Presidents of the United States of America at the Nationals Games

The presidents run races in between innings at the Nationals games in Washington, D.C.

They also throw t-shirts to the crowd.

I am sure after a game there presidents' approval ratings couldn't be higher!

History and the Presidents quiz twofer

Mental Floss has a presidential lunchtime quiz today, "Who was president when? Part 2." So I went back and found quiz 1. These are hard since they give you the event and you need to guess who was president. I did alright on quiz one, but the questions grew more obscure on quiz two. I will probably tank quiz three when it comes out.

Part 1

My Results:

Part 2

My results:

Alright history buffs, tell me how you do.

I picked it - Biden-Obama!

I was away this week when Obama picked Biden for his vice presidential running mate so I couldn't gloat about my prediction, but I will gloat now.

Way back in January of 2007 when everyone was taking those presidential candidate quizzes and there were many more Democratic and Republican candidates I took the 2008 Presidential candidate quiz. My results - Biden/Obama! At the time I just thought the quiz read my IP address and picked the Delaware guy and the popular guy. Now I know that I was extraordinarily prescient and that the quiz just rotated the order.

I also occasionally rag on Biden and his son, but I can think of worse picks for the VP. Biden is also a no-show at Blue rocks games. If nothing else Biden will be exciting to watch since he is such a straight talker, the Republicans even have a Biden gaffe clock. Since Biden is from Delaware I guess this state is sewn up for the election and we still won't have any presidential campaigning. Maybe we will see them on their way to Pennsylvania.

Perhaps now with my early guess of the Obama/Biden ticket I should become a political pundit. I certainly have opinions that I can share with you whether you want to hear them or not. Maybe instead I should just get back to pictures of my backyard and the science fiction I just read.

Obamalicious

This cookie is Obamalicious.

Vote with your stomach

Kij's Bakery in Chichester, Pennsylvania has a delicious way to express your support for your favorite presidential contender. Since Pennsylvania's primary is April 22nd the volume has been turned up on the political commercials. The cookies lighten the atmosphere I guess.

I don't know if I should eat my favorite candidate or eat the other guys up to devour them and get them out of the race.

Can you name all of the Presidents? - A quiz

Can you name all of the presidents off the top of your head? Try the quiz here.

I am embarrassed to say that I only got 31 out of 43 presidents on this quiz. The most shocking part is that I lived on some of these streets yet I was still unable to remember them in the heat of the moment. Enter as many last names as you can in 10 minutes. I have a nephew who could do this when he was 4 (with some gentle intermittent first name prompting from his father.)

I can console myself with the fact that I knew the two least remembered presidents (only 48% remembered them). I have actually been to the presidential library of one of them (Thank you for the recommendation, Sara Vowell), and the other I remembered as one of the "caretaker" President's of the United States from a school musical on the "I Love Lisa" episode of the Simpsons. On the pother hand, I had a lot of trouble with the pre-Civil War presidents.

26% of people who took the test remembered them all. How did you do?

(via Neatorama)

Need help in picking your presidential candidate?

The presidential candidate selector quiz asks the questions and then matches you to your candidate. I have to admit, I had to look up my own number one result. Kent McManigal is a far out write in candidate for radical libertarians. Let me go check those answers again...

My results:

Your Results:

	1.	Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
	2.	Kent McManigal (83%)
	3.	Ron Paul (76%)
	4.	Dennis Kucinich (72%)
	5.	Barack Obama (67%)
	6.	Alan Augustson (60%)
	7.	Bill Richardson (58%)
	8.	Christopher Dodd (58%)
	9.	Mike Gravel (56%)
	10.	Wesley Clark (56%)
	11.	Al Gore (55%)
	12.	Joseph Biden (54%)
	13.	Hillary Clinton (52%)
	14.	John Edwards (47%)
	15.	John McCain (47%)
	16.	Newt Gingrich (46%)
	17.	Chuck Hagel (45%)
	18.	Mitt Romney (40%)
	19.	Sam Brownback (37%)
	20.	Fred Thompson (36%)
	21.	Mike Huckabee (30%)
	22.	Rudolph Giuliani (30%)
	23.	Tommy Thompson (29%)
	24.	Tom Tancredo (28%)
	25.	Jim Gilmore (22%)
	26.	Elaine Brown (22%)
	27.	Duncan Hunter (21%)

You can find the quiz at the 2008 Presidential Candidate Selector.

