My friend Chuck Sweeny made passing mention today of Harvard University as a frequent wellspring of U.S. presidents. But actually, if you add Yale University to the equation and broaden the perspective, the picture is truly remarkable. Imagine, for example, that the 2016 election pits Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Ted Cruz. If that’s the case, and if the winner goes on to serve two terms, that would make it 36 straight years that we’ve had presidents who attended Yale or Harvard universities — or both. You see, Hillary is a graduate of Yale University, while Cruz has a sheepskin from Harvard. Barack Obama is a Harvard graduate, as is the Republican who challenged him two years ago, Mitt Romney. Obama’s immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, who went to both Yale and Harvard, defeated Harvard grad Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election and Yale grad John Kerry in the 2004 election. Bush’s immediate predecessor, Yale man Bill Clinton, won the presidency in 1992 from Yale man George H.W. Bush. The senior Bush defeated a Harvard man Michael Dukakis in the presidential election of 1988. The other Harvard and Yale men who served as U.S. presidents are Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John Quincy Adams and John Adams. Oh, and all nine current members of the U.S. Supreme Court attended either Yale or Harvard.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 19:25:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015