Surprising Political Fact

Over in Tom Veal's Stromata Blog (mostly politics, but sometimes talking about his convention-running experiences), we learn a political fact that I'd not noticed: The last time that an outgoing Democratic President handed his office over (that is, did not die in office and have his VP succeed him) to a Democratic successor was 1856, when When James Buchanan succeeded Franklin Pierce. As Tom said, "Looked at another way, no such transition has occurred since the Republican Party formally came into existence."

Yes, Democrats have followed Democrats since 1856, but only due to the incumbent's death: L.B. Johnson after Kennedy and Truman after F.D. Roosevelt. In both cases, those successors themselves won re-election in their own right.

Joining the Star Wars Herd

All right, all right, I give up.

( Which Star Wars character am I? )

Now if only some of that hair would stay on the top of my head.

Walkies!

My thanks to jaylake for citing the Gmaps Pedometer in his LJ. I now know that my standard after-lunch walk is slightly more than 2.75 km. In case you click through and wonder why the start and end points aren't the same, it's because I measured it from the door from which I normally leave to the door through which I normally return, so it does not count the distance traveled inside the building.