(via Exploding Aardvark)

I will never be president!

I failed miserably at this presidential quiz. I have a knack for picking the wrong answers it seems.

THE PRESIDENTIAL QUIZ: Just how presidential are you?

Ouch! Sorry to shatter your dreams, kid. Maybe you should spend more time working on your jump shot.

Score: 15% (3 out of 20)

(take the quiz here)

Test your own mettle against the vagaries of presidential politics and behavior. I liked the explanations at the end. As I was taking the quiz I realized the questions were from real situations and I couldn't decide if I should answer my own opinion about what was appropriate or what I recalled happened to the president involved. I answered honestly, since it was a quiz to determine if I had the skills to be president. The answer? No.

I don't feel to bad, the average score after over 6000 takers is 25%.

(from Mental Floss via Neatorama)

The presidential ticket quiz

Seemingly developed by linking personality traits through seven questions to the myriad number of candidates running for president in 2008, the results of the quiz are especially apt for a Delawarean like myself. Perhaps it checks your IP address and notices its Delaware before it plunks Biden in as your candidate.

You're Biden-Obama!


As Joe Biden, you have been working tirelessly in the same job for seemingly your entire life. You've been able to rise from obscurity to become one of the most reliable and well-known people in your workplace. You have been constantly trying to get promotions for years, but each time the boss just laughs at you and sends you back to your desk. That's not going to stop you from trying again, by golly! This year, you're going to kick that football!

You select Barack Obama as your running mate so he can write your speeches.


Take the 2008 Presidential Ticket Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I don't think this ticket would happen. Has anyone outside of this state (or maybe the Northeast) really ever heard of Joe Biden? Comments anyone?

(found via Tinkerty Tonk)

President's visit generates controversy

The title above is an extreme understatement. One of the great new things about the News Journal is that they now have comments enabled for any of their articles, including the one about the President's visit. This brings out a lot of interesting viewpoints. To be honest, it is an open invitation to the kooks, much like the rest of the Internet, including yours truly.

The comments on the President's visit variously ranged from:

• rants about the war, both pro and con
• rants about his hypocrisy/necessity to driving/lying/take the train when he was going to talk about reducing energy dependence
• rants about how he has too much/not enough security surrounding him during the visit
  
• rants about how traffic was going to be snarled by the visit (I saw none of this)
• rants about how the favorite/least favorite local politician was doing/not-doing something about an unimportant/important unrelated topic
  
• some completely off topic stuff that would blow your mind.

Case in point, I always thought I knew the conspiracy theories but rj360 has them down pat and actually posts them into forums:

"The Presidents of the U.S. are tools, used by societies that have been trying to create a New World Order for a few centuries. America is the base of the NWO because wars are not fought over here and we are not as influenced by European policy because the U.S. is so far away. The U.S. can also be self sustaining but greed has has created a need to be dependent on other nations. Research organizations like the Free Masons and history on the Knights Templar. Research the differences between which presidents were assassinated or an attempt was made, against those who have done what they have wanted to do. The President of the U.S. has a boss that most people do not know about and it sure isn't the people or any other branch of government. There is no democracy. Democracy is an illusion. Because you can vote doesn't mean that democracy is living."

I need to stop taking my paranoia medication and send it on to this guy. I doubt he would give me his address though, they can use that to send mind control messages to you through your teeth. Too bad tinfoil doesn't work anymore.

The president came to Delaware and all I got was this lousy bunch of links

I had high hopes of at least having pictures of my own of the presidential motorcade going up Delaware Rt 141 to the Experimental Station. But it went by either before and after I looked for it. I didn't get invited to see him at the DuPont Playhouse. It looks like DELDOT even blocked the traffic cameras as the motorcade went by so I didn't even get to see that. What a story for the grandchildren.

As a poor substitute for what would have been some really cool personal pictures, here is an impersonal link to the News Journal article and photos (Arrival at NCC Airport, Xstat, DuPont Playhouse in Wilmington, Troops at NCC Airpot). Darn those professional news outlets, with their resources and press credentials.

Coverage from KYW.com, 6abc.com, nbc10.

I have to say that is was cool that the president, any president, visited Delaware. Any press for Delaware is good press for Delaware. It's better than murders. But for me getting to see him, close but no cigar. Maybe next election.