Vetoes

I really didn’t know that much about them.  So I looked them up.

Did you know that one has to go back as far as James Garfield to find a Commander in Chief who has used less vetoes? (And he was in office only 6 and half months).

Did you know that Barack Obama, our commander in chief, has to veto up to 633 vetoes these next two years before he ties the record of the most by any one president (FDR: 3 and a half terms)?  Does that not put a damper on any argument of over-reaching his authority?

Can you name all the presidents who have the same or fewer vetoes than our current commander in chief?  I’ll try.

• James Garfield (6 months as President)
• Milliard Fillmore (2.8 years as President)
• Zachery Taylor (1.3 years as President)
• William Harrison (32 days as President)
• Thomas Jefferson (2 terms)
• John Adams (1 terms)

All with zero.  He is tied with George Washington, at two.

Now can you name the top ten presidential veto-ers?  Again, I’ll try.

• Franklin D Roosevelt  635
• Grover Cleveland 584
• Harry Truman 250
• Dwight Eisenhower 181
• Ulysses Grant 93
• Theodore Roosevelt 82
• Ronald Reagan 78
• Gerald Ford 66
• Calvin Coolidge 50
• Woodrow Wilson 44 (tie)
• Benjamin Harrison 44 (tie)
• George H.W. Bush 44 (tie)

And just out of curiosity.  Know who had the most vetoes overridden?  The first guy who got impeached:  Andrew Johnson with 15.

It is quite clear that a veto is just another tool put at the president’s disposal.. If the president is provided the opportunity to weld it, one must, both out of Constitutional necessity and a considerable amount of precedence. And if today’s Republicans are thinking of black-balling our president with excessive vetoes, they should think again.  It also appears that vetoing insane pieces of legislation will provide zero negative fall-out, either politically or against ones legacy.