Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977. Before his accession to the presidency, Ford served as the 40th vice president of the United States from December 1973 to August 1974. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the United States Electoral College. Born in Omaha and raised in Grand Rapids, Ford attended the University of Michigan and Yale Law School. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve, serving from 1942 to 1946. Ford began his political career in 1949 as the U. S. representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district. He served in this capacity for the final nine of them as the House Minority Leader. In December 1973, two months after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment by President Richard Nixon.
After the subsequent resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford assumed the presidency. His 895 day-long presidency is the shortest in U. S. history for any president who did not die in office. As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords. With the collapse of South Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U. S. involvement in Vietnam ended. Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. During Ford's presidency, foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, by the corresponding curb on the powers of the President. In the Republican presidential primary campaign of 1976, Ford defeated former California Governor Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, he narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic challenger, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party. His moderate views on various social issues put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died at home on December 26, 2006. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. He was Leslie Lynch King Sr. a wool trader. His father was a son of Martha Alicia King. Gardner separated from King just sixteen days after her son's birth, she took her son with her to Oak Park, home of her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law, Clarence Haskins James. From there, she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gardner and King divorced in December 1913, she gained full custody of her son. Ford's paternal grandfather Charles Henry King paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.
Ford said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. In a biography of Ford, James M. Cannon, a member of the Ford administration, wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents were sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, his infant son, Ford's nursemaid. Ford told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she smiled at another man during their honeymoon. After living with her parents for two-and-a-half years, Gardner married Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1916. Gerald was a salesman in a family-owned varnish company, they now called her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. The future president was never formally adopted and did not change his name until December 3, 1935, he was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford, Richard Addison "Dick" Ford, James Francis "Jim" Ford. Ford had three half-siblings from the second marriage of Leslie King Sr. his biological father: Marjorie King, Leslie Henry King, Patricia Jane King.
They never saw one another as children, he did not know them at all until 1960. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth; that year his biological father, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King Sr.'s death in 1941. Ford said, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."Ford was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He is the only Eagle Scout to have ascended to the U. S. Presidency. Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School, where he was a star athlete and captain of the football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League.
He attracted the attention of college recruiters. Ford attended the University of Michigan, he washed dishes at his f
William E. Simon
William Edward Simon was an American businessman, a Secretary of Treasury of the U. S. for three years, a philanthropist. He became the 63rd Secretary of the Treasury on May 1974, during the Nixon administration. After Nixon resigned, Simon was reappointed by President Ford and served until 1977 when President Carter took office. Outside of government, he was philanthropist; the William E. Simon Foundation carries on this legacy, he styled himself as a strong advocate of laissez-faire capitalism. He wrote, "There is only one social system that reflects the sovereignty of the individual: the free-market, or capitalist, system". At the time of his nomination as Treasury Secretary, Simon was serving as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, a post he had held from January 22, 1973; as Deputy Secretary, he supervised the Nixon administration's program to restructure and improve U. S. financial institutions. He served as the first Administrator of the Federal Energy Office. From December 4, 1973, Simon launched and administered the Federal Energy Administration at the height of the oil embargo.
As such he became known as the high-profile "Energy Czar", represented a revitalization of the "czar" term in U. S. politics. He chaired the President's Oil Policy Committee and was instrumental in revising the mandatory oil import program in April 1973. Simon was a member of the President's Energy Resources Council and continued to have major responsibility for coordinating both domestic and international energy policy. In August 1974, only three months after Simon became Secretary of the Treasury, President Nixon resigned. Simon was asked to continue to serve at Treasury by President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. who shortly afterward appointed him chairman of the Economic Policy Board and chief spokesman for the administration on economic issues. On April 8, 1975, President Ford named him chairman of the newly created East-West Foreign Trade Board, established under the authority of the Trade Act of 1974. In 1977, Simon received the Treasury Department's highest honor. In 1976, while serving as Secretary of the Treasury, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt presented Simon with the Collar of the Republic/Order of the Nile.
