Happy Presidents Day

Since Congress eviscerated the traditional holidays for Lincoln and Washington's birthdays and created the amorphous blob called Presidents Day we need to celebrate appropriately.

First, in celebration of America's diversity let's applaud Groupon's decision to issue coupons honoring President Alexander Hamilton since it would be very non-inclusive to limit President's Day to actual Presidents.  After all, Hamilton was an excellent Secretary of the Treasury, though not a good shot.

Next, since we no longer have holidays to honor the greatest of our Presidents and others like focusing on our worst Presidents, let's take a moment in the spirit of the day to recognize some mediocre Presidents.  We'll keep it bipartisan and focus on the 19th century.

First up is John Tyler.  Elected as vice-president in 1840 as part of the first successful Whig Party ticket along with William Henry Harrison, running on the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!", Tippecanoe being a battle Harrison won against an Indian confederation back in 1811.  Tyler assumed the presidency after Harrison caught cold while giving his inaugural address, dying a month later.  Unfortunately, though elected on Whig ticket, Tyler, a Virginian, was actually a Democrat.  During the remainder of the term he managed to alienate everyone in his own party; his cabinet resigned and the Whigs expelled him from the party, as well as everyone in the Democratic party and he was denied renomination in 1844.

Next is Franklin Pierce from New Hampshire, a Democrat elected in 1852.  He presided impotently over the sectional conflicts that eventually led to the Civil War.

Finally, here's Benjamin Harrison, a grandson of William Henry Harrison.  A Republican elected in 1888, we can think of absolutely nothing of interest to say about him.