Presidential Trivia

[wpbinzel]

(12-05-2018 08:09 PM)Steve Wrote:  George Herbert Walker Bush in 1989. The Vice-President makes the official declaration after reading and officially counting the electoral votes to Congress. For instance, in 2001, Al Gore made the official declaration that George W. Bush had been elected President.


Rest in Peace, President George H. W. Bush.

CORRECT! But it occurred in December 1988. Most Americans are blissfully unaware that when they vote for President, they are in fact voting for a slate of electors to the Electoral College who are pledged to vote for that candidate. After the election, there is a process by which the electors meet, formally cast their votes, and complete a certificate of election, which is submitted to Congress. About six weeks after the November election, a Joint Committee of the House and Senate is convened in the House Chamber to count the votes of the certificates of election and to officially declare the winner. The presiding officer of the Joint Committee is the President of the Senate; i.e., the Vice President of the United States.

In 1988, as a Congressional staffer, I had access to the House floor, and attended the December Joint Committee meeting for the counting of the electoral votes. Vice President George H. W. Bush presided, and for the first time in 152 years (since Martin Van Buren in 1836), the presiding officer had the privilege of declaring himself elected President of the United States (which Bush did, all in the third-person).

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I have one other George H. W. Bush story. After I left Capitol Hill, for a dozen years I ran the Washington, D.C. office for a major U.S. corporation. In the spring of 2002, the company was honored at a dinner by AmeriCares, a charity supported by George and Barbara Bush. Before the dinner, I was with them in the holding room. They could not have been more personable. We chatted informally, and Mrs. Bush asked if I was married. I said that I was engaged, and told them the story of how I proposed to my wife-to-be at the Cape Neddick lighthouse in Maine on the previous Christmas Eve. The Cape Neddick lighthouse is incredibly picturesque and just south of the Bushs’ summer home in Kennebunkport. After hearing the story, Mrs. Bush said, “That is such a beautiful setting! Isn’t that a wonderful story, George?” Without a missing a beat, President Bush said, “I like to drive my boat down there.” Mrs. Bush was horrified by the response and whipped around and gave her husband a look that only a wife can give a former-President. We all had a good chuckle.