Simon's term as Secretary of the Treasury ended on January 20, 1977. As Treasury Secretary, Simon claimed to support free markets and to spurn government policies that either subsidized or penalized businesses. In Simon's own words: Throughout the last century the attachment of businessmen to free enterprise has weakened as they discovered they could demand – and receive – short-range advantages from the state... I watched with incredulity as businessmen ran to the government in every crisis, whining for handouts or protection from the competition that has made this system so productive. Simon was a pioneer of the leveraged buyout in the 1980s. Following government service, Simon was a Vice Chairman at Blyth Eastman Dillon for three years, He and his partner co-founded with Ray Chambers, a tax accountant, Wesray Capital Corporation, an LBO firm that bought and sold, among others, the Gibson Greeting Card Company, Anchor Glass, the Simmons Mattress Company investing tiny fractions of their own money and including significant debt to complete the purchase from prior shareholders, selling the companies whole or piecemeal after making changes that "often included job cutbacks and other short-term cost-reduction measures.".
In 1982, Wesray invested $1 million in equity capital and borrowed another $79 million to take private a Cincinnati-based greeting card company, Gibson Greetings, for $80 million. Eighteen months the company was taken public again, with a value of $290 million, Simon's $330,000 investment was worth $66 million. In 1984, he launched WSGP International, which concentrated on investments in real estate and financial service organizations in the western United States and on the Pacific Rim. In 1988, together with sons William E. Simon Jr. and J. Peter Simon, he founded William E. Simon & Sons, a global merchant bank with offices in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Hong Kong; the firm is now extensively involved in providing venture capital. In 1990, he partnered with several investors to form Catterton-Simon Partners, a private equity firm focused on beverages and other consumer products, which today is known as Catterton Partners. In the Anchor Glass case, Simon made millions more through deals with the company wherein the company leased its land and equipment from Simon.
Wesray received banking fees for handling the subsequent purchase by Anchor of Midland Glass Company. Anchor Glass bought casualty, employee health and benefit insurance from a brokerage firm owned by Simon; the Anchor Glass corporate headquarters in Tampa was leased from Simon. Anchor Glass admitted in an SEC filing, that "these arrangements... were not the result of arm's length bargaining... were not... favorable to the company". Anchor Glass was bought by a Mexican company, Vitro, S. A. Simmons Mattress Company, a company founded in 1886, was bought by Wesray and partners bought in 1986 for $120 million and sold it in 1989 for $241 million. By the late 1980s, Forbes magazine was estimating Simon's wealth at $300 million. During his business career, Simon served on the boards of over thirty companies including Xerox, Halliburton, Dart & Kraft, United Technologies. In 2017, William E. Simon & Sons merged with Massy Company in an all-equity transaction. Simon was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on Novem
Bob Schieffer
Bob Lloyd Schieffer is an American television journalist. He is known for his moderation of presidential debates, where he has been praised for his capability. Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all four of the major Washington national assignments: the White House, the Pentagon, United States Department of State, United States Congress, his career with CBS has exclusively dealt with national politics. He has interviewed every United States President since Richard Nixon, as well as most of those who sought the office. Schieffer has been with CBS News since 1969, serving as the anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News for 20 years, from 1976 to 1996, as well as the Chief Washington Correspondent from 1982 until 2015, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show, Face the Nation, from 1991 until May 31, 2015. From March 2005 to August 31, 2006, Schieffer was interim weekday anchor of CBS Evening News, was one of the primary substitutes for Katie Couric and Scott Pelley.
Following his retirement from Face the Nation, Schieffer has continued to work for CBS as a contributor, making many appearances on air giving political commentary covering the 2016 presidential election. Schieffer is releasing episodes of a new podcast, "Bob Schieffer's'About the News' with H. Andrew Schwartz". Schieffer has written three books about his career in journalism: Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast, This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV, Bob Schieffer's America, he co-authored a book about Ronald Reagan, The Acting President, with Gary Paul Gates, published in 1989. In his memoir, This Just In, Schieffer credits the fact he was a beat reporter at CBS for his longevity at the network. Schieffer has won every award in broadcast journalism, including eight Emmys, the overseas Press Club Award, the Paul White Award presented by the TV News Directors Association, the Edward R. Murrow Award given by Murrow's alma mater, Washington State University.
