Where Are The Presidential Sons?
Taking note of this New York Times article about Presidential daughters, Kevin Drum wonders what happened to the Presidential sons:
Why not teenage first sons? Well, oddly enough, there haven’t been enough in recent years to bother with. Here’s a list of all the teenagers to inhabit the White House in the postwar era:
- Malia Obama (Sasha will join the ranks if Dad gets reelected)
- Barbara and Jenna Bush (barely!)
- Chelsea Clinton
- Amy Carter
- Susan and Steven Ford
- Luci and Lynda Bird Johnson
As Drum notes, Steven Ford is the only teenage Presidential son in recent memory, and he had already graduated from High School before his father became President. President Bush had sons, of course, and President Eisenhower had a son as well, but they were all adults by the time their fathers had become President. Of Franklin Roosevelt’s four sons only one, John Roosevelt, was a teenager in 1932. Before that, you have to go back to Calvin Coolidge, who had two sons living in the White House one of whom, Calvin Jr., died tragically only a year after his father assumed office.
And, of course, since 1993, every President has had only daughters.
It’s one of those odd historical anomalies.
No it isn’t Doug, it is a conspiracy by our political elites to only have daughters (kind of the reverse of what is happening in China), They are testing the zygotes for sex and immediately taking the morning after pill if it turns out to have a Y chromosome.
“Before that, you have to go back to Calvin Coolidge, who had two sons living in the White House one of whom, Calvin Jr., died tragically only a year after his father assumed office.”
John Kennedy famously had a young son while in the White House. Not a teenager, of course, but still.
@sam:
Fair point, the article Drum was commenting on was about teenagers but you do have a point there.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Put down the Egg Nog and walk away slowly
Oh come now, Doug…what OzarkHillbilly typed is no worse than so many libertarian fantasies…
Yep I was just thinking that today. They left out the Tricia Nixon, who at the time of her wedding was 19 (still a minor back then). Interesting about the daughter anomaly..