First, he feared Nixon's health would continue to deteriorate and he'd die if the pressure was not released. Second, he felt it was better to spare the country the pain of a trial. It was a profile in courage, but cost him the 1976 election. For this, he is known as the "Great Healer." During his term, the economy faltered as a result of government welfare programs and an end of the Vietnam War. Ford's WIN program attempted to fix inflation, but it raised unemployment. Ford admitted it was "too gimmicky." The Vietnam War came to a crashing end as the Communists illegally entered Saigon and the US mounted a day and night rescue mission (you can see the ladder to the helicopter at the US embassy at the Ford Museum). Most importantly, he got the USSR to sign the Helsinki Accord which bound the Soviets to maintain human rights. This treaty sparked Solidarity and signalled the beginning of the end for the Soviets.