Shieffer was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2002, inducted into the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2013. He was named a living legend by the Library of Congress in 2008. Schieffer is serving as the Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center. Schieffer was born on February 25, 1937, in Austin, Texas, to John Emmitt Schieffer and Gladys Payne Schieffer, grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, he is an alumnus of North Side High School, Texas Christian University, where he was a member of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The College of Communication at TCU was renamed in Bob Schieffer's honor in 2013. After graduating from TCU, Schieffer served in the U. S. Air Force as a public information officer stationed at Travis Air Force Base and McChord Air Force Base, he was honorably discharged and joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a reporter, with one of his key assignments being a trip to Vietnam to profile soldiers from the Fort Worth area.
At the Star Telegram, he received his first major journalistic recognition on November 22, 1963. Schieffer married Patricia Penrose Schieffer in 1967, they have three granddaughters. Shortly after President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, while in the Star-Telegram office, he received a telephone call from a woman in search of a ride to Dallas; the woman was Marguerite Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, whom he accompanied to the Dallas police station where he spent the next several hours. In the company of Oswald's mother and his wife, Marina, he was able to use the phone in the police station to call in dispatches from other Star-Telegram reporters in the building; this enabled the Star-Telegram to create four "Extra" editions on the day of the assassination. Schieffer joined the Star-Telegram's television station, WBAP-TV in Fort Worth before taking a job with CBS in 1969. Schieffer was anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News from 1973 to 1974, the CBS Sunday Evening News in 1976, of the Saturday Evening News broadcast for twenty years from 1976 until 1996.
He anchored the weekday CBS morning show at the time called "Morning", titled in accordance to the day of the week from 1979 to 1980. One of his best known roles was as moderator of the Sunday public affairs show, Face the Nation, from 1991 until May 31, 2015. Schieffer was known for his reporting duties. Between 1970 and 1974, he was assigned to the Pentagon. From 1974 to 1979, he was the White House correspondent for CBS, in 1982 he became Chief Washington Correspondent, in addition to his anchor duties. In the wake of Dan Rather's controversial retirement, he was named interim anchor for the weekday CBS Evening News, he assumed that job on the day following Rather's last broadcast. Under Schieffer, the CBS Evening News gained about 200,000 viewers, to average 7.7 million viewers, reversing some of the decline in ratings that occurred during Rather's tenure. Schieffer closed the gap with ABC's World News Tonight when co-anchor Bob Woodruff was injured in late January 2006. Schieffer made his last CBS Evening News broadcast on August 31, 2006, was replaced by Katie Couric.
On Couric's second broadcast, he returned to provide segments for the evening news as chief Washington correspondent. Schieffer was a substitute anchor for Couric and Scott Pelley when he became anchor of the evening news in June 2011. On October 13, 2004, Schieffer was the moderator of the third presidential debate between President George W. Bush and
John B. Anderson
John Bayard Anderson was a United States Congressman and presidential candidate from Illinois. As a member of the Republican Party, he represented Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 through 1981. In 1980, he ran an independent campaign for president. Born in Rockford, Anderson practiced law after serving in the Army during World War II. After a stint in the United States Foreign Service, he won election as the State's Attorney for Winnebago County, Illinois, he won election to the House of Representatives in 1960 in a Republican district. One of the most conservative members of the House, Anderson's views moderated during the 1960s regarding social issues, he became Chairman of the House Republican Conference in 1969 and remained in that position until 1979. He criticized the Vietnam War as well as President Richard Nixon's actions during the Watergate scandal. Anderson entered the 1980 Republican presidential primaries, introducing his signature campaign proposal of raising the gas tax while cutting social security taxes.
He established himself as a contender for the nomination in the early primaries, but dropped out of the Republican race, choosing to pursue an independent campaign for president. In the election, he finished third behind Republican nominee Ronald Reagan and Democratic President Jimmy Carter, he won support among Rockefeller Republicans, liberal intellectuals, college students. After the election, he resumed his legal career and helped found FairVote, an organization that advocates electoral reforms such as instant-runoff voting, he won a lawsuit against the state of Ohio, Anderson v. Celebrezze, in which the Supreme Court struck down early filing deadlines for independent candidates. Anderson served as a visiting professor at numerous universities and was on the boards of several organizations, he endorsed Ralph Nader in 2000 and helped found the Justice Party in 2012. Anderson died on December 3, 2017 in Washington D. C. at the age of 95. Anderson was born in Rockford, where he grew up, the son of Mabel Edna and E. Albin Anderson.
