Why Obama is not first 'imposter' president and won't be the last, according to historians
...[H]istorians say Americans have long accused their presidents of being illegitimate officeholders for all sorts of dark, and bizarre, reasons....
"Heavens, where do I start?" says David Crockett, an associate professor of political science at Trinity University in Texas....
You can go back to the 19th century, where calling a president illegitimate was a common -- and often nasty -- practice, says Thomas Alan Schwartz, a presidential historian at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee....
Claims of presidential illegitimacy faded away in the mid-20th century because of several landslide presidential elections.
But they revived again with the election of another Oval Office pioneer, John F. Kennedy, in 1960. Kennedy, like Obama, was an Oval Office first -- he was the first Irish-Catholic president.
But critics said Kennedy's election was illegitimate because of his razor-thin victory over Richard Nixon. Some accused Kennedy's millionaire father of buying the election; others said Democratic operatives had stolen votes for Kennedy in Chicago, Illinois, a Democratic stronghold.
"Nixon didn't challenge the election of 1960, though he had a very good case," says Schwartz, the Vanderbilt University historian. Schwartz says Nixon didn't protest because he didn't want to spark a political crisis during the Cold War....
Americans began to lose trust in their presidents, and with that, their reverence for the office, says Mary Ellen Balchunis, a political science professor at La Salle University in Pennsylvania....
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"Heavens, where do I start?" says David Crockett, an associate professor of political science at Trinity University in Texas....
You can go back to the 19th century, where calling a president illegitimate was a common -- and often nasty -- practice, says Thomas Alan Schwartz, a presidential historian at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee....
Claims of presidential illegitimacy faded away in the mid-20th century because of several landslide presidential elections.
But they revived again with the election of another Oval Office pioneer, John F. Kennedy, in 1960. Kennedy, like Obama, was an Oval Office first -- he was the first Irish-Catholic president.
But critics said Kennedy's election was illegitimate because of his razor-thin victory over Richard Nixon. Some accused Kennedy's millionaire father of buying the election; others said Democratic operatives had stolen votes for Kennedy in Chicago, Illinois, a Democratic stronghold.
"Nixon didn't challenge the election of 1960, though he had a very good case," says Schwartz, the Vanderbilt University historian. Schwartz says Nixon didn't protest because he didn't want to spark a political crisis during the Cold War....
Americans began to lose trust in their presidents, and with that, their reverence for the office, says Mary Ellen Balchunis, a political science professor at La Salle University in Pennsylvania....