His father was a Swedish immigrant. In his youth, he worked in his family's grocery store, he graduated as the valedictorian of his class at Rockford Central High School. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1939, started law school, but his education was interrupted by World War II, he enlisted in the Army in 1943, served as a staff sergeant in the U. S. Field Artillery in France and Germany until the end of the war, receiving four service stars. After the war, Anderson returned to complete his education, earning a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1946. Anderson was admitted to the Illinois bar the same year, practiced law in Rockford. Soon after, he moved east to attend Harvard Law School, obtaining a Master of Laws in 1949. While at Harvard, he served on the faculty of Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. In another brief return to Rockford, Anderson practiced at the law firm Reno & Zahm. Thereafter, Anderson joined the Foreign Service.
From 1952 to 1955, he served in Berlin as the Economic Reporting Officer in the Eastern Affairs Division, as an adviser on the staff of the United States High Commissioner for Germany. At the end of his tour, he left the foreign service and once again returned to the practice of law in Rockford. Soon after his return, Anderson was approached about running for public office. In 1956, Anderson was elected State's Attorney in Winnebago County, first winning a four-person race in the April primary by 1,330 votes and the general election in November by 11,456 votes. After serving for one term, he was ready to leave that office when the local congressman, 28-year incumbent Leo E. Allen, announced his retirement. Anderson joined the Republican primary for Allen's 16th District seat—the real contest in this then-solidly Republican district—with four other contenders, he won first the primary in April and the general election in November. He served in the United States House of Representatives for ten terms, from 1961 to 1981.
Anderson was among the most conservative members of the Republican caucus. Three times in his early terms as a Congressman, Anderson introduced a constitutional amendment to attempt to "recognize the law and authority of Jesus Christ" over the United States; the bills died but came back to haunt Anderson in his presidential candidacy. As he continued to serve, the atmosphere of the 1960s weighed on Anderson and he began to re-think some of his beliefs. By the late 1960s, Anderson's positions on social issues shifted to the left, though his fiscal philosophy remained conservative. At the same time, he was held in high esteem by his colleagues in the House. In 1964, he won appointment to a seat on the powerful Rules Committee. In 1969, he became Chairman of the House Republican Conference, the number three position in the House Republican hierarchy in what was the minority party. Anderson found himself at odds with conservatives in his home district and other members of the House, he was not always a faithful supporter of the Republican agenda, despite his high rank in the Republican caucus.
He was critical of the Vietnam War, was a controversial critic of Richard Nixon during Watergate. In 1974, despite his criticism of Nixon, he was nearly swept out by the strong anti-Republican tide in that year's election, he was re-elected with 55 percent of the vote, what would be the lowest pe
1980 United States presidential election
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. Due to the rise of conservativism following Reagan's victory, some historians consider the election to be a realigning election that marked the start of the "Reagan Era". Carter's unpopularity and poor relations with Democratic leaders encouraged an intra-party challenge by Senator Ted Kennedy, a younger brother of former President John F. Kennedy. Carter defeated Kennedy in the majority of the Democratic primaries, but Kennedy remained in the race until Carter was nominated at the 1980 Democratic National Convention; the Republican primaries were contested between Reagan, who had served as the Governor of California, former Congressman George H. W. Bush of Texas, Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, several other candidates. All of Reagan's opponents had dropped out by the end of the primaries, the 1980 Republican National Convention nominated a ticket consisting of Reagan and Bush.
Anderson entered the race as an independent candidate, convinced former Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey, a Democrat, to serve as his running mate. Reagan campaigned for increased defense spending, implementation of supply-side economic policies, a balanced budget, his campaign was aided by Democratic dissatisfaction with Carter, the Iran hostage crisis, a worsening economy at home marked by high unemployment and inflation. Carter attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing extremist and warned that Reagan would cut Medicare and Social Security. Reagan won the election by a landslide, taking a large majority of the electoral vote and 50.7% of the popular vote. Reagan received the highest number of electoral votes won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate. In the simultaneous Congressional elections, Republicans won control of the United States Senate for the first time since 1955. Carter won 41% of the vote but carried just six states and Washington, D. C. Anderson won 6.6% of the popular vote, he performed best among liberal Republican voters dissatisfied with Reagan.
Reagan 69, was the oldest person to be elected president until Donald Trump's victory in 2016. Throughout the 1970s, the United States underwent a wrenching period of low economic growth, high inflation and interest rates, intermittent energy crises. By October 1978, Iran—a major oil supplier to the United States at the time—was experiencing a major uprising that damaged its oil infrastructure and weakened its capability to produce oil. In January 1979, shortly after Iran's leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country, Iranian opposition figure Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ended his 14-year exile in France and returned to Iran to establish an Islamic Republic hostile to American interests and influence in the country. In the spring and summer of 1979 inflation was on the rise and various parts of the United States were experiencing energy shortages. Carter was blamed for the return of the long gas lines in the summer of 1979 that were last seen just after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he planned on delivering his fifth major speech on energy, but he felt that the American people were no longer listening.
Carter left for the presidential retreat of Camp David. "For more than a week, a veil of secrecy enveloped the proceedings. Dozens of prominent Democratic Party leaders—members of Congress, labor leaders and clergy—were summoned to the mountaintop retreat to confer with the beleaguered president." His pollster, Pat Caddell, told him that the American people faced a crisis of confidence because of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.. On July 15, 1979, Carter gave a nationally televised address in which he identified what he believed to be a "crisis of confidence" among the American people; this came to be known as his "malaise" speech. Many expected Senator Ted Kennedy to challenge Carter in the upcoming Democratic primary. Kennedy's official announcement was scheduled for early November. A television interview with Roger Mudd of CBS a few days before the announcement went badly, however. Kennedy gave an "incoherent and repetitive" answer to the question of why he was running, the polls, which showed him leading the President by 58–25 in August now had him ahead 49–39.
Meanwhile, Carter was given an opportunity for political redemption when the Khomeini regime again gained public attention and allowed the taking of 52 American hostages by a group of Islamist students and militants at the U. S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. Carter's calm approach towards the handling of this crisis resulted in his approval ratings jump in the 60-percent range in some polls, due to a "rally round the flag" effect. By the beginning of the election campaign, the prolonged Iran hostage crisis had sharpened public perceptions of a national crisis. On April 25, 1980, Carter's ability to use the hostage crisis to regain public acceptance eroded when his high risk attempt to rescue the hostages ended in disaster when eight servicemen were killed; the unsuccessful rescue attempt drew further skepticism towards his leadership skills. Following the failed rescue attempt, Carter took overwhelming blame for the Iran hostage crisis, in which the followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini burned American flags and chanted anti-American slogans, paraded the captured American hostages in public, burned Carter in effigy.
Carter's critics saw him as an inept leader who had failed to solve the worsening economic problems at home. His supporters defended the preside
Richard Lugar
Richard Green Lugar is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party. Born in Indianapolis, Lugar is a graduate of Oxford University, he served on the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners from 1964 to 1967 before he was elected to two terms as Mayor of Indianapolis, serving from 1968 to 1976. During his tenure as Mayor, Lugar served as the President of the National League of Cities in 1971 and gave the keynote address at the 1972 Republican National Convention. In 1974, Lugar ran his first campaign for the U. S. Senate, losing to incumbent Democratic senator Birch Bayh, he ran again in 1976. Lugar was reelected in 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006. In 2012, Lugar was defeated in a primary challenge by Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, ending his 36-year tenure in the U. S. Senate. Lugar ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1996 but did not win any primaries or caucuses.
During Lugar's tenure, he served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1985 to 1987 and from 2003 to 2007, serving as the ranking member of the committee from 2007 until his departure in 2013. Lugar twice served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, from 1995 to 2001 and again in part of 2001. Much of Lugar's work in the Senate was toward the dismantling of nuclear and chemical weapons around the world, co-sponsoring his most notable piece of legislation with Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn: the Nunn–Lugar Act, he is the longest-serving senator in Indiana's history and until leaving office was the most senior Republican member of the Senate. Following his service in the Senate, Lugar created a nonprofit organization that specializes in the policy areas he pursued while in office; the Lugar Center focuses on global food security, the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, foreign aid effectiveness, effective bipartisan governance. Located in Washington, D.
C. the nonpartisan Center works with academics and policymakers in order to create proposals for these 21st century issues. The Center works to highlight these specific topics and their implications, as well as educating the public on them. Lugar is a member of Partnership for a Secure America's bipartisan Advisory Board. Richard Lugar was born on April 4, 1932, in Indianapolis, the son of Bertha and Marvin Lugar, he is of part German descent. Lugar attended the Indianapolis Public School. During this time he attained the Boy Scouts' highest rank: Eagle Scout, he became a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated first in his class at Shortridge High School in 1950 and from Denison University in 1954 where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, he went on to attend Pembroke College, England, as a Rhodes Scholar, received a second bachelor's degree and a master's degree in 1956. He served in the U. S. Navy from 1956 to 1960, he achieved the rank of Junior Grade.
Lugar manages his family's 604-acre Marion County corn and tree farm. Before entering public life, he helped his brother Tom manage the family's food machinery manufacturing business in Indianapolis. Lugar served on the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners from 1964 to 1967. At the age of 35, he was elected mayor of Indianapolis in 1967, defeating incumbent Democrat John J. Barton, began serving the first of two mayoral terms in 1968, he is associated with the adoption of Unigov in 1970, which unified the governments of Indianapolis and Marion County. The Unigov plan helped trigger Indianapolis's economic growth and earned Lugar the post of president of the National League of Cities in 1971. In 1972 Lugar was the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention. During this time he became known as "Richard Nixon's favorite mayor" owing to his support for devolving federal powers to local communities; when Nixon visited Indianapolis in February 1970, he stated during a speech that he would meet with Lugar and other mayors ahead of a conference with Governors on environmental issues.
On March 14, 1974, Lugar dismissed Police Chief Winston L. Churchill following allegations of widespread corruption in the Indianapolis Police Department. Lugar stated the dismissal came following meetings with dozens of policemen and having the counsel of a seven member committee of citizens to aid in the investigation. 1974Lugar ran for the U. S. Senate in 1974 U. S. Senate election and lost to incumbent Democrat U. S. senator Birch Bayh. 1976 Two years he ran against Indiana's other U. S. senator, Democrat Vance Hartke, defeating him by a massive landslide, 59%-40%, a 19-point margin. 1982Lugar won reelection to a second term, defeating Democrat U. S. Congressman Floyd Fithian. 1988Lugar won reelection to a third term. 1994Lugar won reelection to a fourth term, defeating Democratic former U. S. Congressman Jim Jontz, he became the first Indiana U. S. senator elected to a fourth term. 2000Lugar won reelection to a fifth term. 2006Lugar won reelection to a sixth term. The Democratic Party did not field a candidate.
His was the highest-percentage win of the 2006 Senate elections despite a Democratic takeover of Washington. 2012Lugar ran for reelection to a seventh term but was defeated in the Republican primary by State Treasurer Richard
President of the United States
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. In contemporary times, the president is looked upon as one of the world's most powerful political figures as the leader of the only remaining global superpower; the role includes responsibility for the world's most expensive military, which has the second largest nuclear arsenal. The president leads the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP; the president possesses international hard and soft power. Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, it vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic and judicial officers, concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president directs the foreign and domestic policies of the United States, takes an active role in promoting his policy priorities to members of Congress. In addition, as part of the system of checks and balances, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation; the power of the presidency has grown since its formation, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. Through the Electoral College, registered voters indirectly elect the president and vice president to a four-year term; this is the only federal election in the United States, not decided by popular vote. Nine vice presidents became president by virtue of a president's intra-term resignation. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 sets three qualifications for holding the presidency: natural-born U. S. citizenship.
The Twenty-second Amendment precludes any person from being elected president to a third term. In all, 44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, so he is counted twice, as both the 22nd and 24th president. Donald Trump of New York is the current president of the United States, he assumed office on January 20, 2017. In July 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies, acting jointly through the Second Continental Congress, declared themselves to be 13 independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. Recognizing the necessity of coordinating their efforts against the British, the Continental Congress began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the states together. There were long debates on a number of issues, including representation and voting, the exact powers to be given the central government. Congress finished work on the Articles of Confederation to establish a perpetual union between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for ratification.
Under the Articles, which took effect on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation was a central political authority without any legislative power. It could make its own resolutions and regulations, but not any laws, could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens; this institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some royal prerogatives to Congress; the members of Congress elected a President of the United States in Congress Assembled to preside over its deliberation as a neutral discussion moderator. Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the office of President of the United States, it was a ceremonial position without much influence. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies.
With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, they witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed. Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms; when the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, Alexander Hamilton led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia.
Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rh
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